Somali troops capture last Islamic stronghold

SOMALI Government troops backed by Ethiopian soldiers have entered Kismayo, the last major stronghold of a militant Islamic movement, residents said yesterday.

Well-armed troops drove into the southern coastal city after clearing roads laced with land mines that had been left by Islamic fighters fleeing a 13-day military onslaught by government troops backed by Ethiopian tanks and MiG fighter jets.

“We have entered and captured the city,” Maj Gen Ahmed Musa said while on his way into Kismayo, where an estimated 3,000 hard-line Islamic fighters had vowed to make a last stand but melted away under fire.

Islamic forces have promised to wage an Iraq-style guerrilla war if defeated.

Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi offered an amnesty to the hundreds of Islamic fighters fleeing south toward the Kenyan border, 160 kilometres away, if they gave themselves up. But he said leaders of the Islamic group and the foreign fighters believed to be among their ranks will face justice.

He ordered a countrywide disarmament that comes into effect today, an immense task in Somalia, a country awash with weapons after a 15-year civil war.

“The warlord era in Somalia is now over,” Mr Gedi said at a news conference in the recently captured capital, Mogadishu, giving a three-day deadline for the weapons handover.

Among the Islamic fighters are believed to be three al-Qaida suspects wanted in the 1998 bombings of US embassies. The government hoped to catch them before they slipped out of the country.

The US has also been asked to provide air and sea surveillance to prevent suspected extremists from escaping, Somali officials said.

In Kismayo, hundreds of gunmen, who apparently deserted from the Islamic movement, began looting the warehouses where the Council of Islamic Courts had stored supplies, including weapons and ammunition.

“Everything is out of control, everyone has a gun and gangs are looting everything now that the Islamists have left,” businessman Sheik Musa Salad said.

Meanwhile, Eritrea accused the United States yesterday of being behind the war in Somalia.

Diplomats across east Africa agree that Washington almost certainly gave tacit approval for Ethiopia to provide the forces which allowed Somalia’s weak interim government to roll into the capital Mogadishu and send the hardline Islamists packing.