Govt troops enter Somalia's capital

Somali government troops rolled into Mogadishu unopposed today, the prime minister said, hours after an Islamic movement that tried to establish a government based on the Koran abandoned the capital and promised to make a stand in southern Somalia.

“We are in Mogadishu,” Prime Minister Mohamed Ali Gedi said after meeting with clan leaders to discuss the hand over of the city. “We are co-ordinating our forces to take control of Mogadishu.”

Gedi was welcomed to the town of Afgoye by dozens of traditional leaders from Mogadishu and hundreds of government and Ethiopian troops who have been fighting more than a week against the Islamic militia that had at one point taken over most of southern Somalia.

The Islamic movement’s retreat early today, which its leaders called tactical, was followed by looting by clan militiamen, a chilling reminder of the chaos that had once ruled Mogadishu. One resident said three men and a woman had been killed in the looting. Gunfire could he heard in many parts of the city.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi vowed to inflict total defeat on the Islamic movement, saying the that he hoped the fighting would be over “in days, if not in a few weeks”.

“Forces of the transitional federal government and Ethiopia are on the outskirts of Mogadishu now,” he told reporters in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. “We are discussing what we need to do to make sure Mogadishu does not descend into chaos. We will not let Mogadishu burn.”

Mogadishu’s clan leaders, though, have the greatest influence over whether order or lawlessness follows the retreat of the Islamic movement known as the Council of Islamic Courts.

President Abdullahi Yusuf said in a statement that his troops were not a threat to the people of Mogadishu.

“The government is committed to solving every problem that may face Somalia through dialogue and peaceful ways,” the statement said.