Somali govt troops enter Mogadishu – PM
Dece 28, 2006 (AFGOYE, Somalia) — Somali government troops rolled into Mogadishu unopposed Thursday, the prime minister said, hours after a movement bent on establishing a government based on the Quran 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 in a nearby town to discuss the hand-over of the city. “We are coordinating 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 Islamist militia that had at one point taken over most of southern Somalia. Clan leaders who met with Gedi pledged to the help collect weapons from the remaining militia in the capital including the remnants of the Islamists, government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari told The Associated Press.
The Islamist movement’s retreat early Thursday, which its leaders called tactical, was followed by looting by clan militiamen, a chilling reminder of the chaos that had once ruled Mogadishu. Abdullahi Adow, a resident, saw three men and a woman killed in the looting. Gunfire could he heard in many parts of the city.
The government and its Ethiopian backers have pledged to bring order. But the Islamist movement had been able to establish authority in the capital in June in part because the government had never tried – it was too weakened by internal divisions and too uncertain of the welcome it might receive from Mogadishu’s key clans.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi vowed to totally defeat the Islamic movement, saying he hoped the fighting would be over “in days, if not in a few weeks.”
“We are discussing what we need to do to make sure Mogadishu does not descend into chaos. We will not let Mogadishu burn,” Meles told reporters in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa.
President Abdullahi Yusuf said in a statement Thursday afternoon that his troops weren’t a threat to the people of Mogadishu and that his government was committed to resolving the crises facing the country “through dialogue and peaceful ways.”
Mohamed Jama Furuh, a former warlord and current member of parliament, claimed control of the capital’s seaport on behalf of the government at midday Thursday. His militia had controlled the port before Islamic forces took over.
Abdirahman Janaqow, a top leader in the Islamist movement, said he had ordered his forces out of Mogadishu to avoid bloodshed in the capital.
“We want to face our enemy and their stooges…away from civilians,” Abdirahman Janaqow said in a telephone interview.
Witnesses reported seeing a large number of foreign fighters in the convoys heading south. Islamic movement leaders had called on foreign Muslims to join their “holy war” against Ethiopia, which has a large Christian population. Hundreds were believed to have answered the call.
Islamic fighters have gone door-to-door in Kismayo, recruiting children as young as 12 to make a last stand on behalf of the Islamic courts, according to a confidential U.N. situation report citing the families of boys taken to the front-line town of Jilib, 110 kilometers north of Kismayo.
Residents told the AP Islamic leader Hassan Dahir Aweys had arrived in Jilib with hundreds of fighters in 45 pickup trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns.
(AP)