By SALAD DUHUL
Associated Press Writer
Thursday, December 28, 2006
MOGADISHU, Somalia -- The Islamist forces who have controlled Somalia's capital for months abandoned the city Thursday after government forces advanced to within striking distance. Looting broke out and clan leaders called for calm.
Gunmen who had been allied with Islamist militias changed out of their uniforms and submitted to the command of traditional elders. Gunfire echoed through the streets as the fighters began looting Islamist bases and buildings belonging to Islamist officials, witnesses said. One resident said three men and a woman had been killed in the looting.
Clans called on their young men to form militias to protect their neighborhoods. Hussein Haji Bod, a well-known clan leader, appealed for calm and said elders would meet Thursday to discuss the future of the capital. The government was expected to offer the clans a truce.
"I have seen that the Islamists are defeated, I'm going to rejoin my clan," said one gunman, Mohamed Barre Sidow. "I was forced to join the Islamic courts by my clan, so I now I will return to my clan and they will decide my fate, whether I join the government or not."
Residents south of the city reported seeing Islamist forces in a long convoy heading south toward the port city of Kismayo. The Arab satellite TV station Al-Jazeera quoted Islamist leader Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed as saying Islamist forces withdrew from Mogadishu to avoid bloodshed in the capital.
The Council of Islamic Courts seized the capital in June and went on to take much of southern Somalia, often without fighting. They were later joined by foreign militants, including Pakistanis and Arabs, who supported their goal of making Somalia an Islamic state.
The Islamists seemed invincible after capturing the capital, but they have been no match for Ethiopia, which has the strongest military in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopian forces crossed the border Sunday to reinforce the internationally recognized Somali government, which was bottled up in Baidoa, 140 miles northwest of Mogadishu.
On Wednesday, Ethiopian and Somali government troops drove Islamist fighters out of Jowhar, the last major town on the northern road to Mogadishu. As troops entered Jowhar, an independent radio station began blasting Western music, which the militias had banned. Women selling qat -- the popular leafy stimulant banned by the militias -- crowded the streets.
The government forces went on to capture Balad, a village about 18 miles north of Mogadishu, and were just outside Afgoye to the west on Thursday, cutting off the seaside capital in both those directions, residents and government officials said. The government also had taken control of Baledogle airport, the most important airfield in the country.
Somalia's complex clan system has been the basis of politics and identity here for centuries. But fighting between clans has prevented Somalia from having an effective government since 1991. That's when clan-based warlords overthrew a dictator and turned on one another.
Competition for control of Mogadishu since 1991 has involved the Abgal and Habr Gadir clans, who joined to support the Islamic council earlier this year.
The Islamist militias tried to supplant the influence of the clans by appealing to Somalis as Muslims. Many Somalis were grateful for the order the movement imposed. But many also chafed at the strict enforcement of Islamic codes.
"Since the Islamic courts have taken control, people are walking instead of hiring a taxi," said Hussein Mudde, a taxi driver in Mogadishu. "They don't have money because the Islamic courts closed the cinemas and music halls. Poets and artists and performers have been jobless."
The conflict in Somalia has drawn concern in the United States, which accuses the Islamists of harboring al-Qaida terrorists, and other Western powers.
The U.N. Security Council failed for a second day to agree on a statement calling for an immediate cease-fire in Somalia. Council members could not agree Wednesday on the statement's exact wording.
The African Union and the Arab League on Wednesday called for all foreign forces to withdraw from Somalia, and for the government and Islamic courts to return to peace talks.
Meles Zenawi, the Ethiopian prime minister, said Tuesday he had been given unconfirmed reports that as many as 1,000 people had died and 3,000 were wounded since the fighting began on Saturday.
The Red Cross reported 850 people injured at hospitals supported by the relief agency in Mogadishu and Baidoa, but had no figure for fatalities.
The U.N. refugee agency said Wednesday it was readying staff, trucks and emergency relief items in neighboring Kenya and Ethiopia for up to 50,000 fleeing Somalis.
The agency said it had received reports of thousands of displaced civilians within Somalia fleeing the fighting.
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Associated Press writers Mohamed Olad Hassan in Mogadishu, Les Neuhaus in Baidoa, Chris Tomlinson in Nairobi, Kenya, Sarah DiLorenzo in New York and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.
Source: AP, Dec 28, 2006