By Sahra Abdi
KISMAYU, Somalia (Reuters) - Somali Islamists fled overnight from their final stronghold round the southern port of Kismayu in what could be the end of a nearly two-week war with the Ethiopian-backed government, residents said on Monday.
Several thousand Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) fighters had been making a last stand north of Kismayu port, but melted away after advancing Ethiopian-government troops shelled them with mortars and rockets at their frontline in Jilib.
"The Islamic courts left Kismayu last night. They left Jilib as well," Kismayu resident Bile Ali told Reuters.
"Nobody knows where they went. There's a lot of confusion."
It was unclear where the leaders and fighters of the SICC -- who had their backs to the Indian Ocean and the Kenyan border after being chased from the capital Mogadishu -- might have gone.
U.S. boats were believed by diplomats to be patrolling the sea off Somalia to prevent SICC leaders, or foreign militant supporters, escaping. And Kenya has beefed up its border, though it is long and porous.
The Islamist fighters may simply have dumped their uniforms and melted away into the Somali bush, analysts speculated.
Witnesses at Jilib, north of Kismayu, said mortar and rocket firing between the two sides stopped late on Sunday.
"Fighting stopped at around 10 p.m. (1900 GMT)," said a resident, who asked not to be named. "Then there was a big silence. Then the Islamic Courts just left."
The retreat of the Islamists caps a remarkable advance by the Ethiopian-government force.
Just two weeks ago, the Islamists had appeared on the verge of routing the government which had no control beyond its base in the provincial trading town of Baidoa.
But Ethiopia's intervention reversed the situation, with air-strikes and heavy bombardment on land pushing the Islamists first back to Mogadishu then south to Kismayu.
Hundreds, and possibly thousands, are believed to have died, with many more injured.
GUERILLA ATTACKS?
While Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and Somali government leaders President Abdullahi Yusuf and Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi will be delighted with the Islamists' flight, analysts warn the conflict may be far from over.
The Islamists, who had swelled their ranks with foreign fighters, may now concentrate on Iraq-style guerrilla tactics against a government they see as illegitimate and propped up by a foreign power.
The besieged SICC had rallied several thousand fighters at Jilib, after their retreat south on Thursday 300 km (190 miles) from the capital Mogadishu which they had held since June.
Fearing a blood-bath, thousands of residents had fled the Jilib and Kismayu areas over the weekend, carrying blankets, food and water on their heads.
Jilib lies about 45 km (28 miles) north of Kismayu, where senior Islamist leaders Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys and Sheikh Sharif Ahmed were based until their flight on Sunday.
Islamist fighter numbers were believed to number about 3,000. Ethiopia says it has 4,000 troops in Somalia, though many believe that number could be far higher.
Somalia's government has not given troop numbers, but is thought by experts to have several thousand.
Born out of sharia courts operating in Mogadishu, the Islamists threw U.S.-backed warlords out of the capital in June before going on to take a swathe of south Somalia.
They brought order to Mogadishu for the first time since 1991 when warlords ousted a dictator. But some of their hardline practices -- like closing cinemas and holding public executions -- angered some Somalis and fuelled U.S. and Ethiopian accusations they were a dangerous Taliban-style movement.
Both Addis Ababa and Washington say the SICC is linked to al Qaeda, an accusation the movement says was trumped up to justify foreign intervention.
Government leaders Yusuf and Gedi face a monumental task to tame a nation U.S. forces left more than a decade ago after an ill-fated intervention captured in the film "Black Hawk Down."
Analysts say it is hard to see how they can establish authority and pacify Somalia without the military presence of Ethiopia, which has vowed to exit as soon as it can. But Somalis may resent the presence of Ethiopia, their traditional enemy.
The government also has the threat of re-emerging warlords, and the possibility of guerrilla attacks by the Islamists, to contend with. "Sadly, it will still be a long, long time before we see peace in Somalia," a Horn of Africa expert said.
( Additional reporting by Bryson Hull and Guled Mohamed in Mogadishu, Andrew Cawthorne in Nairobi)
Source: Reuters, Jan 01, 2006