This is the beginning of the inevitable, that is aspired by the entire world, hit by such fanatics and their barbaric attitude towards the civilized world.
BEST OF FUTURE.
=gazebo=
---------------------------------------------------------------------- Islamic forces flee Mogadishu; government takes over Somalia's capital Full story: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003500071_somalia29.html By Mahad Ahmed Elmi and Jonathan S. Landay McClatchy NewspapersMOGADISHU, Somalia -- Government troops and allied forces from neighboring Ethiopia swept into Mogadishu on Thursday without firing a shot after Islamic militants abandoned Somalia's capital.
But the routing of the loose alliance of Islamic fighters after only a week of combat did not mean an end to the years of war and suffering that have racked the impoverished country of 9 million in the Horn of Africa.
Once considered unbeatable, the Council of Islamic Courts was left holding only a small pocket of territory around the southern port city of Kismayo. Only days earlier, the militants had controlled much of Somalia.
There were grave fears that hard-core Somali Islamists, bolstered by foreign radicals, would fight a guerrilla insurgency against Somalia's Western-backed interim federal government and its protectors from Ethiopia, a country with a population divided between Christians and Muslims.
Moreover, even as Somali government and Ethiopian troops moved into Mogadishu, gunmen from rival clans began reappearing in the streets. They had fought over the city for years before the Islamists drove them out.
The Council of Islamic Courts overran much of Somalia after seizing Mogadishu in July from clan militias that the United States had secretly financed. Many Somalis welcomed the militants because they ended years of lawlessness, even though they employed harsh Islamic punishments.
Ethiopia, which has one of Africa's strongest militaries, intervened last week at the request of the transitional federal government, a U.N.-recognized alliance of clan and political strongmen that the Islamists had penned up in the town of Baidoa.
The Bush administration, which has accused the Council of Islamic Courts of being in league with al-Qaida, gave tacit approval to Ethiopia's intervention.
Somali troops backed by Ethiopian ground forces and fighter jets advanced rapidly out of Baidoa, overrunning many areas without fights. Lightly armed Council of Islamic Courts fighters withdrew in headlong flight, although their leaders called it a tactical retreat.
Government and Ethiopian forces entered Mogadishu unopposed Thursday afternoon from the north, while a second column moving from the south halted short of the city's boundaries.
Ethiopia had said its troops wouldn't move into Mogadishu. It apparently changed its mind after Council of Islamic Courts leaders and fighters fled the city southward toward Kismayo.
In the power vacuum, shots echoed around the city and gunmen robbed shops and held up civilians. Looters stripped offices that the militants had abandoned. At least three civilians were reported killed and more than 10 injured.
"We will not let Mogadishu burn," Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said in Addis Ababa.
Some residents welcomed the government and Ethiopian forces as they moved through the blighted streets to the Hotel Ramadan, which the Islamists had used as their headquarters.
The situation stabilized enough that small shops reopened late in the day.
Mohamed Ali Gedi, the interim Somali prime minister, flew in an Ethiopian helicopter to the town of Afgoye, outside Mogadishu, to meet with clan elders, businessmen and intellectuals from the city.
Mohammad Jama, a spokesman for Foreign Minister Ismail Hurre, said from Nairobi, Kenya, that they'd discussed restoring the city's government and police forces.
"The object is to settle the situation in Mogadishu," he said. "There is a little chaos and looting. We are going to stop it."
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