“If that is true then it is likely the Ethiopians are going to finish him,” a military expert who tracks events in the Horn of Africa country told Reuters.
Crowning a dramatic turnaround after a 10-day land and air offensive by Ethiopia in support of Somalia’s weak interim government, Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi swept into Mogadishu on Friday saying the fight for political survival had been won.
But the SICC leaders promised resistance — despite their hasty retreat — and as Gedi settled into the capital, government troops and Ethiopian forces pursued them south.
“JIHAD GOES ON”
Ethiopian fighter jets were seen over Kismayu and nearby Jilib town on Friday and Saturday, the military expert said.
A Somali government soldier said the Islamists — accused by Addis Ababa and Washington of being backed by Al Qaeda — had laced the highway from Mogadishu with mines as they pulled back.
“We are heading to Jilib in a convoy of 15 Ethiopian tanks,” Ahmednur Yasin told Reuters by telephone. “There are more forces heading to Buale and I am sure the fighting will start soon.”
“All the terrorists are in Jilib and Kismayu,” said a senior Somali government source.
The Islamists said they knew they were going to be attacked.
“We will fight the Ethiopian invaders. The jihad will not stop,” said one SICC fighter who asked not be named.
Parliament was expected to vote on Saturday to declare three months of martial law aimed at disarming thousands of militia loyal to a host of former warlords blamed for years of anarchy.
Gedi’s government depends almost entirely on Addis Ababa for its military muscle, analysts say, and it was far from clear how it would maintain security if or when leave.
Residents and analysts fear a guerrilla war by the SICC.
(Additional reporting by Guled Mohamed in Mogadishu)
MOGADISHU, Somalia (Dec 30) — Thousands of Somali and Ethiopian troops set off Saturday for a showdown with Islamic forces who have regrouped at a southern seaport since abandoning the Somali capital two days ago.
Some 3,000 Muslim militiamen have taken a stand in the Indian Ocean port city of Kismayo, wedged between the Kenyan border and the Indian Ocean, and the U.S. government believes they may include four suspects in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
The Somali government and its Ethiopian allies hope to close the net before the al-Qaida suspects can slip out of the country.
“We are going to advance from different directions to try and encircle the city and force the Islamic group to retreat and so minimize the loss of civilians,” government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari told The Associated Press. Government troops, backed by Ethiopian tanks and artillery, currently are in the town of Barava, with 75 miles between them and the Islamic fighters.
The Council of Islamic Courts, the umbrella group for the Islamic movement that ruled Mogadishu for six months, has pledged to continue its fight despite losing capital and other key towns in recent days.
“I want to tell you that the Islamic courts are still alive and ready to fight against the enemy of Allah,” Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, the group’s leader, told residents in Kismayo.
“We left Mogadishu in order to prevent bloodshed in the capital, but that does not mean we lost the holy war against our enemy,” he added. The group wants to transform Somalia into a strict Islamic state.
The Islamic Courts movement had grown steadily in power for six months, until the dramatic entry into the war by Ethiopian troops last week. Ethiopian soldiers have swept quickly across the country since Sunday, retaking territory captured by the Islamic movement earlier this year.
Ethiopia is a close U.S. ally and capturing suspected al-Qaida terrorists is a major priority for the United States in the Horn of Africa.
The U.S. has a counterterrorism task force based in neighboring Djibouti and has been training Kenyan and Ethiopian forces how to protect their borders.
The Navy’s Fifth Fleet also has a maritime task force patrolling in international waters off the Somali coast. The mission of both task forces is to capture or kill al-Qaida elements in the Horn of Africa and will act if given a clear opportunity.
Also Saturday, Somalia’s president flew to the outskirts of Mogadishu aboard an Ethiopian military helicopter, as his government began its move to the battle-scarred city. President Abdullahi Yusuf met with key Somali elders in a bid to smooth the city’s takeover. He also pledged to bring more troops to help secure the region.
Although his U.N.-backed government was established in 2004, it has never had control over Mogadishu or many other parts of the lawless country until Ethiopia stepped in. His transitional government has been forced to base itself in Baidoa, a dusty agricultural town 150 miles away.
Many in overwhelmingly Muslim Somalia are skeptical of the government’s reliance on neighboring Ethiopia, a traditional rival with a large Christian population and one of Africa’s largest armies. Ethiopia and Somalia fought a bloody war in 1977.
Yusuf said Ethiopian troops would stay in Somalia as “the government is not up to the level of taking back the entire country overnight.” He vowed to pursue those still willing to fight for the Islamic group.
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Associated Press writers Salad Duhul and Les Neuhaus in Mogadishu, Nasteex Dahir Farah in Kismayo and Elizabeth A. Kennedy in Baidoa contributed to this report.
