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By C. Bryson Hull
29 December 2006
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamad Gedi swept into Mogadishu in an armed convoy on Friday a day after his Ethiopian-backed forces drove Islamist rivals from the city they had ruled for six months.
Crowds lined the streets as the Western-backed interim government's premier drove into the bullet-scarred capital in a 22-car convoy including six "technicals," pick-up trucks mounted with heavy weaponry, a Reuters witness traveling with Gedi said.
He drove to Mogadishu international airport before heading for the city's sea port, where Somali government soldiers stood guard on nearby streets. Six Ethiopian military trucks were positioned inside the port territory.
Somali government troops and their Ethiopian allies earlier took control of the former U.S. embassy building in the west of Mogadishu, tightening their hold on the capital.
Residents had begun venturing out of their homes as the sporadic gunfire heard through the previous day abated, and there were no further reports of widespread looting seen on Thursday.
"Ethiopian troops and government soldiers have settled in the compound of the former U.S. embassy. I can see more than 30 Russian-made military trucks," said Abdi Hassan, one of hundreds of local residents gathered outside the former U.S. mission.
The embassy compound, in a western neighborhood of the coastal city, was abandoned more than a decade ago after U.S. forces made a humiliating retreat from Somalia following an ill-fated mission depicted in the film "Black Hawk Down."
Government forces took effective control of Mogadishu on Thursday after a 10-day offensive with Ethiopian allies to reclaim much of the territory seized by the Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) since June.
Gedi said parliament would vote to declare martial law to maintain control of a country which has been without an effective central government since the 1991 overthrow of a dictator.
The flight of the Islamists was a dramatic turn-around in the Horn of Africa nation after they had spread across the south imposing strict sharia rule and confining the interim government to its base in the provincial town of Baidoa until less than two weeks ago.
Ethiopian troops and air strikes were critical to the government's assault, experts say, and there is some question what will happen when Addis Ababa finally withdraws its forces.
With Eritrea accused of backing the Islamists, many feared the conflict could engulf the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia, like the United States, says the Islamists are supported by al Qaeda.
MARTIAL LAW
Gedi on Thursday made a triumphant return to his home village outside Mogadishu for the first time since 2002. He acknowledged the chaotic country was far from stable.
Gedi told reporters in Mundul Sharey, a dusty village some 40 km (25 miles) southwest of Mogadishu, parliament would vote on Saturday to declare martial law for three months.
Government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari said the Islamists had fled to the southern port city of Kismayu and that the administration now controlled 95 percent of Somalia.
"We are here to stay. We will not leave. It has taken us a lot of effort to capture Mogadishu," Somali government soldier Yusuf Elmi told Reuters in the bullet-scarred city.
Checkpoints in many parts of the capital were manned by relaxed-looking Somali government and Ethiopian troops. In the center of the capital, militia loyal to former warlords ousted by the Islamists sat atop pick-up trucks mounted with heavy weaponry including anti-aircraft guns.
FRESH TWIST?
Analysts said a government victory was in no way certain and that the conflict could be about to take another turn.
"I think we're at a crossroads right now," said Ken Menkhaus, Horn of Africa specialist at Davidson College in Charlotte, North Carolina.
He said the government could exploit splits within the SICC and attract some members to join a unity government.
"But alternatively this could be the beginning of a new kind of war," Menkhaus said.
"One in which the Islamists are going to fight their kind of war ... an assymetrical war involving a combination of hit and run guerrilla attacks, car bombings, assassinations and possibly even selected acts of terrorism on other parts of East Africa."
Islamist leader Sheikh Sharif Ahmed said his forces were united and determined to push out Ethiopian forces, but had retreated to avoid more bloodshed.
Ethiopia's Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin flew into Baidoa on Friday and held talks with President Abdullahi Yusuf.
"They discussed the situation in Somalia and the government's takeover of Mogadishu and how the government was welcomed into the city," a Somali government spokesman said.
(Additional reporting by Hassan Yare in Baidoa)