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By Guled Mohamed
28 December 2006
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somali government troops entered the outskirts of the capital Mogadishu on Thursday after Islamist rivals abandoned the city to chaos in the face of an Ethiopian-backed advance.
"People are cheering as they wave flowers to the troops," said resident Abdikadar Abdulle, adding that scores of military vehicles had passed the Somalia National University.
Parts of Mogadishu shook with the sound of gunfire and outbreaks of looting after the Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) fled their base to avoid advancing government fighters backed by Ethiopian tanks and jets.
"We have been defeated. I have removed my uniform. Most of my comrades have also changed into civilian clothes," one former SICC fighter told Reuters. "Most of our leaders have fled."
The SICC had brought a semblance of stability to Mogadishu by imposing sharia, Islamic law, after chasing U.S. backed warlords from the city in June. Islamists and residents said order had collapsed with their departure.
"We have withdrawn all the leaders and members who worked in the capital," Islamist leader Sheikh Sharif Ahmed told Al Jazeera television. "Mogadishu is now in chaos."
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi confirmed Somali government and Ethiopian troops had reached the outskirts of the capital and said they would pursue the Islamist leaders.
"We are discussing what to do so that Mogadishu will not descend into chaos. We will not let Mogadishu burn," Meles told reporters in Addis Ababa.
Government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari said earlier the government had some way to go toward taking over. "We are taking control of the city and I will confirm when we have established complete control," he said.
He said the Islamists had fled to the southern port city of Kismayu and the administration controlled 95 percent of the Horn of Africa country.
"Our forces already effectively control Mogadishu because we have taken over the two control points on the main roads outside the city," he said. "Within two to three hours we will capture the whole city."
Later he told Al Jazeera the government had declared a state of emergency "to control security and stability".
The SICC chairman said his side's hasty withdrawal was a tactical move in a war that began last week against Ethiopian troops defending Somalia's weak, Western-backed government.
A joint force of Ethiopian armor and government fighters has pushed to within a few kilometers of the capital, routing Islamist defense lines before them.
Pro-government militias who once held sway in the capital said they had captured several key buildings early on Thursday, including the former presidential palace.
Witnesses reported looting late on Wednesday and the sound of gunfire in a sign that one of the world's most dangerous cities may be sliding back to the rule of the gun.
"Uncertainty hangs in the air," said Mogadishu resident Muktar Abdi.
"My worst fear is the capital will succumb to its old anarchy. The government should come in now and take over -- this is the best chance they have before the city falls into the hands of the warlords again."
CHAOS, GUNFIRE AND LOOTING
Ahmed said the Islamists were united and determined to push out Ethiopian forces, but retreated to avoid more bloodshed.
By fleeing, the Islamists appeared to have averted the risk of becoming embroiled in the fierce street fighting that forced the U.S. military from Mogadishu more than a decade ago in a humiliating episode captured in the film "Black Hawk Down".
Dinari said President Abdullahi Yusuf and Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi remained in the government's south-central base Baidoa and would move to Mogadishu at the earliest opportunity.
The government has long viewed Mogadishu as too dangerous to move to, but its return is a key step in achieving greater legitimacy as the 14th attempt to restore central rule since the 1991 ouster of a dictator.
The government maintained an amnesty offer to all Islamist fighters who laid down their arms, Dinari said, adding that the Islamists had opened their weapon stores before fleeing Mogadishu. "They want to create chaos," he said.
More than a week of mortar and rocket duels between the Islamists and the Ethiopian-backed government spiraled into open war that threatens to engulf the entire Horn of Africa.
Ethiopia says the Islamists are supported by Al Qaeda and its arch foe Eritrea, and says it has taken foreign prisoners.
The SICC has depicted the conflict with Christian-led Ethiopia, which has one of Africa's most effective armies, as a holy war against "crusaders", tapping into decades of rivalry between the two neighbors.