First Airline Flight in Decade Takes Off From a Quiet Mogadishu

MOGADISHU, Somalia, July 30 -- The first commercial flight in a decade departed from Mogadishu's newly reopened international airport Sunday, demonstrating how an Islamic militia has pacified the once-anarchic capital and much of southern Somalia.

Local airlines had been operating from private airstrips outside the capital. Now, Islamic militiamen are guarding the airport for commercial passengers, said Muqtar Robow, deputy defense chief for the Islamic militia.

"This is a historic flight for me," a passenger, Hawa Abdi Hussein, said before boarding the Somalia-based Jubba Airways plane to the United Arab Emirates. "I think we at last gained peace and security."

News of the flight gratified Hussein Osman Kariye, a secondary school teacher in Mogadishu.

"I remember in the older days, happier times, when I would welcome my relatives from abroad. The airport was very beautiful then, well-lit, decorated and green," Kariye said.

Meanwhile, the prime minister of Somalia's largely powerless government survived a close no-confidence vote that exposed the divisions in his administration, which watched helplessly as the Islamic militia seized power last month.

After the vote, four lawmakers threw punches and wrestled on the floor. Armed police entered parliament to separate the brawling lawmakers and escort Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi out of the room, witnesses said.

Gedi's government has been unraveling since the militia's victory. On Thursday, 18 lawmakers resigned, saying his weak administration has failed to bring peace. But he kept his job Sunday even though only 88 lawmakers voted to keep him and 126 voted for his ouster. The motion needed 139 votes to pass.

"All mistakes and doubts about my administration will be soon resolved," Gedi said after the vote in Baidoa, 150 miles northwest of Mogadishu.

Gedi said that those who voted against him were "serving the enemy of Somalia," an apparent reference to the Islamic militia.

Somalia's government was formed two years ago with the support of the United Nations to help the country emerge from more than a decade of anarchy, but it has no power outside its base in Baidoa.

Gedi has accused Egypt, Libya, Iran and Eritrea of providing weapons to the Islamic militia. The militia, meanwhile, says Ethiopia -- Somalia's longtime enemy -- has sent in troops to support the fragile government.

Also Sunday, a Somali militia commander said 25 sailors who were taken hostage in April off the Horn of Africa country's lawless coast had been released for more than $800,000 in ransom.

A South Korean official has said the hostages were from South Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam and China.

Militiamen had said they seized the boat to defend their waters from illegal fishing. South Korea said pirates took the vessel from international to Somali waters.