Somali Islamists flee toward Kenya and to the hills

KISMAYU, Somalia (Reuters) - Somalia's Islamists fled toward Kenya or melted into the southern hills on Monday after abandoning their last stronghold to advancing government forces backed by Ethiopian troops, tanks and planes.

In just two weeks, Ethiopia's military muscle has enabled a feeble government to break out of its provincial enclave, drive the Somali Islamic Courts Council (SICC) from the capital and end six months of Islamist rule across much of the south.

The government said that despite its military successes it recognized that a political settlement was still vital in order to head off the possibility of an Islamist insurgency.

"We need to end the impasse politically," Interior Minister Hussein Mohamed Farah Aideed told reporters in the capital. "If we do not reconcile with them then they will start an insurgency like in Iraq."

Several thousand of the Islamist fighters who retreated from Mogadishu on Thursday took a stand 300 km (186 miles) to the south near Kismayu port, but disappeared Sunday night after trading artillery fire with Ethiopian and government troops.

The leaders and fighters SICC, who fled Mogadishu on Thursday after six months rule, headed further south along the Indian Ocean coast toward neighboring Kenya, residents said.

They have vowed to hit back with guerrilla tactics.

Some Kismayu residents said the Islamists headed into the remote hilly region of Buur Gaabo, just on the Somali side of the border, where it would be very hard to catch them.

Aideed said SICC leaders were in the coastal village of Ras Kamboni.

"It will take three to four months to clear them from there," he said "That would be long. The place is rugged with thick bushes."

In the newly captured but gun-infested capital, the triumphant government gave residents and militia three days from Tuesday to hand in their weapons or be disarmed by force.

It renewed its appeal for African peacekeepers to come "as soon as possible" to help stabilize the Horn of Africa nation, which has been in chaos and without central rule since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991.