Somali PM: Islamic Stronghold Captured

Crew of the Ethiopian air force prepare their helicopter to transport Somali transitional government President Abdullahi Yusuf, to a meeting with other high ranking government officials, journalists and the local community in a suburb of southern Mogadishu, Somalia on Saturday Dec. 30 2006. Only a few days after the fall of the United Islamic Courts in Mogadishu, Ethiopian and Transitional Federal Government troops are patrolling the city and securing strategic locations. (AP Photo/Guy Calaf) (Guy Calaf - AP)

KISMAYO, Somalia -- Somali government troops backed by Ethiopian tanks and fighter jets captured the last major stronghold of a militant Islamic movement Monday, while hundreds of Islamic fighters _ many of them Arabs and South Asians _ were seen fleeing the town.

Hundreds of gunmen, who apparently deserted from the Islamic movement, began looting the warehouses where the Council of Islamic Courts had stored supplies, including weapons and ammunition.

Gangs skirmished in the streets and the southern coastal city was descending into chaos, businessman Sheik Musa Salad said.

"Everything is out of control, everyone has a gun and gangs are looting everything now that the Islamists have left," he said.

Well-armed troops drove into Kismayo after clearing roads laced with land mines that had been left by Islamic fighters fleeing a 13-day military onslaught by government troops backed by Ethiopian tanks and MiG fighter jets.

"We have entered and captured the city," Maj. Gen. Ahmed Musa told The Associated Press while riding aboard a truck into Kismayo, where an estimated 3,000 hardline Islamic fighters had vowed to make a last stand but melted away under artillery fire.

Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi offered amnesty to hundreds of Islamic fighters if they gave themselves up, but made no such offer to leaders of the group. He also ordered a countrywide disarmament that goes into effect Tuesday, an immense task in Somalia, which is awash with weapons after a 15-year civil war.

"The warlord era in Somalia is now over," Gedi said at a news conference in the recently captured capital, Mogadishu, giving a three-day deadline for the handover of all weapons.

Among those sought were three al-Qaida suspects wanted in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies who were being sheltered by the Islamic group. The government hoped to catch them before they slipped out of the country.

Government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari said the government had asked the United States to provide air and sea surveillance to prevent suspected extremists from escaping.

The Islamic forces have a base near the Kenyan border on a small peninsula called Ras Kamboni, where there is a pier and traditional oceangoing boats known as dhows. Ethiopian MiG fighter jets flew low over the ocean looking for boats that might be carrying the escaping Islamic fighters.

Meanwhile, senior Western diplomats were pushing for the deployment of an African-led peacekeeping force in Somalia as soon as possible to help stabilize the country, said a U.S. government official on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak to the media.