Somali Islamic Fighters Flee Toward Kenya
Government Gains Control of Last Stronghold; Embassy Bombing Suspects Pursued

By Stephanie McCrummen
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, January 2, 2007

NAIROBI, Jan. 1 -- Ethiopian forces backing Somalia's weak transitional government have taken over Kismaayo, the last stronghold of the country's Islamic movement, and on Monday were chasing the remnants of the Islamic militia along the Indian Ocean coast toward the Kenyan border about 100 miles to the south.

In the final stage of a dramatic power shift in the fragile Horn of Africa nation, the Islamic fighters abandoned their heaviest weapons early Monday morning and took off for villages in the forest, with Ethiopian and government troops in hot pursuit of key leaders, including three suspects in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

"Our forces have captured Kismaayo," Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi told reporters in Mogadishu, where Ethiopian forces installed his secular, internationally recognized government just days ago. "The warlord era in Somalia is now over."

Gedi has given fighters loyal to the Islamic movement, which was organized under an umbrella group called the Council of Islamic Courts, three days to disarm, and promised amnesty for those who do. Government officials said that in Kismaayo, hundreds of fighters had turned over their weapons Monday and were returning to their clans.

With the most hard-core militiamen headed their way, Kenyan authorities on Monday tightened security along their border with Somalia, which extends for more than 420 miles. Many of the large number of Somali refugees in Kenya may be sympathetic to the Islamic leaders, and analysts say it would be easy for the fighters to melt into the local population.

Kenyan and Somali government officials have said that if they capture the three embassy bombing suspects, they will hand them over to the U.S. government. Meanwhile, some analysts speculated that the Kenyan government, which has pushed the Somali transitional government to include the more moderate leaders of the Islamic Courts movement, might allow those leaders to take refuge in Kenya.

On Monday, Gedi called for the quick deployment to Somalia of a peacekeeping force from the 53-country African Union. That force would in theory replace the Ethiopian troops who are guarding the vulnerable new government but are also causing tensions among Somalis who consider them invaders.

Abdikarin Farah, the Somali ambassador to Ethiopia, said that a long-standing request for U.S. military assistance was also on the table.

"We are pursuing that request, and I won't be surprised if that comes to light," said Farah, speaking from Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital. "We have very close coordination and are in touch with the Americans, and obviously we will continue that kind of contact."

Though Ethiopian troops have been stoned by protesters in Mogadishu in recent days, Farah said that longtime animosities between Ethiopia and Somalia are "history" now.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has said that he will not withdraw troops until he has ferreted out certain Islamic leaders. Farah said that the government would not ask the Ethiopians to leave until the security situation in the country improves.

"The next step is the difficult one and the long one," he said. "To build the country, and to go forward."

Gedi, the prime minister, continued to meet with clan and religious leaders in the battle-scarred capital of Mogadishu on Monday, as he attempts to establish a viable government in a country of warring clans and sub-clans that has been without any central authority for more than 15 years.

The transitional government was cobbled together more than two years ago in a series of negotiations in Kenya. Regional diplomats contend that even more than the government's leaders, its institutions and structure, designed to include Somalia's complex clan interests, represent the best hope for establishing a viable central government in the country.

The Council of Islamic Courts, which began as a group of local clerics, had come to power in June even as the transitional government was taking hold, and a power struggle ensued.

Ordinary Somalis, who tend to be moderate in their religious views, generally embraced the Islamic movement, following years of thuggish rule by warlords who set up roadblocks, extorted bribes and generally terrorized the population.

But Meles, the Ethiopian prime minister, was uncomfortable with the prospect of an unfriendly government on his border and backed the transitional government. According to the United Nations, Ethiopia had thousands of troops inside Somalia for months before the recent offensive, protecting the nascent government. The government has denied the claim.

In a resolution authorizing military action, the Ethiopian government accused the Islamic movement of supporting ethnic Somali secessionist groups inside Ethiopia, a charge the movement denied.

Both Ethiopia and the United States accused the Islamic leaders of close collaboration with al-Qaeda, a claim that many regional analysts said was exaggerated. For their part, the Islamic leaders had declared holy war on Ethiopian troops.

During the exchange of rhetoric, the Islamic movement managed to get the capital's main airport and port running after years of closure by clan fighting, and established efficient systems of administration that must now be replaced by the transitional government.

In Kismaayo on Monday, the vast challenges were immediately evident, as the port city drifted into the sort of chaos that has long defined Somalia. Local clan militias snatched up weapons left behind by the Islamic fighters and went on a looting spree.

Meanwhile, Somalia's ports and airports remained closed on Monday, and the price of food and other necessities of daily life began to skyrocket. In Mogadishu, some businessmen were growing impatient.

"There are no commercial flights, no commercial vessels can come in," said one Somali businessman who did not want to be identified because of the precarious political situation. "People are asking why don't they open the ports. The food prices are going high."