SOMALIA: Residents of Buur Hakaba welcome the peaceful atmosphere after Islamic courts militia were uprooted from the town

As Somali government and Ethiopian troops took control of Mogadishu on Friday (December 29), their advance on the capital had been sudden and Islamic fighters had put up resistance all along the road from the government's seat in Baidoa. The front-line in the region of the town of Buur Hakaba bore witness to some heavy fighting. The wreckage of military vehicles and charred bodies were strewn across the battlefield. Even elderly fighters came out in support of the government forces and the victorious troops were clearly welcomed in this town. Among them was 74 year-old man, a former Somalia soldier Ali Abdullahi Hussein, who said he was "fighting Al Qaeda members." Government officials have indicated that Ethiopian troops would be withdrawn from Somalia when the Somali government becomes able to handle its security and problems in the country. Somalia has been without effective central government since 1991 when warlords toppled former president Mohammed Siad Barre. The flight of the Islamists was a dramatic turn-around in the Horn of Africa nation after they had spread across the south imposing strict sharia rule and confining the interim government to its base in the provincial town of Baidoa until less than two weeks ago. Ethiopian troops and air strikes were critical to the government's assault, experts say, and there is some question what will happen when Addis Ababa finally withdraws its forces. With Eritrea accused of backing the Islamists, many feared the conflict could engulf the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia, like the United States, says the Islamists are supported by al Qaeda.

ITN Source | December 30, 2006

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