Somali Courts Seizes Strategic City

The takeover of Kismayo is seen as a blow to the transitional government based in Baidoa.

Islamic Courts fighters have heavily deployed on the streets of Kismayo, shouting slogans denouncing the Juba Valley Alliance (JVA) militia loyal to the defense minister in the transitional government Barre Shire Hirale, witnesses told IslamOnline.net.

They said that the city was taken without a fight.

Courts fighters had camped outside the town, about 500 kilometers (310 miles) south of Mogadishu, for days to reinforce their positions.

Hirale and his militiamen have fled the city Sunday night.

Tension has been high in the town for days since Islamic Courts fighters first began arriving last week.

Head of the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia (SICS) Sherif Sheikh Ahmad said his fighters entered the city out of its local's volition.

The Courts seized Mogadishu from US-backed warlords in June after months of fierce fighting and have rapidly expanded their territory. They now control most of southern Somalia.

The Courts and the transitional government signed an interim peace accord in Khartoum on September 4, calling for the formation of a unified national army and police force.

Strategic

The takeover of Kismayo is a blow to the transitional government based in Baidoa, about 250 kilometers (155 miles) northwest of the capital.

"The city is strategic as it has an airport and two international harbors," retired Colonel Salad Abduallah Hassan told IOL.

"Kismayo is the most important city in south Somalia after Mogadishu and the third key city in the country," added Hassan, who was the mayor of Kismayo during the rule of president Mohamed Siad Barre, who was ousted in 1991.

He further said that the seizure of the city by the Islamic Courts is a blow to the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), which has been pressing for sending troops to Somalia.

"The city is the only land gate for the IGAD troops and some of its villages are adjacent to the Kenyan borders," he noted.

The seven-nation IGAD has approved African Union-endorsed plans to send troops to salvage the government of President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed.

Islamic fighters have been boosting their forces along Somalia's remote frontier with Kenya, from where the vanguard of the nearly 8,000-strong peacekeeping force is expected to gather.

Ethiopian Back-up

Witnesses, meanwhile, said hundreds of Ethiopian soldiers moved into Baidoa early on Monday.

Government officials denied the accounts, but witnesses insisted they had seen several hundred uniformed Ethiopian troops in dozens of trucks rolling into Baidoa to defend the government.

"We saw the trucks and the number of the forces could be 300 to 400," Baidoa resident Mohamed Hassan, one of several witnesses to the deployment, told AFP.

"The Ethiopians have arrived, they were in dozens of trucks," said another.

In Mogadishu, SICS defense chief Yusuf Mohamed Siad told reporters that at least 300 Ethiopian soldiers had arrived Monday in Baidoa.

"We have solid reports about the Ethiopian troops in Baidoa from our intelligence department," he said. "They are accompanied by heavy war machinery. This is an act of aggression."

Both Ethiopia and the Somali government have in the past denied numerous eyewitness accounts of Ethiopian troops on Somali soil and Monday was no exception.

Somali government spokesman Abduraman Dinari categorically rejected the reports and said they were being fabricated by Courts.

Despite an interim peace accord, tensions between the government and the Courts are high and the two sides are at fierce odds of the proposed deployment of foreign peacekeepers.

Somalia has been without a functioning central authority for the past 16 years.