Islamists Seize Strategic Town of Jowhar (Somalia!)
Reuters ^ | 6/14/06
(Releads with parliament approving foreign peacekeepers)
By Mohamed Ali Bile
MOGADISHU, June 14 (Reuters) - Islamist militias tightened their grip over Somalia by seizing a key town on Wednesday and the parliament approved deployment of foreign troops, a decision likely to imperil relations with the newly powerful Islamists.
Islamist fighters loyal to sharia courts seized the town of Jowhar in a brief assault on Wednesday, routing once-influential warlords -- whom they ran out of Mogadishu last week -- from their last major redoubt.
Leaving little doubt over their plans to impose Islamic rule over the lawless Horn of Africa country, the courts laid down an 8 p.m. curfew and guaranteed security based on Islamic law.
"Beginning from now the sharia courts will be the only rule in this region and the people of Jowhar should understand that," Islamic Courts Union Chairman Sharif Sheikh Ahmed said in Jowhar.
At least four people were killed and between 10 and 18 wounded during the Islamists' advance with heavy artillery and machine guns, militia sources said.
The Islamist capture of Jowhar, 90 km (55 miles) north of Mogadishu, gives them control of much of southern Somalia and poses considerable risk to the weak interim government based 200 km (124 miles) northwest in Baidoa.
Jowhar had been the government's first temporary seat, but it moved in April as the Mogadishu battle between the Islamists and the warlords, which had killed at least 350 people since February, threatened to spill over.
TROOPS APPROVED
The Somali parliament on Wednesday approved deployment of foreign peacekeepers with 125 out of 199 in favour, Speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan announced.
The Islamists have threatened to stop talks now underway with the government if the plan was passed. The courts' chairman Ahmed had no immediate reaction to the vote when reached by phone in Jowhar.
The plan to bring in foreign peacekeepers -- particularly from traditional rival Ethiopia and other bordering states-- nearly paralysed the government for over a year as the Mogadishu warlords -- some then cabinet members -- staunchly opposed it.
The Islamist militias last week ousted warlords in a self-styled anti-terrorism coalition, widely believed to be backed by the United States, from Mogadishu.
Wednesday's assault appeared to be an attempt to deliver a final blow to the much-weakened warlords, whose fortunes as feudal rulers of patches of Somalia including Mogadishu for the past 15 years have taken a sharp turn for the worse.
The Islamists, who have won popular support by providing a semblance of order in a city mired in anarchy since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre's 1991 ouster, and the warlords clashed over political and commercial control of the coastal capital.
Hours before fighting began in Jowhar, four warlords who had gone there from Mogadishu fled the town, and a key ally said he was abandoning their cause.
"I have decided to give up my membership in the anti-terror alliance after pressure from my clan," former Somalia police chief Colonel Abdi Hassan Awale said.
The warlords are increasingly isolated, analysts say, especially after east African nations imposed sanctions including a travel ban and asset freeze at talks in Nairobi.
However a leader of the militia fighters dislodged from Baidoa -- where Somalia's interim government had set up its base -- said they were regrouping to attack the town.
President Abdullahi Yusuf's government, the 14th attempt to restore central rule in Somalia since 1991, had set up its own militia in Baidoa to provide security. (Additional reporting by Andrew Cawthorne in Nairobi) |
