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Somali Islamists Arm Criminal and Run
The Somali capital of Mogadishu was transferred to the control of the interim government and Ethiopian soldiers yesterday. Islamic militants fled the city ahead of the Ethiopian forces. They opened up the prisons and armed the prisoners as they left. Chaos now reigns in the city. The strongest clans that remained faithful to the interim government are using their armed groups to bring the city under control.
The Islamic Courts Union, which is fighting the Somali interim government had promised to fight for every house in Mogadishu. Somali interim government soldiers and Ethiopian forces stopped 30 km. outside Mogadishu, a city of 2 million inhabitants, to prepare to storm the city. When they found out about the approach of the Ethiopians, the two large clan groups that in practice control Mogadishu, Abgal and Habr-Gidir, decided to break ties with the Islamic Courts Union. The councils of the elders of the clans ordered their forces to abandon the ICU and take up the defense of the neighborhoods of the city the clans control. The ICU thus lost most of its fighters. Remaining in the city would have led to the groups' complete destruction. The clans also sent negotiators to the Ethiopian and interim government forces to agree on a bloodless transfer of the city.
The situation repeated the events of June of this year, when interim government forces fled the city northward in panic before ICU forces, who convinced the elders of the clans to hand over the city peacefully. Before fleeing south now, however, the Islamists opened the prisons and released the criminals they had been rounding up with Islamic fervor. The weapons from the city's arsenals that they were unable to carry with them were handed out to all comers. Huge lines formed to receive Kalashnikov machineguns. Witnesses say that the Islamic forces numbered only about 3000 as they fled the city.
Public transportation has come to standstill in the city and the price of food as skyrockets. Sellers of qat, a mild narcotic with hallucinogenic properties returned to the streets immediately. A prohibition on qat was one of the ICU's first decrees on taking the city over. Armed looters intoxicated on qat roamed freely while stranded residents barricaded themselves in their homes. Clan groups and bands exchanged gunfire throughout the day as the clan forces tried to gain control of the city.
The Ethiopian and interim government forces entered the city in the evening. They occupied the city airport and port. Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Ghedi traveled to the outskirts of Mogadishu to begin negotiations with the Abgal and Habr-Gidir clans. The coalition forces intentionally delayed their entry into the city to weaken clan forces in the battles with the marauders. That, in turn, should strengthen the interim government's negotiating position. The Ethiopians are now beginning to distance themselves from the war. Gen. Salem Hagos, commander of the Ethiopian contingent in Somalia, stated that Ethiopian forces would not enter Mogadishu proper. Addis Ababa also wants to withdraw from Somalia before the United Nations declares it an aggressor. The UN Security Council was unable to pass a resolution on Somali yesterday.
The defeat of the Islamists in Mogadishu discredits them in the eyes of the main clans of the country and reduces the likelihood of the Islamists acting as a consolidating force in the country. It also increases the likelihood of a return to all-out civil war.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Dec. 29, 2006
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