Somalia: Final Islamic stronghold captured

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Somali government troops backed by Ethiopian tanks and MiG fighter jets have captured the last major stronghold of a militant Islamic movement, the prime minister said Monday. Islamic fighters, many of them Arabs and South Asians, were fleeing in heavily armed trucks toward the Kenyan border, 160 kilometers to the south after a 13-day onslaught led by the Ethiopian army. "I can confirm to you that our forces have captured Kismayo," Somalia's Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi told The Associated Press. Somalia's interim government vowed to hunt down those who have fled. The Islamic forces say they will launch an Iraq-style guerrilla war if defeated.