SOMALIA: Islamic leaders have announced that they have won control of Mogadishu after months of heavy fighting in the Somali capital.
Their victory, confirmed yesterday by analysts inside Somalia, ends the reign of secular warlords who had kept the city in a state of anarchy for 15 years but raises fears that the country may fall into the hands of Islamic fundamentalists sympathetic to al-Qaeda.
More than 350 people have been killed and 1,500 wounded in fighting that erupted in February, when 11 warlords formed an alliance to tackle the growing influence of Islamic courts.
However, the emergence of the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism prompted allegations that the warlords were receiving backing from the US as part of its war on terror.
In a statement read over local radio stations yesterday, the chairman of the city's Joint Islamic Courts, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, urged residents to accept the new leadership.
"The Joint Islamic Courts are not interested in a continuation of hostilities and will fully implement peace and security after the change has been made by the victory of the people with the support of Allah," he said.
"The JIC will take care of the safety of the people and freedom of individuals and will eradicate any sort of hostilities brought about by inter-clan fighting."
Mogadishu's network of Sharia courts, administering law and order as well as schools and clinics, has won widespread support in a country that has lacked an effective government since 1991, when warlords forced President Mohamed Siad Barre to flee.
The US has made no secret of its fears that the anarchic Horn of African country - a boatride from Yemen - could become a haven for al-Qaeda.
The State Department's most recent Somalia country report concludes that Mogadishu is home to terrorists responsible for the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam.
However, American officials have refused to confirm or deny repeated allegations that they have offered financial backing to warlords arrayed against the Islamic militias. They say only that they are working with a range of groups who are committed to tackling terrorism.
Yesterday, two warlords were left pinned inside their fortified headquarters in Mogadishu after their allies had fled the city.
The continuing rise of the Sharia courts and their militias weakens Somalia's transitional government.
It began sitting inside Somalia in February, after being formed in Nairobi some 15 months earlier.
Analysts speculate that it may have to cut a deal with moderates within the ranks of the Islamic militias in order to retain its fragile hold on power.
There were mixed feelings inside Mogadishu yesterday.
Some residents said they feared Somalia had moved one step closer to becoming an Islamic state, while others welcomed the defeat of the strongmen who had made life miserable for 15 years.
"This is good news for us because the warlords were always engaged in battles, we are looking forward to a life without fighting," one resident, Ali Abdikadir, said.