Ethiopia said last night its troops will stay for another few weeks in Somalia to help the government pacify the Horn of Africa nation, but the Islamists they ousted in a brief war vowed to "rise from the ashes".
The Islamists, who fled their last stronghold on Monday after a two-week conflict, said they refused a government offer to surrender and reports of a deadly ambush against Ethiopian forces showed the fighting may be far from over.
A day after Ethiopian troops rolled into the southern town, a resident in Jilib said a Somali gunman shot dead two of their soldiers in the area yesterday.
He said Ethiopian forces killed the attacker and, later, two other Somalis. A Somali government source confirmed the ambush but said only one Ethiopian soldier had been killed.
The Islamists did not claim direct responsibility but said such attacks represented a change of tactics.
Analysts say the Islamists, joined by some foreign fighters, may launch an Iraqi-style insurgency against a government they see as propped up by a hated and Christian-led power.
Ethiopian planes, tanks and troops helped the Somali government drive the Islamists from Mogadishu last week, after breaking free from its provincial outpost Baidoa to end six months of Islamist rule across much of southern Somalia.