Islamist militia advanced on the Somali town of Baladwayne today, aiming to expand their control of southern Somalia and beginning to flank the weak interim government's base in Baidoa.
Residents woke to find the militias, supported by local clerics, in control of a key bridge and a prison without any fighting. The town near the Ethiopian border has been under the control of a governor appointed by Somalia's interim government.
The Islamists, linked to sharia courts, last week become a force to be reckoned with after they seized the capital from secular warlords after fighting that has killed 350 since February.
The interim government is Somalia's 14th attempt to bring central government to a country where warlord-control has prevailed since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in 1991.
But it is based in Baidoa because it lacks the muscle to move to the capital that could involve a confrontation with the Islamists.
The Islamist capture of Baladwayne and yesterday the critical town of Jowhar gives them control of a sizeable swathe of southern Somalia stretching from Mogadishu at the coast almost to the Ethiopian border. It also means they could strike at the government's base in Baidoa from two directions.
It remained unclear how the Islamists would react to a government vote a day earlier to permit foreign peacekeepers in the country to help secure the government.
The Islamists had threatened that such a vote would mean an end to talks it has been holding with the government.