Somali troops roll into rebel bastion
Mogadishu, October 1, 2012
Hundreds of Somali government troops and allied militia fighters deployed throughout the centre of the former Al Shabaab rebel stronghold of Kismayu on Monday, sending panicked locals scrambling for cover.
Residents said there was no immediate retaliation from the Al Qaeda-linked militants who fled the southern port city on Friday after Kenyan and Somali troops launched an assault by sea, air and land.
"We have now seen troops walking in the town. We are running into houses and shops have closed. We are afraid of explosions," said resident Ismail Nur.
Mohamud Farah, a spokesman for Somali's army in the southern Juba regions, said 450 government soldiers and fighters from an allied militia had deployed in the city centre to patrol the sandy streets and twisting alleyways.
Another resident, Halima Farah, said Kismayu had turned into a ghost-town. Troops had occupied the police headquarters building and district administration office, she said.
"I can also see through the cracks of windows that some of them are on the rooftops near those positions," Farah told Reuters by telephone.
Al Shabaab has said that although it had retreated from Somalia's second biggest city, its fighters were poised to engage the allied troops once they entered the city centre, threatening to turn the streets into a "battlefield".
"So far there has been no resistance," Farah said.
Kenya's military used the social media site Twitter to declare its forces had helped to take control of the seaport, and police headquarters.
"(Kenyan Defence Forces) has established no-fire zones around markets, schools, mosques and hospitals," the Kenyan Army said on its official Twitter handle.
A Kenyan military spokesman was not immediately available for comment.
Residents said it was unclear if Kenyans were in the city centre or still camped out on the outskirts and were divided over whether the arrival of government forces in the city was positive.
Winning control of Kismayu, however, is the easy part, while establishing a political administration respected by all clans will be much tougher, political analysts say.
There are concerns a prolonged power vacuum in Kismayu could give way to renewed violence as rival groups jockey for control of the lucrative port in a city where the rebels' strict application of Islamic law alienated a huge portion of the population.
"We hope security will improve with the presence of the troops," said shopkeeper Bare Nur. Faiza Mohamed, a greengrocer, was more circumspect.
"We're not against the government, but Kismayu will become like Mogadishu," she said, referring to al Shabaab's campaign of suicide bombings and targeted killings that has swept the capital since the group withdrew from there 14 months ago.
"I am sure security will worsen if the troops come in," she had said earlier.
Army spokesman Farah said the allied forces had been cautious about entering Kismayu, wary that the militants might have laid explosives around the city.
The rebel group, which counts foreign al Qaeda-trained fighters among its ranks, is seen as one of the biggest threats to stability in the Horn of Africa. It formally merged with al Qaeda in February.
Somalia descended into chaos after dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in 1991.
Al Shabaab, which for much of its five-year rebellion controlled swathes of the lawless Horn of Africa country, has increasingly turned to guerrilla tactics as it steadily loses ground under military pressure.
It was swift to harass the weak government of newly-elected President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud with suicide bombings and assassinations.
KENYA ON HIGH ALERT
Security forces in Kenya, the region's biggest economy, were on high alert on Monday.
Police said extra roadblocks had been set up on roads leading to neighbouring Somalia, while a military source said extra surveillance flights were being operated along the remote, porous frontier.
"Somalia has been an al Qaeda hideout. You've seen the impact of al Qaeda across the world and we have just destroyed their backyard," Kenya's deputy police spokesman Charles Owino told Reuters.
Since it sent troops into Somalia a year ago, Kenya has been dogged by a succession of gun and grenade attacks, blamed by the government in Nairobi on al Shabaab and its sympathisers. - Reuters
