Shabelle Media Network (Mogadishu)
Aweys Osman Yusuf
27 December 2006
Mogadishu — Insecurity problems have escalated in Baledweyn and Abbudwaq, the main towns of Hiran and Galagadud provinces, central Somalia.
A group of militias in Abudwaq has raged insecurity problems, setting up checkpoints in the town.
Witnesses said the militias have opened gunfire indiscriminately at town, endangering the lives of ordinary people in the town.
The ICU fighters have abandoned Abudwaq after they feared attacks from the Ethiopian troops that now took control of all Middle Shabelle and central provinces in the country, reportedly heading for the capital, Mogadishu.
Residents in Baledweyn say that they are mugged at the nights by groups of robbers armed with AK 47 rifles and pistols.
Residents in Jawhar have welcomed the arrival of government militias, witnesses reported. Early in the morning, people were fleeing their homes to the capital Mogadishu in fear of the escalating war.
Sources in Kismayu, southern Somalia, under the Islamist control currently indicate that the ICU forces have retreated from Salagle and Sakow in Middle Jubba province and reached Kismayu, the main port town of Lower Jubba province, southern Somalia.
Islamic Courts chairman Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed told reporters yesterday that their fighters made tactical retreats, pledging the war with the Ethiopian military forces backing the Somali transitional government would take a long period.
Shabelle reporter in Jawhar Nor Bukhari said many people in the town were rejoicing the return of Mohammed Dheere, a former warlord who controlled Jawhar before Islamist fighters evicted him. People who owned small cinemas and those who traded in Khad, a narcotic stimulant leaf, shouted they were finally pleased to reopen their business to earn their daily bread.
Islamic Courts Union seized the capital Mogadishu in early June this year, expanding their military might into most central and southern regions of the country, declaring a holy war on the Ethiopian troops in Baidoa if they do not leave the country.
Ethiopian fighter jets bombarded airports in Mogadishu and Baledogle on 25 December and on 26 December, the jets dropped bombs on Lego, a settlement 140 km south of the capital, which was a stronghold for the Islamists. Islamists retreated from most of their controlled areas while the government troops and militias took control of them.
Somalia has been in civil war for the past sixteen years. The transitional government was formed in Kenya in 2004 after two years of negotiations between the US backed secular warlords and civil leaders, with Abdulahi Yusuf Ahmed chosen as the president of Somalia.
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