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Islamists seize Somali township
25/02/2008 08:32 - (SA)
Mogadishu - Somali Islamists on Sunday seized control of a southern township near the capital in their campaign against the transitional government of the war-wracked Horn of Africa nation, locals said.
Residents of Dinsoor, some 345km south of the capital, said insurgents attacked the trading post early on Sunday and government soldiers fled after brief fighting.
"Heavy exchange of gunfire woke us up this morning and minutes later, I Islamist forces take control the town. They chanted: 'Allah Akbar'," said Hassan Ibrahim Yarow, an elder.
"They asked people to show restraint," he added. Abdifatah Sufi, another resident, said the turban-wearing fighters drove vehicles they seized from the government troops.
"I saw Islamists driving four Somali government armed vehicles after the troops fled," he added. Saleban Jiis, a Somali government security officer in the area, confirmed that the town had fallen to the Islamists.
Islamist militants had staged regular attacks against government forces and their allies from the Ethiopian military and an African Union peacekeeping force.
Somalia had been besieged by civil war since the fall of former president Mohamed Siad Barre in January 1991.
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