Islamists chase away Somali troops, seize town

Mar 31, 2008, 13:47 GMT

Mogadishu - Islamist insurgents overpowered Somali government troops Monday, seizing a town, killing at least seven soldiers and forcing the rest to flee barefoot, witnesses said.

The troops were scouring for radical remnants of an Islamist group known as the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) that once ruled much of the country when they were attacked near Bulo Burte, some 200 kilometres from the capital Mogadishu.

'(The Islamists) are in Bulo Burte and have full control of the district. They were chanting 'God is great' when they entered the village as all the government forces fled,' said Burashiil Ibrahim, a local elder who said he saw seven uniformed bodies after the battle.

After the brief clash, the Islamists captured government vehicles known as technicals - pick-up trucks with machine guns - leaving government troops escaping on foot.

'We detonated one battle wagon and captured five others including the governor's comfortable car. We attacked their hotel and ran away with their shoes,' said Abdi Rihin Isse Adow, spokesman for the UIC's military wing.

The UIC, mainly fronted by a hardline faction known as the al- Shabab, which the US recently added to its list of known terror groups, has in the last few months been stepping up attacks on the weak transitional government.

An Iraq-style insurgency was sparked in Mogadishu when the Ethiopian-backed government chased out the UIC in January 2007, and has since left thousands killed and uprooted 600,000 from their homes.

Last week, Islamist fighters briefly seized the key town of Jowhar, 90 kilometres north of Mogadishu, seizing government vehicles and freeing some prisoners.

Anarchic Somalia has not had effective central rule since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohammed Siad Barre and has since spiralled into ceaseless violence and chaos.