Defeated Somali Islamists fled their last stronghold and headed towards the Kenyan border today in what looked like the end of nearly two weeks of war with the Ethiopian-backed government.
Several thousand Islamist troops, who abandoned the capital to take a stand 300 kilometres to the south near the port of Kismayu, melted away again overnight after trading artillery fire with advancing Ethiopian and government troops.
The leaders and fighters of the Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC), driven from Mogadishu on Thursday after a six month occupation, headed further south along the Indian Ocean coast towards neighbouring Kenya. They have vowed to hit back with guerrilla tactics.
Some Kismayu residents said the Islamists were going to the remote hilly region of Buur Gaabo, just on the Somali side of the border. "If they go there, it will be very hard for the Ethiopians to get them," one local said.
In its newly captured capital Mogadishu, the triumphant Somali government renewed its appeal for an African peacekeeping force to come "as soon as possible" to help stabilise the Horn of Africa nation, in chaos and without central rule since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991.
The government also urged Kenya to close its border and arrest any Islamists who made it across. But the long and porous border is tough to patrol, with ethnic Somalis populating the Kenyan side and nomads crossing easily.
Diplomats said US warships from its Djibouti-based Joint Task Force, which runs counter-terrorism operations in the region, were believed to be patrolling the sea off Somalia to stop SICC leaders or foreign militant supporters escaping.
The Somali government has offered an amnesty for fighters who hand over their weapons. But some Islamists may have simply dumped their uniforms and melted into the Somali bush.
The retreat of the Islamists capped a remarkable ground and air offensive by Ethiopian and Somali government forces. Just two weeks ago, the Islamists appeared on the verge of routing the interim administration, which had no control beyond its base in the provincial town of Baidoa.
But the intervention of Ethiopia - the Horn of Africa's main military power which diplomats said had tacit US support for its move - reversed that. Air strikes by Ethiopian jet fighters and a rain of artillery quickly routed the Islamists.
The Islamists, who had swollen their ranks with foreign Muslim fighters, may now concentrate on an Iraqi-style insurgency against a government they see as illegitimate and propped up by a hated and Christian-led foreign power. There were thought to be about 3,000 Islamist fighters.