Somali and Ethiopian forces attack last Islamist bastion

Kismayu, Somalia: Somali government forces backed by Ethiopian troops, tanks and warplanes attacked Islamist fighters dug in for a last stand near a southern port town yesterday, witnesses said.

"Fighting has started here. We are on the outskirts of Jilib," lawmaker Abdirashid Hidig told Reuters by phone.

The Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) had urged their fighters and locals to rally around Jilib and nearby port town of Kismayu after retreating south 300 km from Mogadishu. Many residents decided to run instead.

Carrying blankets, food and water on their heads, thousands of frantic people fled ahead of a showdown that has been looming since the Islamists abandoned the Somali capital to advancing government forces on Thursday.

"Two thirds of the population in Jilib have fled the town ... nearly 4,700 have fled," aid worker Osman Mohammad said.

The Islamists used bulldozers to dig deep trenches outside Jilib, where about 3,000 of their fighters were based with more than 60 'technicals' - pick-ups mounted with heavy weapons, including anti-aircraft and anti-tank guns.

Residents said they could see mortars and rockets raining down on Bulobaley, just outside Jilib on the road to Buale, one of two towns from which the Ethiopian-Somali government force had been marching on Islamist defences.

As fighting began, casualties were unclear. "Several mortars and rockets have hit the town," said one Bulobaley resident. "I can see many more being fired ... Most of the mortars and rockets fallen on deserted houses."

"The Ethiopians plan to shower the Islamist troops with artillery tonight until they run away. They then want to capture Jilib by [today]," A Somali government soldier said.

The intervention of Ethiopia has reversed the fortunes of the government and the hardline religious SICC, who just two weeks ago controlled the capital and appeared on the verge of routing a weak interim government stranded in a provincial town.

Now the government has control of Mogadishu and the Islamists - without tanks or planes - are on the run with their backs to the sea and Somalia's southern border with Kenya.

Kenya has reinforced its northern border and US forces are also said to be in the region to prevent foreign militants aligned with the Islamists from escaping.

The Islamists are thought to have 3,000-4,000 fighters, including locals and foreign radicals, analysts said.

Ethiopia said it has 4,000 troops in Somalia, though many believe that number could be far higher. The Somali government is thought by experts to have several thousands.

Islamist leaders called their flight to Kismayu a tactical move to avoid civilian bloodshed in Mogadishu.

The Islamists, who have been offered an amnesty by the government if they surrender, say they are ready to negotiate with the UN-endorsed interim government, but that the Ethiopian soldiers must first leave.