Mogadishu Islamic leaders claim victory over rivals

Islamic leaders in Mogadishu claimed victory over a group of rival secular politicians on Monday, saying they would strive to restore security in the capital, where bloody clashes between the two sides have claimed hundreds of lives and displaced thousands of people.

"The Joint Islamic Courts do not want continuation of hostilities and will ensure peace and security following the change attained by the victory of the people with the support of Allah [God]," Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, chairman of Mogadishu's Islamic group, said in a message broadcast over several radio stations in the city. "We are not against any group and will engage the rest of the world in a way that takes into account the interest of our country."

Militia loyal to the Islamic courts have been fighting against the secular faction leaders, who came together under the umbrella Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism, since February. More than 300 people are believed to have died in the violence, and some 1,500 others have been wounded.

Late on Sunday, in the south-central town of Baidoa, where Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) is based, Prime Minister Ali Muhammed Gedi announced the sacking from the cabinet of Muhammad Qanyare Afrah, Muse Sudi Yalahow, Omar Finnish and Botan Elmi Isse for being members of the anti-terror alliance and engaging in violence. A group of fighters loyal to Qanyare, who held the post of national security minister, and Isse, who held the rehabilitation portfolio, were reported to have fled to the town of Jowhar, north of Mogadishu, after losing their strongholds in the capital to the Islamic court forces, residents in the town said.

Somalia has had no effective government since the collapse of the regime of Muhammad Siyad Barre in 1991 and the ensuing civil war, in which various factions and warlords fought for power. The regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development - made up of Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, Uganda and Somalia - sponsored two years of talks between the various Somali clans and factions, culminating in the establishment of the TFG in October 2004.