MOGADISHU, July 10, 2006 (AFP) - Somalia's last secular warlord in the capital Mogadishu, Abdi Hassan Awale Qeydiid, surrendered on Monday to Islamic militants after a two-day battle that left at least 67 dead, militants said.

The militants said that they have captured the warlord's headquarters in the south of the city and that his fighters have begun handing over their weapons.

The militants said on Sunday that they had taken full control of the city after declaring victory over Qeydiid and fellow warlord and transitional government member Hussein Aidid, but heavy fighting had resumed early afternoon on Monday.

After four months of fighting which left over 400 dead between militants and US-backed warlords, Mogadishu fell on June 5 to the militants, who also control swathes of southern Somalia.

Somalia's transitional government in Baidoa, about 250 kilometres (150 miles) from Mogadishu, demanded the Islamists abandon territories they seized in Mogadishu and be excluded from peace talks with the government, expected to resume in Khartoum on Saturday.

But Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, a top official in Somalia's supreme Islamic Court, said that "the government has nothing to do with peace in Mogadishu".

"This government was unable to come to the capital after being repelled by the warlords, whom we have at last toppled. They (the government) should be grateful for what we did," he told journalists.

Earlier on Monday in Nairobi, Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni, members of the seven-nation east African Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), called on the international community to help deploy peacekeepers in the east African country.

In recent weeks, IGAD officials have complained that the international community, especially Western powers, have been non-committal on the Somali conflict, thus complicating regional efforts to restore a functional government there.

©2006 AFP All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or distributed. All reproduction or redistribution is expressly forbidden without the prior written agreement of AFP.

top