Defeated Somali Islamists fled their defences near a southern town and headed towards the Kenyan border on Monday in what looked like the end of a nearly two-week war with the Ethiopian-backed government.
Several thousand Islamist fighters, who abandoned the capital to take a stand 300 km (186 miles) to the south near the port of Kismayu, fled ran away melted away again overnight after trading artillery fire with advancing Ethiopian and government troops.
The leaders and fighters of the powerful Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC), driven from Mogadishu on Thursday after occupying it for six months, headed further south along the Indian Ocean coast towards neighbouring Kenya, residents said. They have vowed to hit back with guerrilla tactics.
Some Kismayu residents said the Islamists were going to the 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 resident said, comparing the region to Afghanistan's Tora Bora region where the Taliban hid. |