Somali Islamists Seize Key Town As Talks Stall

Mogadishu , Somalia, November 01, 2006 – Militias loyal to Somalia's powerful Islamic movement expanded their control by taking over a strategic coastal town as peace talks with the country's official government stalled.

The fighters peacefully seized Hobyo in the central Mudug region on Tuesday night, according to an official with Somalia's Council of Islamic Courts.

"There was no fighting and the people here welcomed us," Mohamed Mohamud Jimale Agawiene, a spokesperson for the group in central Somalia, told the Associated Press by telephone.

The new takeover came as peace talks in Khartoum, Sudan, between the Islamic group and the government were at a standstill. The talks were meant to start on Monday, but delegates from both sides were holed up in their hotel rooms refusing to negotiate, Sudan's official news agency reported on Tuesday.

Somalia has not had an effective national government since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siyad Barre and then turned on one another, throwing the country into anarchy.

A transitional government was formed in 2004 with United Nations help in hopes of restoring order after years of lawlessness. But the government never asserted much authority. The Islamic movement -- which began in the 1990s -- seized the capital, Mogadishu, after fierce battles with secular warlords in June and now controls much of the country's south.

The government controls just one town, Baidoa, 250km north-west of the capital.

Osman Elmi Bokore, the deputy chairperson of the transitional Parliament, said Tuesday's takeover will "just move us apart" in negotiations. "It shows the courts do not do not respect the agreements reached with the government," he said.

Central Somalia is not under the control of a particular group and has seen some inter-clan violence over the past 16 years. The Islamic group has been expanding into central Somalia since August.

Sudan , which currently heads the 22-nation Arab League, has taken the lead in promoting peace talks for Somalia. The talks began in Khartoum in June when the two sides agreed on a formula for mutual recognition. A second session was held in the city on September 2 to 3 when the two sides signed an agreement to form a unified national army.

The Islamic group had been reported as saying they would boycott this week's peace talks in Khartoum because of the Ethiopian troops in Somalia.

Ethiopia has said several hundred of its "military trainers" are in Somalia, providing expertise to the interim government. UN officials in the country say thousands of Ethiopian soldiers are defending Baidoa. --

Source: Sapa-AP