Transitional Federal Government soldiers sit in their truck in Bur Haqaba, 60km (37 miles) south of Baidoa yesterday. Triumphant Somali Government forces and their Ethiopian allies marched into Mogadishu yesterday after Islamist rivals abandoned the war-scarred city they held for six months. The flight of the Islamists was a dramatic turn-around in the volatile Horn of Africa nation after they took Mogadishu in June and spread across the south, imposing sharia rule. - Reuters

MOGADISHU, (Reuters):

Triumphant Somali government forces and their Ethiopian allies marched into Mogadishu yesterday after Islamist rivals abandoned the war-scarred city they had held for six months.

The flight of the Islamists was a dramatic turn-around in the volatile Horn of Africa nation after they took Mogadishu in June and spread across the south imposing sharia rule.

Terrified of yet more violence in a city that has become a byword for chaos, some Mogadishu residents greeted the arriving government troops, while others hid.

"People are cheering as they wave flowers to the troops," said resident Abdikadar Abdulle, adding scores of government military vehicles had passed the Somalia National University west of the city centre.

Parts of Mogadishu shook with the sound of gunfire and there were outbreaks of looting after leaders of the Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) fled its base early in the morning. Some fighters ditched their uniforms to avoid reprisals.

"We have been defeated. I have removed my uniform. Most of my comrades have also changed into civilian clothes," one former SICC fighter told Reuters. "Most of our leaders have fled."

The fall of Mogadishu came about 10 days after the Islamists sought to march on the government base of Baidoa.