Ethiopian soldiers, who are backing up Somali government troops, stand on their truck on a street in Kismayu yesterday. Defeated Somali Islamists fled their last stronghold and headed towards the Kenyan border on Monday in what looked like the end of nearly two weeks of war with the Ethiopian-backed government.

KISMAYU (Reuters):

Defeated Somali Islamists fled their defences near a southern town and headed towards the Kenyan border yesterday 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 300km (186 miles) to the south near the port of Kismayu, melted away again overnight after trading artillery fire with advancing Ethiopian and government troops.

The leaders and fighters of the 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.

In its newly-captured capital Mogadishu, the triumphant Somali government renewed its appeal for an African peacekeeping force to come and help stabilise the Horn of Africa nation, in chaos and without central rule since 1991.

"We would like African Union military observers and peacekeepers to come in and help us as soon as possible," Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi told reporters.

The government also urged Kenya to close its north-east border and arrest any Islamists who made it across. But the long and porous border is tough to patrol, with ethnic Somalis populating the Kenyan side and nomads crossing easily.

Diplomats said United States boats were believed to be patrolling the sea off Somalia to prevent SICC leaders, or foreign militant supporters, from escaping. Some Islamist fighters may simply have dumped their uniforms and melted into the Somali bush.

The Somali government has also offered an amnesty for fighters who hand over their weapons.

The retreat of the Islamists caps a remarkable advance by the joint Ethiopian and government force.

Just two weeks ago, the Islamists had appeared on the verge of routing the government, which had no control beyond its base in the provincial town of Baidoa.

However, the intervention of Ethiopia - the Horn of Africa's military power whose move into Somalia had tacit U.S. support, according to diplomats - reversed that.

Air strikes and heavy artillery bombardments quickly routed the Islamists.