Ethiopian tanks roll to crush Islamist call to arms

Ethiopian tanks rumbled south from Mogadishu to attack Somali Islamists yesterday after the religious movement's leaders called on fighters and residents in the port city of Kismayu to drive out the foreign "occupiers".

Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, whose forces fled the Somali capital on Thursday, urged thousands of people gathered at a Kismayu stadium for the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha to defend their nation and faith from Somali government troops backed by armour, soldiers and jet fighter planes from mostly Christian Ethiopia.

"Our country is under occupation so we have decided to fight," he told the crowd as Islamist troops on trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns stood guard outside.

Ahmed said his Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) remained ready to negotiate with the interim government, but that the Ethiopian soldiers backing it must leave.

He said the Courts were set up to restore stability in a nation that has been mired in anarchy, torn to pieces and squabbled over by warlords since the overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

"But now we are gearing up to kick these occupiers out of our country," the SICC chairman said.

Islamist troops abandoned the coastal capital they had ruled by sharia law for six months on Thursday in the face of a 10-day Ethiopian offensive of land and air assaults.

Residents of Mogadishu have greeted the forces of the interim government and their Ethiopian backers with a mixture of jubilation, fear and protests.

Crowning the dramatic reversal, Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi swept into Mogadishu on Friday saying the fight for political survival had been won.

He said he was to meet top military officers late yesterday to discuss plans to give militia and civilians in the city 48 hours to hand in their weapons or be disarmed by force.

It was unclear when the order would be issued, and sporadic gunfire rang out across the capital throughout the day.

Earlier, President Abdullahi Yusuf landed in an Ethiopian military helicopter about 20 kilometres west of Mogadishu and held talks with faction leaders and elders.

"This government has a duty to return peace," he told reporters at a run-down army camp. "The whole country has become people and guns... We have passed 15 years of civil war. We now need to forgive each other and hold hands."