Islamists seize key Somali port

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

MOGADISHU (AFP) — Islamist fighters wrested back control of Somalia's southern port of Kismayo on Friday following three days of bloody battles with a local militia that left at least 41 people dead, witnesses said.

The retaking of the town by the Islamists came more than a year after they were driven out of Kismayo by Ethiopian forces backing the Somali government.

"We repelled the local militias who tried to stop the light of the Islam religion," said an Islamist commander and spokesman, Sheikh Muktar Robow.

"We aim to implement Islamic Sharia (law) in the country and any force that tries to stop (us) will regret" it, added the spokesman, a leader of the Shabab organization, the military wing of the Islamic Courts Union which briefly controlled large parts...