Somali insurgents take Baidoa after Ethiopians leave

By Mohamed Ahmed

BAIDOA (Reuters) – Hardline Islamist insurgents captured the central town of Baidoa on Monday, an important stronghold of Somalia's fragile government and seat of the national parliament, witnesses said.

Just hours after Ethiopia withdrew its last troops from Baidoa and pulled back across the border, fighters from the militant al Shabaab group moved in.

Battling government troops and local clan militia, they captured an old granary serving as the legislature, the airport, and the home of the country's acting president, locals said.

"My fighters are now in Baidoa and the town is peaceful," al Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Mukhtar Robow Abu Mansoor said.

While some analysts said Ethiopia's withdrawal from Somalia on Monday could take the sting out of the Islamist insurgency, al Shabaab -- which is on Washington's list of terrorist groups -- has vowed to carry on fighting and impose Islamic law.

It has long wanted to take Baidoa, which, along with Mogadishu, was the only place where the government had any physical control.

With security deteriorating rapidly in Somalia, the country's parliament voted in neighboring Djibouti to double its size and invite 200 members of the moderate Islamist opposition to join the expanded body.

International players including the African Union and United Nations are pushing for a new unity government as the only option for peace in the country of about 10 million that has had perpetual civil conflict since 1991.

"I am extremely encouraged by this vote and I would like to thank Somalia's leaders, the parliamentarians and all those who have helped work toward such a positive step," said Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the U.N. envoy to Somalia.

The vote means that Somalia's parliament will accept 200 new members from the opposition Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia (ARS) and leave 75 seats to be filled by other opposition and civil society members later.

Legislators went to Djibouti due to lack of security in Baidoa.

ON THE BORDER

In Addis Ababa, Ethiopian officials confirmed the complete pullout of their troops, but said they would maintain a heavy presence along the long border with Somalia.

The Ethiopians entered Somalia to chase a sharia courts movement out of Mogadishu at the end of 2006. The offensive sparked an Islamist-led rebellion, fighting that has killed at least 16,000 civilians and caused a humanitarian disaster.

Shortly after the Ethiopians left Baidoa overnight, clan militia and local police looted the empty bases. Two people died from shooting during the melee, witnesses said.

Insurgents then hurled a grenade at government soldiers near a bus-stop, prompting return fire. At least three people were killed and eight others injured in that incident, locals said.

Somalia's weak, Western-backed government had depended on the Ethiopians for military support, and is now exposed to an array of Islamist opposition groups. The Islamists have, however, been fighting among themselves in recent weeks.

Meeting hundreds of Somali politicians in Djibouti, Abdallah and other international players are pushing for the expanded parliament to elect a new president this week.

The international community hopes a more inclusive Somali administration with new leadership will be able to reach out to armed groups still fighting the government and a small force of African Union peacekeepers.

Under the constitutional charter, a new Somali president should be chosen by parliament within 30 days of the resignation of former President Abdullahi Yusuf, who quit on December 29.

Legislators are mulling whether to stick to that timeframe or vote for an extension -- a move being stiffly resisted by international players in Djibouti.

Al Shabaab and the more militant Islamist wing of the ARS, based in Eritrea, have so far refused to take part in the U.N.-hosted peace process.