The jihad there may be ending soon. By Mohamed Olad Hassan for Associated Press, with thanks to D. C. Watson:
MOGADISHU, Somalia – Somali and Ethiopian troops drove Islamic fighters out of the last major town before Mogadishu on Wednesday, and the government predicted that the capital and stronghold of the radical Islamists would fall without a fight.
Government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari said no assault was planned on Mogadishu because the forces of the Council of Islamic Courts were crumbling so fast.
“Islamic courts militias are already on the run and we hope that Mogadishu will fall to our hands without firing a shot,” he said.
The Islamic Courts movement had grown steadily in power for six months, until the dramatic entry into the war by Ethiopian troops last week. Since then, fortunes have changed dramatically with the Islamists in full retreat.