KISUMU, KENYA, AND MOGADISHU, SOMALIA — Islamic insurgents seized a strategic port city in Somalia on Wednesday, raising fears that they were gearing up for an assault on the capital, about 50 miles away.
The fighters, wearing red head scarves and chanting "God is great," marched into Marka without firing a shot. Government troops had fled the night before upon hearing that an attack was imminent, residents said.
"Hundreds of shocked people gathered in the streets and tensions are very high," resident Hussein Mohammed Isahak said in a telephone interview.
The seizure followed similar incidents in the port of Kismayo and several other southern and central Somali cities in recent months.
Islamic insurgents, who were routed from the capital, Mogadishu, by Ethiopian troops in December 2006, have mounted a strong comeback this year. They have retaken much of the territory they lost two years ago.
Though Mogadishu remains under the control of Somalia's fragile transitional government and thousands of Ethiopian troops, the city of Baidoa, where the parliament is based, is under so much threat that many lawmakers have fled.
"They are regrouping," Richard Barno, an analyst at the Institute for Security Studies in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, said of the militants. "Is this part of a bigger plan to take over Mogadishu? I think so. They are preparing themselves."
The Bush administration has backed the presence of Ethiopian troops in Somalia to shore up the government there, fearing that rebels could seize control of the Horn of Africa nation and provide a refuge for foreign Islamic militants.
The seizure of Marka comes amid peace talks between the government and one opposition faction. But the most dangerous insurgent group, Shabab, which has acknowledged ties with Al Qaeda, has rejected the negotiations and vowed to overthrow the government.
The same group took responsibility for Wednesday's seizure. Several local government officials have been assassinated in the city in the last month, including the acting governor and a deputy police commissioner.
"Our martyrs are in full control of the town," Mohammed Awil, a Shabab commander, said by telephone from Marka. "We will govern all of Somalia through Islamic law, reaching our goal step by step."
As happened during the Islamists' six-month reign of Mogadishu in 2006, religious leaders are imposing brutal new rules for people living under their control.
