Somalia's hard-line Shebab group on Wednesday took over the southern port of Merka, a key entry point for food aid, further tightening the Islamists' grip on the war-torn Horn of Africa country. Hundreds of heavily-armed Shebab fighters rolled into Merka town, some 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of the war-riven capital Mogadishu, after pro-government forces fled.
"It seems that they are gaining control now and we did not have much power to defend the town," said Hussein Yusuf Maalim, a member of the pro-government militia that ruled the town. "Our commander ordered all the forces to leave the town in order to avoid any gunfight," he added. "They were armed with heavy machine guns and RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades)," said Ibrahim Abdalla Ali, a Merka resident.
"Hundreds of them entered the town and took control of the police station and other key positions in the town," the capital of the breadbasket Lower Shabelle region. Islamists have made significant military gains in recent months, leaving the embattled western-backed transitional federal government only in control of some parts of the capital Mogadishu and Baidoa, where parliament is seated.
In 2006, the Islamic Courts Union, of which the Shebab were the armed wing, had taken over most of the country before being ousted by Ethiopian forces who had intervened to provide firepower for the weak transitional government. The Islamists have since splintered, the political leadership fleeing into exile and the Shebab engaging in a bruising guerrilla war that has left thousands of civilians dead.