Ethiopians Continue Campaign Against Islamists

The Ethiopian campaign against the Somali Islamists is not over. The Islamists have fled one of the last remaining strongholds and the transitional government is calling for the Islamists to hand in their weapons.

It's also important to note that the transitional government is looking to work with Somalia's neighbors to close in on three Somalis who may have been involved in the African embassy bombings that killed more than 200 people in 1998.

Gedi said he spoke Sunday to the U.S. ambassador in Kenya, Michael Ranneberger, about sealing the Kenyan border with Somalia to prevent the three Al Qaeda suspects — Comorian Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, Kenyan Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan and Abu Taha al-Sudani, a Sudanese — from fleeing.

Somalia's interim government and its Ethiopian allies have long accused Islamic militias harboring Al Qaeda, and the U.S. government has said the 1998 bombers have become leaders in the Islamic movement in Africa.

"We would like to capture or kill these guys at any cost," Gedi told the AP. "They are the root of the problem."

Islamic movement leaders deny Al Qaeda links, but in a recorded message posted on the Internet on Saturday, deputy Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri called on Somalia's Muslims and other Muslims worldwide to continue the fight against "infidels and crusaders."

Gedi accused al-Zawahri of trying to destabilize Somalia and its neighbors.

See-Dubya thinks that the Islamists are going to melt away and that their threats of an insurgency are overblown given how quickly their resistance in the face of an actual army, but I'm not convinced it will be that easy.