Uh-Oh, Mogadishu has been captured by Islamic militias

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/africa/06/05/somalia.fighting.ap/index.html

<snip>

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) -- Islamic fundamentalists whose ideology is similar to the Taliban seized control of Somalia's capital Monday, unifying the city for the first time in more than a decade and posing a direct challenge to a fledging U.N.-backed government.

The advance against a secular alliance rumored to be backed by Washington comes after weeks of bloody fighting and 15 years of anarchy in the Horn of Africa nation, raising fears that Somalia could fall under the sway of al Qaeda.

"We won the fight against the enemy of Islam; Mogadishu is under control of its people," said Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, chairman of the Islamic Courts Union, on a radio broadcast. The militia now controls a 65-mile (100-kilometer) radius around the capital after fighting off a secular alliance of warlords.

<snip>

Expect the militias to try and convert all infidels or punish them for not being Muslim.

Of course, it wasn't any better under the secular warlords. One brand of tyranny replaced another.

I thought the whole country was already in the hands of Islamic militias.

I thought the whole country was experiencing anarchy.

Not the case at all.

The only thing that's going to happen is * is going to yell terra terra terra, and come up with some false pretense to invade.

I'm by no means certain, but my feeling is "the Mog" is even less strategically significant to the U.S. than it was a decade ago. :shrug: