Last week, insurgent attacks killed more than 100 civilians and led at least 30,000 people to flee their homes

TO BE NOTED: From the NY Times:

"Insurgents Are Said to Capture Somali Town

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Islamic insurgents sustained their offensive against the nation’s fragile government and captured a strategic southeastern town on Sunday, hours after a leader of another Islamic militia defected to the government, witnesses and officials said.

The defection of the militia leader, Sheik Yusuf Indahaadde, would be a major boost for Somalia’s weak government.

But the Islamic fighters, known as the Shabab, captured the important agricultural town of Jowhar, 55 miles northeast of Mogadishu, the capital, and a critical link to central Somalia, residents said. Government officials denied that Jowhar had fallen, but residents said the insurgents were in control.

The State Department says the Shabab is a terrorist organization with links to Al Qaeda, a charge the group denies.

Last week, insurgent attacks killed more than 100 civilians and led at least 30,000 people to flee their homes. There has been concern that the government may collapse if the fighting in Mogadishu persists.

There has been a lull in fighting here since Friday, but observers fear that if the insurgents seize Mogadishu, they will gain a haven in the Horn of Africa.

In Jowhar, a resident, Hamdi Da’ud, said he saw the bodies of three pro-government militiamen on the street after the militia fought insurgents for 20 minutes. Both sides fired machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, he said.

Information Minister Farhan Ali Mohamud said that the Islamic insurgents had not captured Jowhar but that the fighting was continuing.

President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed’s government directly controls only a few blocks of Mogadishu and the border town of El Berde. But Mr. Ahmed has allies among the militias that control much of central Somalia and pockets of the south. The Shabab controls much of southern Somalia; northern Somalia is run by two autonomous governments that are opposed to the Islamists but are not allied with the Ahmed government.

Mr. Mohamud also told The Associated Press that Mr. Indahaadde, the Islamic militant leader, defected to the government side with all his militiamen late Saturday.

Until his reported defection, Mr. Indahaadde led the militia of a faction of a key Islamic insurgent group, the Islamic Party. The leader of that faction, confirmed that his group would fight alongside government forces.

The Islamic Party has been split over whether to work with Mr. Ahmed’s government now that it aims to implement Shariah law. Mr. Amey and Mr. Indahaadde had been pushing for the party to join the government."