MOGADISHU, Nov 12: Islamist rebels captured a port near the Somali capital on Wednesday without firing a shot, giving them their closest foothold to Mogadishu yet and raising the stakes in a two-year insurgency.

Hundreds of fighters of the militant al Shabaab group — which is on Washington’s terrorism list and means “Youth” in Arabic — drove into the port, 90 km south-west of Mogadishu, after government-aligned militia left overnight.“They went directly to the police station,” one resident, Mustaf Hasan, told newsmen by telephone from Merka.

“Now they are passing along the main street. There were no skirmishses. The militia left overnight.”

The capture gives al Shabaab a new base for its near-daily guerrila-style attacks on the Western-backed government and its Ethiopian military allies in Mogadishu. It could also set back a UN-brokered peace process for the Horn of Africa nation, which has been stuck in civil conflict for the last 17 years.

Merka residents were bracing for a possible attempt by Somali-Ethiopian forces to re-take Merka.

“We are very much frightened for fear that militiamen will retaliate,” said mother-of-four Seinab Hussein.

Given its proximity to Mogadishu, Merka is possibly an even more significant territorial gain by the insurgents than the larger Kismayu port, which lies further south, in August.

Different Islamist groups now control most of south Somalia.

Al Shabaab has rejected a tentative, UN-negotiated peace agreement between the government and moderate Islamists for a power-sharing administration.

UNSETTLING PEACE PROCESS: Ethiopia was due to start withdrawing its soldiers from Mogadishu later this month under the peace plan, but al Shabaab’s presence so close may force a re-think, analysts say.

“They’ve timed this perfectly to unsettle the whole peace process just when it was gaining a bit of momentum,” a Nairobi-based Somalia expert said.

Inhabitants said the fighters came into Merka in cars, lorries and pick-ups mounted with machineguns, known locally as “technicals”. Some estimated about 400 fighters in the town.

In the early stages of their two-year insurgency, the Islamists tended to take towns briefly before moving out again in a show of strength. But this year, they have been taking and holding territory.

Analysts see al Shabaab as unlikely to mount an assault on Mogadishu immediately, given disunity within the Islamist ranks — moderates are increasingly unhappy with al Shabaab’s tactics — and the presence of Ethiopian troops.

It was combined Ethiopian-Somali troops who kicked the Islamists out of Mogadishu at the end of 2006, after a brief six-month rule, ushering in the insurgency.

The African Union, which has 3,000 peacekeepers in Mogadishu, condemned the capture of Merka, saying it violated a ceasefire under the U.N.-brokered accord. “We shall tighten the security of Mogadishu,” said AU spokesman Barigye Ba-Hoku.

Peter Smerdon, a spokesman for the World Food Programme in Kenya, said Merka was a very strategic location for its food aid deliveries and it planned to continue using the natural port.

Some Merka inhabitants were worried al Shabaab would impose hardline practices. “Our concern is they will impose restrictions like banning khat (a mild narcotic), watching films and listening to music in public,” said resident Adasha Said.

Somalis, who are traditionally moderate Muslims, have often praised the Islamists for bringing security but expressed disquiet at the imposition of sharia law in areas they control.—Reuters