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MOGADISHU - Somalia's prime minister swept into Mogadishu in an armoured convoy a day after his Ethiopian-backed forces drove Islamist rivals from the city they had ruled by sharia law since June.
Ali Mohamed Gedi's arrival in a 22-car convoy, including six pick-ups mounted with heavy weaponry, crowned a dramatic turnaround in the Horn of Africa country after an Ethiopian invasion by land and air to combat the Islamists.
Crowds lined the streets of the bullet-scarred coastal capital as the Western-backed interim government's prime minister drove in smiling and waving.
However, the welcome was not universal. In a northern part of the city, hundreds of protesters took to the streets and threw stones at Ethiopian army trucks.
Gedi went to the international airport where Ethiopian tanks sat beside the runway, before heading to the sea port, where Somali government troops stood guard on streets outside.
"We were fighting for our political survival but with the will and the support of the people we are the winners," Gedi told reporters. "We are here to start our work."
Asked how long he would stay in Mogadishu, the man who nearly lost his job in a no-confidence vote just a few months ago said: "I will stay forever. This is the capital city."
Gedi and President Abdullahi Yusuf may have a tough task to establish their authority given that the Islamist leaders remain in the southern city of Kismayu and are promising resistance.
A senior Islamist security official said they expected to be attacked and would defend themselves.
The Ethiopians are preparing to attack us ... We are ready to defend our country and our religion. Our troops are all on high alert," Ahmed Ali told Reuters by telephone from Kismayu.
Tanks
A government soldier said more than 15 Ethiopian tanks were heading south towards Jilib and Buale, near Kismayu.
"The Islamists have mined the road to Jilib," he said.
A government source said he expected fighting to break out in the south on Saturday.
The United States urged Somalia's interim government to work towards a cease-fire with ousted Islamists and to include all Somalis in political dialogue.
US State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey told reporters in Washington the United States was talking with Somalia's interim government as with neighbouring Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda to urge all sides to "make sure that we have an open and inclusive political process".
The Somali government also depends almost entirely on Ethiopia for its military muscle, analysts say, and it was far from clear what would happen if or when they leave.
The Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Friday the latest fighting could have caused hundreds of deaths and described the military escalation as "the heaviest fighting in a decade" in Somalia.
"There is no precise information on the number of casualties so far, but it may be assumed that hundreds have been killed. In recent days more than 800 wounded people, both civilians and fighters, have been admitted to hospitals and other medical facilities in the area," the ICRC said.
Government forces backed by Ethiopian tanks and fighter jets took effective control of Mogadishu on Thursday after a 10-day offensive to reclaim much of the territory seized by the Somalia Islamic Courts Council since June.
The takeover of the former US mission in Mogadishu was a highly symbolic move, given that it was abandoned more than a decade ago in a humiliating US retreat following an ill-fated mission depicted in the film "Black Hawk Down".
Gedi's parliament plans to declare three months' martial law to maintain control of a nation without an effective central government since the 1991 overthrow of a dictator.
- REUTERS
