MOGADISHU, Dec 29: A senior leader of the Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) on Friday vowed that his fighters would “never surrender to Ethiopians and the government” and warned of guerrilla ambushes on allied forces.

“You think that SICC have failed and the Ethiopian invaders have won in Somalia? I tell you within days everything will be changed,” commander Sheikh Mohamed Ibrahim Bilal said, a day after the SICC fighters left the capital Mogadishu.

“We will never surrender to Ethiopians and the government of (Somali President) Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed,” he told AFP from Kismayo, the last SICC stronghold, a port town about 500 kilometres south of Mogadishu.

Mr Bilal spoke as Somali government forces, backed by Ethiopian troops, tanks and aircraft, were poised to assert their control over Mogadishu, which was calm but tense after a day of gunfire and looting.

In the face of Ethiopian fire, most of the hardline Islamic clerics, including the movement’s leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, fled Mogadishu for Kismayo.

“I assure you that the Islamic forces are everywhere in the country and you will see the forces operating within days. What we will do is hit and run. We will ambush their convoys everywhere in Somalia,” he added.

“We are now in Kismayo. If they attack us and defeat us, that does not mean the war has ended,” he added.

Residents said Ethiopian fighter jets flew over Kismayo and outlying towns, raising fears of renewed bombings on the region, which is reeling from recent floods.—AFP