MOGADISHU, Dec 31: Somali government forces backed by Ethiopian troops and tanks attacked Islamist fighters near their southern coastal stronghold of Kismayo on Sunday.

Islamist commander Sheikh Yusuf Hassan said heavy fighting had broken out around Jilib, some 100 kilometres north of Kismayo.

“The fighting has started. There are heavy losses on both sides,” Hassan said by telephone from Kismayo.

“We are not going to surrender. We will fight to defend Jilib and Kismayo until we die,” he added.

Somalia's deputy defence minister, Salad Ali Jelle, said the joint government and Ethiopian forces on the ground outnumbered the Islamists in Jilib by more than two to one.

“The Islamists are very weak now,” Jelle said. Islamist leaders had regrouped their forces in Jilib and Kismayo after they were forced to abandon the capital Mogadishu on Thursday.

Deputy Prime Minister Hussein Aidid, a former Mogadishu warlord, urged Islamist leaders to surrender, disarm and avoid more of the fighting that has killed hundreds, and possibly thousands, in the lawless African nation.

“We will surround them but we will leave open (an opportunity) for dialogue and negotiations for them to disarm,” Aidid said.

So far, the offer of peace talks has fallen on deaf ears, with the Islamist leaders refusing to discuss surrender.

“This is something that will never happen,” said another of their commanders, Sheikh Mohamed Ibrahim Bilal.—AFP