, Triumphant Somali government forces and their Ethiopian allies marched into Mogadishu on Dec. 28 after Islamist rivals abandoned the war-scarred capital they had held for six months.
The flight of the Islamists was a dramatic turn-around in the Horn of Africa nation after they had spread across the south imposing sharia rule and confined the interim government to its base in Baidoa less than two weeks ago.
Terrified of yet more violence in a city that has become a byword for chaos, some Mogadishu residents took to the streets to cheer government troops, while others hid.
Scores of government military vehicles had passed the Somalia National University west of the city centre, resident Abdikadar Abdulle said.
Prime Minister Ali Mohamad Gedi arrived in the capital later and had dinner with his deputy and former faction leader Hussein Mohamed Aideed, presidential envoy Abdirashid Sed told Britain
