Somali government forces backed by Ethiopian troops, tanks and warplanes attacked Islamist fighters dug in for a last stand near a southern port town on Sunday, witnesses said. "Fighting has started here. We are on the outskirts of Jilib," lawmaker Abdirashid Hidig told Reuters by phone.The Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) had urged their fighters and locals to rally around Jilib and the nearby port town of Kismayu after retreating south 300 km (190 miles) from the capital Mogadishu. Carrying blankets, food and water on their heads, thousands of frantic people fled ahead of a showdown that has been looming since the Islamists abandoned the Somali capital to advancing government forces on Thursday. "Two thirds of the population in Jilib have fled the town... nearly 4,700 have fled," aid worker Osman Mohamed said.
The Islamists used bulldozers to dig deep trenches outside Jilib, where about 3,000 of their fighters were based with more than 60 "technicals" -- pickups mounted with heavy weapons, including anti-aircraft and anti-tank guns.