MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Few Somalis expressed hope for the future Wednesday after Ethiopian troops quit bases in Mogadishu and Islamist insurgents said they would launch more attacks.Some analysts say the withdrawal of an estimated 3,000 Ethiopian soldiers supporting the U.N.-backed interim government could leave a power vacuum. They forecast more violence from rebels who have been fighting the administration for two years.Others hope it could be positive, removing forces seen by many Somalis as occupiers and spurring more moderate Islamist factions to get involved in forming a new, inclusive government."No Somali wants the Ethiopians to stay, but there will be chaos whether they withdraw or not," Sheikh Abdullahi Sheikh Abu Yusuf, spokesman of Ahlu Sunna Waljamaca, a government-allied Sunni Islamist group, told Reuters.He said hardliners like al Shabaab -- which Washington says has links to al Qaeda -- and militants backed by Somali exiles in Eritrea planned to fight the government and moderate groups like his if they tried to form a power-sharing administration.
Sheikh Hassan Yacqub, an al Shabaab spokesman in Kismayu, a strategic southern port seized by the group in August, said he doubted Ethiopia would withdraw completely from its neighbor.more..http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE50D1BP20090114?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews
Sheikh Hassan Yacqub, an al Shabaab spokesman in Kismayu, a strategic southern port seized by the group in August, said he doubted Ethiopia would withdraw completely from its neighbor.more..http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE50D1BP20090114?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews
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