A coalition of Comoran and African Union (AU) troops combed Anjouan yesterday, hunting for its renegade leader after invading the Indian Ocean island the day before.
Within hours of Tuesday's pre-dawn operation in which the 1,400 federal, Tanzanian and Sudanese soldiers exchanged fire with supporters of Mohammed Bacar, military officials said they had "located" him, although it was not clear whether he had been detained.
The coalition staged its long-awaited landing in Anjouan's capital and main port of Mutsamudu, where they were greeted by cheering residents.
Bacar's re-election last year as president of Anjouan -- one of three islands forming the Indian Ocean federation -- has never been recognized by the international community and he has faced warnings of an invasion ever since.
Coalition forces "are deploying on the island ... but you cannot secure control of the whole island in three hours," Defense Minister Mohamed Bacar Dossar said in Moroni, the Comoros' federal capital.
A reporter in Anjouan saw Bacar loyalists -- with red ribbons, the color of the Anjouan flag, knotted around the barrels of their assault rifles -- near Bacar's residence in Barakani early on Tuesday.
But the AU invasion force eventually flushed the rebels out of their positions and took control of the area.
"I can confirm that everything is over in Barakani. Our forces entered the residence, the soldiers searched the premises but Bacar wasn't there," senior government official Antoy Abdou said.
Small groups of Bacar loyalists -- believed to number barely 400 on the whole island and armed with rifles and rocket launchers -- offered some resistance around a key security compound and a fuel depot in Amirosy, near Mutsamudu.
One wounded woman was seen being brought into Mutsamudu for treatment. One man was also injured when coalition forces fired on a house believed to shelter Bacar allies.
A spokesman for the Comoran army, Ahmed Sidi, said that Bacar had been located but did not elaborate.
Bacar's Dar el Najah presidential palace on the heights of Ouani, near Mutsamudu, was also deserted.
Sentry posts were empty, the building's doors wide open and undefended.
"Mohamed Bacar has not used all his forces and equipment yet. He's a clever poker player," said Aboubekr Chahassou, one of Bacar's former allies now loyal to the federal government.
Government sources said several key aides of the Anjouanese president were arrested during the operation.
Comoros President Ahmed Abdallah Mohamed Sambi announced in a national televised address on Monday that he had approved the long-threatened operation to reunify the three-island archipelago.
"I have ordered the Comoran army and the forces of our country's friends to bring Anjouan back under the rule of law and free her citizens," Sambi said, adding that he did so "without joy, like swallowing a bitter pill."
The government has promised swift elections after deposing Bacar.
"The latest attempt ... to bring them back to reason failed like the others," he said, in reference to months of mediation by the AU.
Since winning independence from France in 1975, the Comoros -- an impoverished archipelago home to about 700,000 inhabitants -- have never known constitutional stability and faced 19 coups or coup attempts.
Each of the three islands in the federation has its own leader, under a federal president.
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