Ethiopian forces yesterday tightened the noose around the calm Somali capital a day after taking control of insurgent strongholds after some of the heaviest fighting in the city's history, residents said.
With neither shelling nor gunfire for the first time in nine days, the forces patrolled northern and southern Mogadishu as residents solemnly collected rotting bodies that were abandoned in the streets.
Troops on foot and aboard trucks patrolled mortar-blasted neighborhoods, where they moved from house-to-house to crack down on suspected insurgents who melted away into civilian area, a correspondent reported.
"They are moving from house-to-house arresting people," said Ibrahim Sheikh Mao, a resident of northern Mogadishu's Suuqahoola area that was a theater of the clashes.
"I imagine they have arrested hundreds of people because they started the operation early in the morning," he added.
"All men are fleeing from the houses because the Ethiopian forces are arresting them," said Shamso Nur, a woman who lives in Al Kamin area.
A reporter saw at least 20 men bundled into a military truck.
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