Islamic Militants Take Key Somali City

Heavily armed Islamic militants captured a key southern port city in Somalia Sunday, according to witnesses.

Since April, A group known as the Council of Islamic Courts has defeated warlords who had divided the country into clan-based fiefdoms since 1992.

The courts have united most of the southern half of the country, promising to deliver peace under Islamic law.

Their capture of Kismayo, a key city on Somalia's coast on the Horn of Africa, filled in a major gap in their southern takeover.

The peaceful takeover prompted the previous leadership, known as the Juba Valley Alliance, to leave the area. It was yet another blow to the country's virtually powerless official government. Somalia's defense minister, Col. Barre "Hirale" Aden Shire, is a leading member of the alliance.

Hirale's deputy, Yusuf Mire Mohamud, said Sunday, "the Juba Valley Alliance has collapsed."

Somalia's interim prime minister called on the United Nations to partially lift an arms embargo on his country to allow for the deployment of African peacekeepers, which he said are necessary to stop the advance of the Islamic courts' takeover.