Rebels quit capital

Somali President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed said that his forces had defeated Islamist rebels battling to overthrow his Western-backed government after the al Shabaab group began withdrawing fighters from the capital Mogadishu.

However, the militants have rejected Ahmed's claim to have quashed al Shabaab's four-year insurgency, saying they were holding their positions elsewhere in the anarchic country.

Al Shabaab's retreat from Mogadishu signals an acceptance that it cannot militarily defeat a government propped up by firepower, but raises the spectre of an escalation in al Qaeda-inspired raids.

Winning Mogadishu is unlikely to bring peace to the rest of the country.