DOLO, Ethiopia, Jan. 25 (UPI) -- The departure of the last of Ethiopia's troops from Somalia prompted a celebration in the border city of Dolo, officials said.
The exit of the last Ethiopian troops Saturday marked the end of a two-year deployment in Somalia in which they were used to prop up the East African nation's transitional Western-backed government.
Ethiopia arrived in Somalia in December 2006 with U.S. blessings to reinstall a U.N.-backed transitional government in Mogadishu after a hard-line Islamic group took over the capital. As it left, forces from several Islamic militant groups, including the hard-line al-Shabaab, have taken control of bases the Ethiopians abandoned in and around the capital, CNN reported.
"The city is almost under (Islamic) rule," an unnamed local journalist told the U.S. broadcaster. "You can hear different names of the (Islamic) groups taking control in many parts of the city."
