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 MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) - Islamic militants captured the last strategic town held by their warlord rivals Wednesday, consolidating their hold over a large swath of Somalia even as the country's parliament called for help from foreign peacekeepers.
President Abdullahi Yusuf's government, whose military consists of little more than the president's personal militia, has watched from the sidelines as the Islamic forces overcame a coalition of secular warlords to take control of southern Somalia.
With Wednesday's victory in Jowhar, 60 miles northeast of Mogadishu, the Islamic Courts Union now controls all of southern Somalia except Baidoa, the seat of the weak transitional government. The rival warlords no longer have a foothold in the region.
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