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MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) - Somalia's government has sent hundreds of troops backed by Ethiopian soldiers to recapture a strategic southern town seized by the country's powerful Islamic movement, military officials and witnesses said Sunday, as dozens of families began fleeing the area.
The Islamic militia, which has seized the capital and most of the country's south since June, declared itself in control of the southern town of Dinsor on Saturday, saying it moved into the area without encountering resistance or firing a shot.
With the seizure of the town, the Islamic Courts Union has now effectively surrounded the weak, transitional government in its fortified base in Baidoa, the only town it controls.
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