Somali government troops take pro-Islamist town

MOGADISHU, Oct 9 (Reuters) Somali interim government forces, backed by Ethiopian troops, today captured a town held by pro-Islamist fighters, in the first military setback to months of Islamist expansion, an Islamist source said.

''Buur Hakaba has been taken by government troops, backed by Ethiopian forces,'' a source close to the Islamist leadership told Reuters.

If confirmed, the attack would be the first military counter-strike by President Abdullahi Yusuf's government since the Islamists took Mogadishu in June and went on to seize a swathe of southern territory in the Horn of Africa country.

''This is the start of war between us and the government,'' the source said.

Troops from Ethiopia, which says the Islamists are led by terrorists, have crossed the border to support the government in recent weeks, witnesses say.

Addis Ababa denies that, although it says it has sent military advisers.

Buur Hakaba lies between the Somali capital Mogadishu, which the Islamists took in June, and the provincial town of Baidoa which is the government's temporary seat.

The Islamist source said there had been some fighting, but he did not know if there were casualties or deaths.

Since the rise of the Islamists, Buur Hakaba's previously independent militia had allied themselves with the Islamists, allowing the latter's fighters into the town several times.

''The local pro-Islamist militias who were in control have left the town, I understand sporadic fighting broke out,'' the source said.

Government officials and Buur Hakaba residents could not be immediately reached to verify the report.

If Buur Hakaba has been captured, it will add to emerging problems for the Islamists' after their relatively unchallenged expansion since June.

In the recently-captured southern port of Kismayo, they have faced residents' protests and threats of an attack by the warlord alliance who previously controlled it.

REUTERS PDM RK1500