Somali Islamists scour Mogadishu for arms

Heavily-armed Islamists seized at least 28 blood-stained battlewagons -- pick-ups mounted with heavy machine guns also known as "techicals" -- from the warlord and his allies and searched the capital for weapons, they said.

The trucks were taken from the compound of Abu Shukri, an aide to warlord Abdi Hassan Awale Qeydiid, the lone holdout from a vanquished US-backed alliance who left the city after surrendering late Monday, they said.

Some 500 of Qeydiid's fighters turned over their weapons overnight after elders mediated the surrender that came after two days of fighting in which the two sides had pounded each other with artillery and mortar fire, they said.