Somali taliban?

The Union of Islamic Courts have seemingly taken control of Mogadishu after a decade of anarchy.

And it seems as if it is the Taliban model that we see unfolding once again: weary of war and trouble the citizen are greeting a strict religious authority, seemingly uncorrupted by worldly greed that so many of the other warlords have been dictated by. The backing seems to be from Saudi-Arabian or Iranian sources.

It will be interesting though to see if the Union of Islamic Courts will run into the same paradox as Taliban and later Hamas - the controlling feature of local success and popularity (lack of too much unpopularity, rather) is the controlling feature of foreign policy isolation.

Update: Apparently there are no intentions on behalf of the Courts to turn Somalia towards an Islamic state. Let's see about that.

Below: note the nice camouflage, complete with little half-moons. Guerilla-chic. Photo: BBC