ANJOUAN: Fighting is continuing on the island of Anjouan after troops from Comoros took control of its capital to throw out rebels who have controlled it for the past year.
Explosions and gunfire started before dawn yesterday as hundreds of troops moved in as part of a long-threatened invasion backed by the African Union (AU).
"We have now taken the Anjouan capital," defence chief of staff Mohamed Dosara said by phone from the main island of Grand Comore. "We have met a small amount of resistance."
Anjouan island's seaport was under the control of AU troops, however about a dozen armed men, claiming to be loyal to renegade colonel Mohamed Bacar, appeared in control just over a mile outside the capital, Mutsamudu, and awaiting an attack.
Gunshots were still also heard inside the capital, although cheering crowds welcoming the AU troops were able to walk through the streets.
The Comoros, an archipelago of three main islands 250 miles off Africa's southeast coast, with a population of about 750,000, has been caught up in a series of coups and political upheavals since gaining independence from France in 1975.
The late Bob Denard, a notorious French mercenary, controlled the Comoros behind a figurehead leader for most of the 1980s following a coup he led.
Col Bacar's takeover of Anjouan island drew increasingly strident warnings from the central government. Mr Dosara said troops were searching for Col Bacar, a former president of Anjouan, who has said he is seeking the island's independence.
Several hundred soldiers, including at least 80 AU troops from Tanzania, were among the initial landing force that arrived aboard four ships, authorities said. About 100 Comoros military reinforcements later arrived by sea, along with six pick-up trucks mounted with machine guns, and began fanning out on the island.
One Comoros officer, who asked not to be named, said government forces had arrested three "high-ranking officers" loyal to Col Bacar.
Analysts say the AU was hoping a relatively easy victory in Anjouan would earn some international prestige to offset the struggles of its peacekeeping missions in Sudan and Somalia.
The tough AU stance on Anjouan, which tried to break away from the other islands in 1997, may reflect its traditional aversion to any secessionist moves on a continent where borders were often drawn arbitrarily by colonial masters.
Spearheading the AU mission in Comoros are Tanzania and Sudan, which themselves face calls for independence from semi-autonomous Zanzibar and southern Sudan respectively.
However South Africa, which had tried to help mediate an end to the crisis, has criticised the military assault.
"I think it is very unfortunate that the military action has taken place because it takes the Comoros back to this history of force instead of resolving matters peacefully," President Thabo Mbeki told reporters in Pretoria. - (AP/Reuters)