MOGADISHU, Somalia - For hundreds of young men, the promise of a brighter future and the Somali government's victory over a fundamentalist Islamic movement were symbolized by a flickering blue screen in a dusty Mogadishu movie theater.

A heavily armed Ethiopian soldier on the street of Kismayu, Tuesday, Jan 2, 2007. [AP]

"This is freedom and entertainment," Ahmed Abdi Ali said Tuesday as an Indian movie about a torrid love triangle played ¡ª the kind of film that was banned by the Muslim militants. "The Islamic courts are gone."

For the first time in more than a decade, an internationally recognized government is operating in Mogadishu after driving out the Islamic courts movement that wanted to rule Somalia by the Quran. Although trouble is always lurking in this violent, gun-infested country, the reign of the widely feared Islamic courts appears to be over.

The group had imposed its strict interpretation of Islam on Mogadishu and much of southern Somalia since it took power in June, banning movies and Western music and terrifying residents into submission with the threat of floggings and public executions.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi said his forces, backed by Ethiopian troops with tanks and MiG fighter jets, had neutralized the Islamists and forced them to give up or scatter into the bush. He said he does not expect any more major fighting.

"Maybe small fights can take place, but we are trying to destroy them," he said.

Still, bringing peace to Somalia is a daunting task. Until Ethiopia stepped in two weeks ago, the government controlled just one town, and many Somalis have little confidence in the administration's ability to pacify ¡ª much less rebuild ¡ª the country alone.

And the country is, indeed, in ruins. Mogadishu is a destroyed, desperate city after 20 years of civil war. Lamp posts that haven't been illuminated in years are pocked with bullet holes and shrapnel. Cathedrals, courthouses and homes have been bombed into rubble or dismantled brick by brick.

Gunshots ring out daily on city streets, and three warlords who once ruled the capital are back now that the Islamists are gone. Many fear the warlords are gathering their forces and might challenge the government.

Perhaps the most insidious threat is from an Iraq-style guerrilla war, which the Islamic group says it's planning with fighters it claims are hiding in Mogadishu.

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