Hundreds of Ethiopian troops took new positions around the main Bakara Market where they started searching for weapons in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, witnesses said on Friday.

"We woke up with Ethiopian soldiers in front of our houses, they are searching for weapons," said Yasin Ali who lives near Bakara market.

The soldiers have taken positions near the buildings of telecommunications and money transfer companies. Mohamed Dheere, new mayor of Mogadishu, on Thursday accused telecommunications and money transfer companies of aiding insurgents.

"We know these companies are funding the bombing operations of the insurgents and they will have to account for that," Mohamed Dheere said in a radio interview.

The areas around the buildings of telecommunications and money transfer have been cordoned off by the soldiers and vehicles have been denied use of the main Wadnaha Street.

The Somali transitional government, with the help of Ethiopian soldiers and Ugandan peacekeepers, has been trying to secure the seaside city of two million since the defeat of the insurgents late last month. The government called on residents and business people to hand over their weapons or face harsh punishment.

Government troops have been conducting house-to-house searches for weapons and suspected members of the defeated insurgents. They have also begun seizing and burning women's face veils in the country's capital Mogadishu in an attempt to stop insurgents from disguising them for the sake of carrying out attacks.

Dheere distanced himself from the order to remove the nikab from women, saying he was not the one who ordered the soldiers to do that.

"I never ordered the security forces or any one else to remove the veil from women. Other people are behind it but not me or my office," said Dheere.

The transitional federal government was formed in 2004 national reconciliation conference in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi following fourteen other failed attempts to set up a national administration for Somalia where chaos ruled since the overthrow of former ruler Mohamed Siyad Barre in 1991.

Source: Xinhua