Nairobi/Mogadishu - The last of the Ethiopian troops that have been propping up Somalia's transitional federal government for the last two years have left the Somali capital Mogadishu, reports said Thursday.

Witnesses and officials said that the Ethiopians emptied out all of their bases and quit the capital overnight.

"I can confirm there are not any Ethiopian soldiers in the capital Mogadishu," Abdifitah Ibrahim Sabriye, deputy governor of Banadir Region, told Radio Shabelle.

Ethiopian forces invaded in late 2006 to help kick out the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), a hardline Islamist regime that was in power for six months.

Manila - Somali pirates have released a Japanese-operated cargo ship with 21 Filipino crewmen aboard, a Philippine foreign official said Tuesday.

Nairobi/Mogadishu  - Clashes between Somali Islamists competing to seize areas abandoned by departing Ethiopian troops left around 30 people dead and 30 more injured over the weekend, reports said Monday.

Main insurgent group al-Shabaab and a local militia group clashed in Guriel, some 500 kilometres north of the capital Mogadishu, the BBC reported.

Ethiopian forces invaded Somalia in late 2006 to help kick out the hardline Islamic Courts Union (ICU) regime.

After two years of battling a bloody insurgency and watching the government it backed fall apart, Ethiopia is now in the process of pulling out.

Riyadh - The Sirius Star supertanker, released by pirates after being seized in mid-November, has left Somali coastal waters, a statement by Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Nuami said Saturday.

All 25 crew were said to be well. The pirates left Friday, with some reports saying they received three million dollars. However, the minister's statement made no reference to any ransom being paid.

The 330-metre-long supertanker, carrying 100 million dollars-worth of crude oil, had been seized some 830 kilometres off the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa.

Tehran - An Iranian-chartered cargo vessel which was hijacked last November by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden has been released, Iran's Shipping Company said Saturday.

Riyadh - Somali pirates have released the Sirius Star tanker seized