Last stand? Not likely.

Ethiopian and Somali government troops are closing on the town of Kismayo in southern Somalia in the hopes of destroying the Islamist forces there once and for all.

My own guess is that the Ethiopians and government troops will arrive there and find nobody home:

"You think that Islamic courts have failed and the Ethiopian invaders have won in Somalia? I tell you within days everything will be changed," Sheikh Mohamed Ibrahim Bilal, the Islamist commander, said. "I assure you that the Islamic forces are everywhere in the country and you will see the forces operating within days. What we will do is hit and run. We will ambush their convoys everywhere in Somalia."

Many fear that his comments herald a switch in direction by the Islamists, from controlling Somali territory with the objective of running the country under fundamentalist Sharia law, to an insurgency campaign against the interim government and Ethiopian and Western interests.

Tough times ahead for Somalia. Then again, that's nothing new.