 In December 2007, the Ethiopian troops withdrew from the town of Guriel, and the Islamists controlled Guriel after that.Ethiopia had a big military base there to secure the road linking the two countries.By the end of December 2007, the ICU forces had taken control of about half of the port city of Kismayo, around half the districts of Mogadishu, and totalling around 80% of their former territories, leaving the Ethopiean-backed regime in the same precarious situation as it was in Baidoa at the start of 2007.