Muslim militia forces took over Somalia's strategic southern port city of Kismayo on Monday after the warlord in charge of the region fled, a militia source said.

Deputy Defense Minister Yusuf Mire Mahmud, confirmed Defense Minister Barre Hiraale's hasty exit on Sunday following a split within the Juba Valley Alliance on how to respond to the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), which seized Mogadishu and other parts of southern Somalia earlier this year.

The Juba Valley Alliance, led by Barre Hiraale, is an independent authority that has controlled the region around Somalia's Kismayo.

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The Muslim militia men have in the last month been urging Barre Hiraale to hand over the city, since many of the militias protecting it have clan alignments close to the Muslims.

According to the Muslim militia men in the capital Mogadishu, "Kismayo has fallen and not a single bullet was fired."

A Kismayo resident said Muslim militia men and military trucks had entered the city.

The Muslims' advances since June have challenged the authority of the militarily weak interim government, backed by the West and regional power Ethiopia.

Government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari quoted Deputy Prime Minister Hussein Mohamed Farah Aideed as saying prior to the takeover that any attack on Kismayo would breach a ceasefire deal that the administration and the Muslim militia signed during recent talks in Khartoum.

According to the United Nations, rumors of an impending conflict in Kismayo sent thousands of refugees fleeing to Kenya in recent days, with 300-600 arriving daily in the Dadaab camps just across the Kenya-Somalia border.

Formed in 2004, the interim government of President Abdullahi Yusuf has struggled to reimpose central rule in Somalia for the first time since warlords ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, carving the country into a patchwork of personal fiefdoms.