premise: Ethiopia's government said its forces had inflicted "heavy human and material losses" on the Islamists, while the air force would "intensify pounding selected targets."
  Meles said the enemy included "many Eritrean troops, international jihadists and Shebab (youth militias)" while the information ministry said two Ethiopian separatist groups were also involved.
  "We ask all the foreign fighters to pull out of the country and allow Somalis to seek ways of reconciling and establishing peace," Somali government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari told AFP in Baidoa. "We strongly appeal to the Islamic courts to put down arms because the government has made a decision to give them complete amnesty."
  The Islamists have steadily gained ground, often imposing strict Sharia law on territory in their hands, since they in June routed a US-backed alliance in Mogadishu of the warlords who support the interim adminstration.
   What does the government decide to do if the Islamic courts put down their arms?
hypothesis: routed a US-backed alliance in Mogadishu