[6] During the summer of 2006, the ICU defeated a warlord alliance backed by the American Central Intelligence Agency and became the first entity to consolidate control over all of Mogadishu since the collapse of the state, propelling the organization onto the international stage.

[11][12][13] Mogadishu residents moved freely for the first time in years as the security situation stabilized, the international airport and seaport reopened after more than a decade, large-scale debris cleanup began, and the presence of weapons on the streets significantly decreased.

[37] By the late 1990s, Mogadishu experienced growing optimism as the Islamic Courts, in collaboration with the business community, dismantled hundreds of illegal checkpoints and arrested thousands of militia members operating them.

They appealed to warlord Hussein Aidid of the Somali National Alliance and the Rahanweyn Resistance Army, who were fighting in the Bay region at the time, to resolve their conflict peacefully through dialogue.

[43][44] Openly threatened by warlords, the Courts protected the President Abdiqasim Salad Hassan during his return to the capital in August 2000,[45] and soon handed over their heavy weaponry to the newly formed TNG.

The previous year Ahmed had been a school teacher that had become frustrated with the return of insecurity in north Mogadishu and successfully pushed to rejuvenate the Islamic Courts system in the region.

[51] Professor Jude Cocodia, a political science scholar from Niger Delta University, notes that Ethiopia's deep involvement in the formation of the TFG led many Somalis to view the government as inauthentic and essentially a puppet regime under Ethiopian influence.

[40] The Bush administration had become increasingly concerned with the growing power of the Islamic Courts Union, and feared that they would make Somalia a haven for Al-Qaeda to plan attacks from, like in Afghanistan.

[55][56] American support for the warlords extended to the point where, on numerous occasions, Nairobi-based CIA officers landed on warlord-controlled airstrips in Mogadishu with large amounts of money for distribution to Somali militias.

According to senior Islamic court officials the union only possessed a total of four technical improvised fighting vehicles when the 2006 Battle of Mogadishu against the Somali warlord alliance broke out.

[60] The Americans approved greater funding for the Somali warlords and further encourage them to counter the ICU, a decision made by top officials in Washington which was later reaffirmed by the U.S. National security council during meeting about Somalia in March 2006.

[5] The ICU enjoyed widespread support from Mogadishu citizens and business community against the warlords, greatly aiding its ability to seize and control large swathes of the city.

[1] In the view of Mary Harper, a journalist with BBC Africa, the Islamic Courts Union was in reality more of a loose federation and only began to unite into a homogeneous body with a clear authority when its existence was threatened by the ARPCT.

[57][48] On 5 June 2006, the Islamic Courts Union decisively defeated the warlord alliance in the Second Battle of Mogadishu, gained total authority over the capital and proceeded to establish a 65-mile radius of control around the city.

[67] The defeat of the warlords propelled the Islamic Courts Union onto the national stage[7] and the pacification of Mogadishu during mid-2006 saw the ICU coalesce into a government in response to the void left by the corrupt and inept TFG.

[75][76] In one notable incident, after pirates hijacked a ship and demanded a $1,000,000 ransom, ICU forces recaptured the vessel following a gun battle, deploying dozens of fighters via speedboats.

"[83] During the ICU's brief control of southern Somalia, the organization made numerous declarations condemning discrimination against what the courts considered to be "oppressed clans" (e.g., Yibir, Madhibaan and Jareer) as un-Islamic and haram.

[41] British television station Channel 4 acquired a leaked document detailing a confidential meeting between senior American and Ethiopian officials in Addis Ababa six months prior to the full scale December 2006 invasion.

[98]The Ethiopian invasion began with the dispatch of several thousands troops around Baidoa city located in Bay region, far inside Somalia, to build a bridgehead for a future large scale military operation.

The Economist reported that the Ethiopian military incursion had set off a fierce reaction even among the most moderate of the ICU, and a recruitment mobilization began to raise a force to take back Burhakaba.

[122] Several weeks later after intense local pressure, Puntland declared it would move towards adopting Sharia following a meeting between committee of religious heads and leader of the state, Mohamud Muse Hersi.

The resolution was widely viewed by the Courts as the UN Security Council unjustly legitimizing an Ethiopian invasion, considering the UNSCR had refused to make any commentary or statement on the troops already deployed inside of Somalia.

[128] In late December 2006, approximately 50,000 Ethiopian troops backed by tanks, Mi-24 helicopter gunships and Su-27s launched a full scale invasion into Somalia to topple the ICU and install the TFG.

[135] The invasion resulted in the deaths of many Islamic Courts Union affiliates, leaving a vacuum for the small group of several hundred youth that served as the ICU's Shabaab militia to gain prominence,[136][137] though Al-Shabaab did not heavily participate in the insurgency or large scale fighting for much of early 2007, opting instead to carry out bombings and assassinations while further establishing itself.

[139][140] As fighting in Mogadishu escalated, ICU insurgents in southern Somalia found a window of opportunity and peacefully captured the town of Dhobley near the Kenyan border in mid October.

[144] In September 2007 the successor to the Islamic Courts Union, the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS), was founded by numerous high ranking ICU officials who had south refuge in Eritrea.

Al-Shabaab spokesman Mukhtar Robow publicly denied conflict between the two groups and claimed that although there had been past differences, both factions cooperated on the grounds opposing an Ethiopian military presence.

[158] In January 2009, fighters who claimed loyalty to Islamic Courts Union engaged in a large military confrontation in Balad, Middle Shabeelle, against Al-Shabaab resulting in several deaths.

[160][161] In the wake of the ICU's disintegration, fringe Islamic groups began empowering themselves as Somalis from many walks of life rallied against the Ethiopian invasion and violence greatly escalated over the following years.

[52][165] The United Nations claimed the Islamic Courts Union had sent 700 troops to fight the IDF alongside Hezbollah during the 2006 Lebanon War[166][167] and that the ICU was also giving Iran access to uranium deposits within Somalia.