SOMALIA: People flee as military movements create fear
27 Nov 2006 13:03:28 GMT
Source: IRIN

NAIROBI, 27 November (IRIN) - Rising tension due to rivalry between feuding groups around Baidao, the seat of the country's interim government, has prompted residents to leave the town and nearby Buur Hakaba amid fears that armed forces massing in the area could soon clash, witnesses said on Monday.

Forces loyal to the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), which controls much of the south and central Somalia, including the capital, Mogadishu, are massing at Buur Hakaba, 60 km south of Baidoa, in anticipation of a showdown with forces of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG), which is allegedly supported by Ethiopian troops. Addis Ababa has denied sending a fighting force to Somalia, but has acknowledged that its "military advisers" were helping the TFG.

The Ethiopian authorities were not available for comment on Monday.

"Many families have already left and many more are leaving," Usman Muhammad, a Buur Hakaba resident, said.

"The atmosphere is one of war in the place. We don't know when it will begin but we know it is coming. "There is too much movement of troops on both sides," he added.

He said many people were fleeing towards Mogadishu, 180 km to the southeast, while others are going to "safer villages around the area".

The UIC has been bringing large numbers of troops and equipment into the region for the past weeks. "Their numbers increased dramatically from last week," Muhammad said.

He said people living in villages between Baidao and Buur Hakaba had left their homes.

The situation is no better in Baidao, according to residents there. "Baidao has become a military garrison. Everywhere you look there are military people," said one, who asked not to be named.

"I sent away my wife and kids last week. I don't want them caught up in any fighting. Most of those who can afford to have sent their families to safer areas," he added.

"There is a real fear among the population that a war between the Islamic courts and the TFG and Ethiopian forces is imminent and everybody is trying to get away before it is too late," he said.

Abdirahman Sheikh, a Baidao businessman, told IRIN business in the town had been badly affected by the brewing conflict. "There is a severe shortage of fuel which is having an impact on other businesses."

The UIC has put restrictions on fuel going to Baidao from Mogadishu. "The prices of food and other essential commodities have increased dramatically," he said.

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Sending African troops into Somalia 'would trigger war'

Xan Rice, east Africa correspondent
Monday November 27, 2006

Guardian Unlimited

A US-backed proposal to send African troops into Somalia to support the weak government raises the risk of triggering an all-out war with the Islamic courts that could destabilise the entire region, a leading thinktank said today.

...

Ethiopia and Eritrea, which have backed the government and courts respectively with both troops and weapons, would be further sucked into the conflict, the group said.

Backed by the African members of the security council, the draft resolution calls for the deployment of a regional military force to support the transitional federal government (TFG), which has no army of its own and is vying for power with the heavily armed courts militias. Countries that contribute troops, including Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia, would be exempted from the UN arms embargo on Somalia.

While the mission's goal would be to strengthen the government and dissuade Sics- which enjoys local goodwill and controls most of south-central Somalia - from further expansion, the crisis group said the strategy would backfire.

Most Somalis, including a significant chunk of the government, are deeply opposed to any foreign intervention. Sics has repeatedly stated it will wage "jihad" on any outside troops. "Actual deployment would be likely to fracture the parliament beyond repair and reinforce the impression that the TFG is simply a proxy for Ethiopia. The loss of legitimacy in the eyes of the Somali public would be irreversible," the ICG statement said. "Rather than wait for the TFG to arm itself, [Sics] might well launch a pre-emptive attack on [the government's] seat in Baidoa."

The US's support for the resolution has caused consternation among western diplomats dealing with Somalia, most of whom share the thinktank's prognosis if regional troops are to deployed. Previous US foreign policy decisions in the Horn of Africa have not helped engender trust.

Washington's bungled policy of funding the Mogadishu warlords against the courts - which it accuses of harbouring al-Qaida militants - is credited with speeding the rise of Sics, which gained control of the capital in June and has since expanded rapidly.

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Car bomb blast rocks Somali town

A car bomb has exploded in Baidoa, where Somalia's fragile interim government is based, leaving at least six people dead.

A policeman told the BBC that a female suicide bomber wearing a veil blew herself up at a check-point.

The explosion also destroyed two other cars. "There were flames everywhere," an eye-witness said.

President Abdullahi Yusuf survived a suicide car bomb attack in Baidoa two months ago, which killed his brother.

He blamed that attack on his Islamist rivals, who denied responsibility.

There are fears of widespread conflict breaking out in Somalia between the government and the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), which controls most of the south of the country, including the capital, Mogadishu.

Attacks

There have been conflicting reports of how many bombs there were.

Deputy Defence Minister Salad Ali Jelle told the AP news agency that three car bombs had exploded at police check-points, killing the drivers and three others.

Map

Ethiopian convoy 'ambushed'
A local journalist said he had seen three bodies.

Police commander General Ali Hussein told AFP that at least 12 people had died.

"There were two suicide cars full of explosives," he said.

Mr Salad also told AP that three alleged attackers had been captured.

He said they were foreign members of al-Qaeda.

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Ambassador John R. Bolton, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations
Remarks to the media following a Security Council Stakeout

New York City
December 1, 2006

USUN PRESS RELEASE #377

Ambassador Bolton: Let me just say that I informed the council this morning that the United States will circulate a draft resolution on Somalia within a few hours. This resolution will call for endorsing the efforts of the IGAD states and the African Union to deploy a peacekeeping force in Somalia, and support a partial lifting of the arms embargo for purpose of assisting the force and associated training. We'd like to make this expression of support for these efforts to bring stability to Somalia, obviously something that's been of interest to the United States for quite some time.

We expect probably an experts meeting on Monday, given that people will just be receiving the text this morning, although obviously we're prepared to answer questions and have discussions with interested countries during the day today as well. But this would give them a chance to go back to capitals over the weekend, as I say, and probably have the first experts meeting on Monday. And then we'll proceed as rapidly as we can after that.

Reporter: The reason for the resolution, if you could explain the background of the story for Americans who may not be familiar, who thought Americans came and left Somalia.

Ambassador Bolton: The current situation is that the transitional federal government is under pressure from the Islamic Courts Union movement, and that the stability, such as it is, is in grave peril. And what we want to do is introduce this regional peacekeeping force, endorse the insertion of the regional peacekeeping force, which many of the African states have called for, in order to provide some measure of stability there to permit a political solution.

Reporter: What would you say to those who say that some in the transitional federal government are essentially the warlords and not selected by the Somali people?

Ambassador Bolton: Unlike any other aspect of authority in Somalia that also hasn't been selected by the Somali people, it's a situation where in the interest of preventing further hostilities and associated displacement of persons and loss of life and the rest of it, that we're interested in making this proposal.

Yeah?

Reporter: Ambassador, just to sort of step back a bit, back in the 1990s when there was a humanitarian crisis in Somalia, essentially you saw a coalition of U.S. and Europeans and others go in. Now that Somalia was deemed by -- you know, in this expert panel report to actually be a serious threat to regional if not international peace and security, dragging in the Middle East, the great powers are handing over security to an African country. I'm just wondering what this says about our changing ability to be able to police a very difficult part of the world.

Ambassador Bolton: I'm not sure I have a comment on that.

.....

eporter: Ambassador, again, this is a slightly meta question, but Somalia has fallen to pieces, Eritrea and Ethiopia are unresolved, southern Sudan is fighting again, Darfur seems to be in another mess, Chad is falling to pieces and the Central African Republic is under threat. We have now got a huge swathe of that part of Africa basically falling apart. You know, how much of a failure of international security is this? How serious is this for the rest of the world? Are we looking at a new kind of Afghanistan-Central Asia type meltdown?

Ambassador Bolton: No answers to meta questions today.

Reporter: On a slightly more practical plane, then -- (laughter) -- in your draft resolution --

Ambassador Bolton: There may not be answers on that, either, but --

Reporter: -- what -- can you tell us what the resolution says about what kind of force the United States would like to see sent there?

Ambassador Bolton: It's an endorsement of the IGAD concept, not converting it into a blue-helmeted force, not paying for it but endorsing, as we have in other contexts, the deployment of a peacekeeping force by a regional organization.

We'll have the draft here in a couple hours.

Reporter: In terms of the countries that would be in it, does it say anything specific about whether the front-line countries, for instance, would be --

Ambassador Bolton: It would be -- no, it would be -- it's confined to endorsing the IGAD -- IGASOM as it's called.

......

Reporter: On Somalia. Your earlier draft was criticized by various groups as adding to the instability in Somalia, not making it more stable. What do you think the current draft does to make the country more stable?

Ambassador Bolton: Well, I'll give you a meta answer to that question. You know, people criticize us when we take action on the ground, that our taking action makes the situation worse. Okay, so what is the answer, not to take action?

....

Reporter: On Somalia, what's going to be the ramifications of Ethiopia, Eritrea, and apparently Uganda having violated the previous arms sanctions -- arms embargo on Somalia?

Ambassador Bolton: You know, it's a very complicated situation. This resolution is a step toward resolving it, but we're not -- we don't pretend to say that this resolution alone will be a complete solution. A lot more work remains to be done. It's a very complicated situation. See you.

http://www.state.gov/p/io/rls/rm/77224.htm

INTERVIEW-Uganda ready to send peacekeepers to Somalia
07 Dec 2006 12:35:12 GMT

More By Tim Cocks

KAMPALA, Dec 7 (Reuters) - Uganda is ready to send a battalion of peacekeeping troops to Somalia in line with a U.N. Security Council resolution as soon as parliament gives its approval, the state defence minister said on Thursday.

The Security Council approved a plan by the east African regional body IGAD on Wednesday to deploy peacekeepers to Somalia in a bid to avert a regional war and secure President Abdullahi Yusuf's Transitional Federal Government (TFG).

Uganda and Sudan were deemed the only two suitable countries in the region because neither borders Somalia or has any obvious strategic interest in the country.

"We have our standby force, which is trained and prepared. They are ready to go as soon as parliament approves it," State Minister for Defence Ruth Nankabirwa told Reuters. "Until we've done that, they can't move."

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video link

Somalia's Islamists reject UN peacekeeping plan

dpa German Press Agency
Published: Thursday December 7, 2006

Mogadishu- Somalia's Islamists rejected on Thursday a UN plan to send in about 8,000 troops to the divided country, calling it tantamount to a declaration of war. "We consider the decision of the security council as an approval of Ethiopian invasion and a declaration of war," said Sheikh Abdulrahim Ali Mudey, the Islamists' information secretary.

The UN Security Council on Wednesday authorized the African Union and regional conflict-resolution group IGAD to send a "protection and training mission" to monitor progress between the weak transitional government and the Islamists who control much of south central Somalia.

Mudey vowed that Islamist forces will fight any foreign troops on Somali soil. The Islamists said they have already fought Ethiopian soldiers in the country, allegedly sent by Addis Ababa to "train" the government forces.

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Somalis threaten to fight 'invasion' of UN peacekeepers

By Steve Bloomfield, Africa Correspondent
The Independent
Published: 08 December 2006

Somalia's Islamic Courts have vowed to fight African peacekeepers deployed in the country after the UN Security Council voted to send 8,000 troops to the war-torn state in the Horn of Africa.

The Courts, which control vast swaths of southern Somalia, claimed the resolution would "add fuel to the fire", likening the move to a "foreign invasion". The country's fragile transitional government, which controls one small town, Baidoa, and little else, welcomed the move.

The resolution was passed unanimously, but the United States, which proposed the resolution, failed to persuade the UK to co-sponsor it. John Bolton, the outgoing US ambassador to the UN, said it would help to bring stability to Somalia. "The other option is that the instability we have seen in Somalia for over 15 years would spread to the region," he said. "I think the choice of doing nothing is really not a choice at all." That argument, analysts pointed out, was also used to justify the invasion of Iraq three years ago.

"American diplomacy has not helped," said Matt Brydon, an independent Nairobi-based analyst on Somalia. "Some of the statements, particularly out of New York, made it clear that they are on the side of the transitional government."

The US believes that Somalia is a "safe haven" for suspected terrorists with links to al-Qa'ida. The east African country, which has been without a central government since 1991, is seen as a key part in the US's global "war on terror". Sheikh Hassan Aweys, the Islamic courts' leader, is on the US State Department's terrorism watchlist. The courts came to power in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, in June after an uprising against US-backed warlords.

One Western diplomat involved in the negotiations accused the US of deliberately rushing through the resolution for their own purposes, not those of the Somali people. "It is not the smartest thing ever to have been done," he said. "They are looking to use a sledgehammer to crack a nut. But even if they do get their six or so 'high-value' terror targets they will pay for it in frankly hundreds of people being converted to the cause."

The diplomat also doubted whether troops could be deployed. "It is logistically impossible and it can't be funded, so why do it?" he said. "The political message is damaging and the timing is extremely bad with the Khartoum talks coming up next week."

Peace talks between the transitional government and the Courts were to restart in the Sudanese capital next week. The third round of talks collapsed last month after the two sides failed to even step on to the same hotel floor, let alone meet in a room. They were to be restarted next week but those in the negotiations are pessimistic.

It is still unclear who will fund the proposed peacekeeping force. The European Union said last week that it would not fund any troops, and the African Union itself is already struggling to fund a force in the Sudanese region of Darfur. Mr Brydon said: "It will be interesting if the US is going to put its money where its mouth is."

The text was severely watered down from its original form four months ago. Paragraphs which would have allowed Ethiopia to form part of the peacekeeping force and to allow a lifting of the arms embargo were dropped.

Mr Brydon said there was "relief" among diplomats in the region that the language had changed. "On the downside," he added, "the context in which this was agreed and its origins mean that the Courts see it as a hostile act, one that favours the government. They have already made it clear how they feel and that is no surprise."

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The Independent

Second day of clashes between Somali Islamists, govt
09 Dec 2006 08:36:18 GMT

By Sahal Abdulle

MOGADISHU, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Somali Islamists and pro-government soldiers shelled each other in a second day of fighting on Saturday, witnesses said, in a major escalation of violence many fear will erupt into all-out war.

The fighting occurred in Maddoy village about 40 km (25 miles) from the interim government's headquarters in Baidoa, the only town it controls in its own country. The two sides fought in the area on Friday, killing at least two bystanders.

"The war restarted about 30 minutes ago," Maddoy resident Ahmed Mohamed Adan told Reuters by telephone. "They are shelling each other heavily."

He said government forces and Ethiopian troops, pushed back by fighters from the Somali Islamic Courts Council (SICC) on Friday, returned to the area early on Saturday with 20 "technicals" -- pickup trucks mounted with heavy weapons.

Islamist spokesman Abdirahman Ali Mudey confirmed Saturday's fighting, but had no information on casualties: "The war is still going on."

Another resident, Adan Mohamed Nur, told Reuters by telephone that he could hear the fighting going on: "But I do not know who is pushing who."

The government could not immediately be reached for comment.

The U.N. Security Council this week unanimously approved a controversial resolution backing deployment of peacekeepers, ostensibly to stave off conflict between the Western- and Ethiopian-backed government and the militarily superior SICC.

The Islamists vehemently opposed the resolution, aimed at providing troops to help the government build up its security forces and begin to impose its legal -- but as of now, practically non-existent -- authority.

The two sides, including what residents said were Ethiopian troops backing the government, had fought on Friday in neighbouring Safar Nooley village along a front line the Islamists have set up to encircle half of Baidoa.

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http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L09282896.htm

Chronology of Somalia's collapse, peace talks
12 Dec 2006 14:49:26 GMT
Source: Reuters

More Dec 12

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Here is a short chronology of Somalia since 1991.

Nov. 1991 - Power struggle after the overthrow of Barre between clan warlords Mohamed Farah Aideed and Ali Mahdi Mohamed kills and wounds thousands of civilians. The rivals sign a U.N.-sponsored truce in early 1992 but disagree on monitoring.

Dec. 1992 - United Nations Security Council endorses full-scale military operation led by the United States. A week later U.S. Marines hit Mogadishu's beaches under the glare of television lights in "Operation Restore Hope". Oct. 1993 - Eighteen U.S. Army Rangers and one Malaysian are killed when Somali militias shoot down two U.S. helicopters in Mogadishu and a battle ensues. Hundreds of Somalis die in the fighting. U.S. mission formally ends in March 1994.

Aug. 2000 - Transitional National Government (TNG) established to try to unite warring Somalis. The TNG's authority subsequently withers amid opposition from warlords.

Oct. 2004 - In 14th attempt since 1991 to restore central government, lawmakers elect Ethiopian-backed warlord Abdullahi Yusuf as president. In December, new Prime Minister Mohamed Ali Gedi swears in 27 ministers in Kenya. Feb. 2005 - Somali president and prime minister arrive in Somalia in the central town of Jowhar for the first time since their new government was formed in Kenya.

Feb. 2006 - Lawmakers arrive in Baidoa for parliament's first meeting on home soil.

June 2006 - The Islamic Courts Union seizes the capital Mogadishu from U.S.-backed warlords and take control of parts of southern Somalia. The interim government and the ICU recognise each other in their first direct high-level talks in Sudan. Sept. 25, 2006 - President Yusuf escapes a bomb attack that killed five outside parliament in Baidoa.

-- Islamist fighters take over the southern port of Kismayo, Somalia's third largest city, effectively flanking the Baidoa-based government on three sides.

Oct. 9 - Islamists declare holy war against Ethiopia, which they accuse of invading Somalia to help the government briefly seize Buur Hakabaa, controlled by pro-Islamist fighters. Nov. 30 - A suicide car bomb kills at least seven people near the Somali government seat of Baidoa.

-- Hours before the blast, Ethiopia's parliament votes to let its government take all necessary steps to rebuff any invasion by the Islamists.

Dec. 7 - The U.N. Security Council passes a resolution endorsing African peacekeepers for Somalia to help prop up the interim administration.

Dec. 12 - Islamists tell Ethiopia to leave within Somalia seven days or face war.

Islamists Encircle Somali Town, Vow Attack

BAIDOA, Somalia, Dec. 12, 2006
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(AP) Thousands of Islamic militants have surrounded the only town Somalia's internationally recognized government controls, the prime minister said Tuesday as a top Islamic official promised to attack within a week unless Ethiopian troops leave.

The surrounded town of Baidoa was teeming with soldiers Tuesday, with troops in new uniforms patrolling the city and manning checkpoints.

"I believe that war is inevitable because elements within the so-called Islamic Courts are against peace and stability in the country," Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi told The Associated Press in his office in Baidoa.

Ethiopian troops are believed to be based around Baidoa, but were not immediately identifiable. Many Ethiopians are ethnically Somali, and Ethiopian and Somali government troops wear the same uniforms.

Ethiopia acknowledges sending military advisers to help Gedi's internationally recognized government but denies sending a fighting force. A confidential U.N. report obtained by the AP in October said up to 8,000 Ethiopian troops were in Somalia or along the border backing the government.

"If the Ethiopians don't withdraw from Somalia within seven days, we will launch a major attack," Sheik Yusuf Indahaadde, national security chairman for the Islamic group, said in the capital, Mogadishu.

Tensions have been mounting in recent days between the increasingly powerful militia under the umbrella of a group known as the Council of Islamic Courts and Somalia's government, which has struggled to assert control.

Citing "intelligence reports," Gedi said the Islamists have 3,000 foreign fighters, with more arriving daily. He said four flights carrying weapons and troops arrived in Mogadishu two days ago, and a boat carrying 700 fighters arrived in Kismayo on Tuesday.

Attempts to reach Islamic officials for comment were not immediately successful.

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December 12, 2006 edition -

Global jihad's new front in Africa

As Islamists take over Somalia, its Western-backed neighbor Ethiopia prepares for war.

By Scott Baldauf | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA
A new front in the global struggle for Islamist rule is emerging in Africa. And there are worrisome signs that battles between Somalia's rising Union of Islamic Courts (IUC) and the country's foundering Western-backed government might soon engulf the entire Horn of Africa in a regional war.

Last week, the UN Security Council voted to send peacekeeping forces to Somalia, a move the Islamists say would be met with holy war. But neighboring Ethiopia isn't waiting for the UN. As the Islamists continue to take town after town away from Somalia's transitional government, and to march closer to its border, Ethiopia is gearing up for all-out war. Meanwhile, Eritrea, Djibouti, and Sudan are eyeing the conflict and taking sides.

"The fact that the UN resolution was backed by the US suggests that it puts Somalia into the global war on terror, and that has the potential to mobilize a lot of countries and groups that have been divorced from Somalia thus far," says Matt Bryden a consultant with the Brussels-based International Crisis Group.

Ethiopia has been sending troops across the border for months and its parliament last week approved a resolution of self-defense against Somalia in the event of war.

"We have said, OK, the Islamic Courts are a fact in Somalia, so let's sit down and negotiate," says a senior Ethiopian diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity. "But the UIC is not interested in solving this matter peacefully. Whenever we negotiate with them, before the ink is dry, they are taking more territory."

"We are not in a hurry to engage in fighting in Somalia, but if we are forced, we will defend ourselves," he says.

This weekend, Somalia saw the fiercest fighting yet between forces of the UIC and the Ethiopian-backed Transitional Federal Government.

A senior military official of the transitional government confirmed the fighting, without giving numbers for casualties, but UIC vice chairman Sheikh Sharif immediately claimed that his nation was under attack by foreign forces, and reaffirmed the UIC's call for a jihad, or religious struggle, to remove them. "We have inflicted harm on Ethiopian troops. Let us fight against the Ethiopians."

Fertile ground for proxy wars
As a country with no central government for more than 15 years, Somalia has become a dangerous playground for other people's wars. Neighboring countries, such as Eritrea and Ethiopia, use Somalia as a proxy war to fight each other, placing their own troops in Somalia supporting opposing sides of the internal civil war. Ethiopian separatist groups such as the Ogaden National Liberation Front and the Oromo Liberation Front use Somalia as a base to fight for independence from Ethiopia. Most worrisome to the Western world, however, is that the lack of central control has allowed extremist groups to bring their pro-Al Qaeda agenda into Africa.

But the increasingly open movements of Ethiopian troops in Somalia are fast becoming an emotional unifying force for the Islamists, who are calling on Somalis to defend their national sovereignty.

Debate over sending peacekeepers
"I think in its present form, a foreign peacekeeping mission is more likely to exacerbate the problem," says Mr. Bryden. Small groups of foreign forces will have difficulty holding their own against Somali fighters, who specialize in hit-and-run attacks with their truck-mounted machine guns, he says.

But more troublesome is that foreign troops will play into the hands of the Islamists.

In any case, many Ethiopian officials and experts say that they have no choice but to fight. The looming war in Somalia is part of the unfinished business of Ethiopia's two-year border war with Eritrea, which ended in exhaustion rather than a negotiated peace treaty. Ethiopian officials allege that the rise of Somalia's Islamists was made possible by Eritrean logistical support, and a UN Monitoring Group report has charged that Eritrea, Egypt, Djibouti, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Libya, and Sudan have all contributed funds, arms, and technical support to help Somalia's Islamists take control.

Medhane Tadesse, an Ethiopian historian, says that Ethiopia has been forced into a corner by its neighbors, and will have to come out fighting.

"The idea of Eritrea is to get back at Ethiopia. The Arab bloc are doing this as part of a global Islamic issue," says Mr. Tadesse, director of the Center for Policy Research and Dialogue in Addis Ababa.

Tadesse says Ethiopia must fight, and the sooner the better. "The Islamists consider themselves revolutionaries, and somebody should stop them. Unless you do that, the Islamists may go short of targets before they go short of bullets," he says.

Abdikarim Farah, ambassador of the Somali transitional government, welcomed last week's UN resolution to arm his government and provide peacekeepers. "Whether this is a proxy war or not, it will happen, and if the Islamists succeed, it is going to be a regional conflict," he says.

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SOMALIA: Bid to avert all-out war

13 Dec 2006 13:28:24 GMT
Source: IRIN

Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone.

More NAIROBI, 13 December (IRIN) - The international community is trying to avert an all-out war in Somalia amid reports that forces of the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) are massing in the south of the country, in anticipation of a showdown with forces of the Transitional Federal Government, a diplomat said on Wednesday.

"Our aim is to try to avert any escalation of the conflict into an all-out war," Mario Raffaelli, the Italian special envoy to Somalia, said. "We want them at the negotiating table, not on the battlefield."

Raffaelli was one of the European Union diplomats who met the leadership of the UIC on Tuesday in Mogadishu.

He said the Europeans "will deliver a similar message to the TFG [Transitional Federal Government]".

A source at the talks, who requested anonymity, said the diplomats had also wanted "to sound out their [the UIC's] views" on the deployment of peacekeepers in the country.

"Their reaction was negative but that was to be expected," he said.

Tensions have been rising since the United Nations Security Council last week approved plans to send peacekeepers to protect the transitional government in Baidoa and partially lift an arms embargo imposed on the country. The UIC is opposed to the deployment of a UN peacekeeping mission in the country.

Forces of the UIC and those of the transitional government have been massing troops around Baidao, the seat of the interim government, prompting some residents to leave their homes, amid fears that fighting could break out at any time, witnesses said.

A civil society source in Mogadishu told IRIN: "There is mounting worry among people that an all-out war is coming and soon." He said efforts such as the EU's were welcome "and I hope they succeed".

Attempts to contact the TFG were unsuccessful but the UIC said it would welcome "all efforts aimed at avoiding war".

"The first step in that direction should be the removal of the Ethiopian troops from our country," Sheikh Abdulkadir Ali, the UIC's Vice-Chairman, said. Ali said the UIC "was fully supportive of continuing with the dialogue but we cannot negotiate with a gun to our head".

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Troops dig in as Somalia war fears grow

13 Dec 2006 13:21:02 GMT
By Hassan Yare

BUUR HAKABA, Somalia, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Somali Islamist forces and pro-government troops dug in on Wednesday on either side of a frontline in the divided Horn of Africa nation which has this week slid closer to all-out war.

Regional power Ethiopia, however, scoffed at an Islamist vow to attack Somali government lines unless Addis Ababa withdraws within a week troops backing the interim administration at Baidoa, the only town it holds on its own turf.

And Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi, in Nairobi to lobby for support for an African peacekeeping force, said he feared war may now be inevitable.

Fighters from the religious movement and Western-backed government have skirmished several times in the past week near Baidoa, a south-central trading town.

Just outside Buur Hakaba, the Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) base closest to the front with Baidoa, witnesses reported both sides digging trenches and moving troops.

The Islamists on Tuesday gave Addis Ababa, which is backing the government, seven days to withdraw what it says are more than 30,000 Ethiopian troops in Somalia -- or face war.

"I witnessed Ethiopian and government troops on high alert. After less than 2 km (1 mile) I saw the SICC on a defence line and moving toward Daynunay," Baidoa shopkeeper Isman Ibrahim Hassan told Reuters near Buur Hakaba.

Daynunay is the forward government post on the road to Islamist-controlled Mogadishu, which passes Buur Hakaba. Both sides have been building up there for months.

"I saw a convoy of Ethiopian trucks including nine towing heavy artillery moving to the front," store owner Abdifaitah Ali Isak told Reuters by telephone from Baidoa.

Somali prime minister Gedi told Reuters the Islamist forces, backed by 4,000 foreign fighters spread around the south, were moving into position for a possible imminent attack on Baidoa.

"I don't think that they are ready for dialogue, for peace and stability to prevail in Somalia. In that case, war may become inevitable," he told Reuters in Nairobi, adding that government forces were ready for battle.

"All these movements are an indication that they will try to attack the seat of the government in Baidoa."

Belligerent rhetoric has been at a fever pitch for months, and rose after the U.N. Security Council on Dec. 7 approved a peacekeeping deployment to help the government, a move the SICC has threatened to answer with holy war.

'GO TO THE FRONT'

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi accused the SICC of aggression towards Ethiopia, as evidenced by their declaration of jihad.

"We have been trying to get the issue resolved peacefully. If it is not resolved peacefully, it would be very unfortunate," Meles added in comments to reporters on Wednesday.

Ethiopia, which accuses the SICC of being led by terrorists, maintains it only has a few hundred military trainers in Baidoa. Witnesses and security experts estimate about 10,000 Ethiopian soldiers in Somalia.

A Western security expert told Reuters foreign fighters had been flying into Mogadishu by the hundreds over the past few days and preparations for an imminent war were evident.

"On the ground, this is being backed up by reinforcements on both sides, and an influx of foreign fighters in support of the SICC," the expert told Reuters.

The Islamists deny having foreign fighters in their ranks.

But experts dismiss that and al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has urged jihadists to come to fight foreign troops in Somalia.

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Somalia’s Islamist fighters grab a fresh settlement

Aweys Osman Yusuf

Mogadishu 13, Dec.06 ( Sh.M.Network) – Forces loyal to Islamic Courts headquartered in the Somali capital Mogadishu have grabbed Ufurow settlement that was one of the few settlements under the weak government’s control. Ufurow is 90 km southwest of the government base of Baidoa.

Religious people in Ufurow confirmed to Shabelle by telephone that Islamic Courts fighters have attained the settlement without resistance. Sheik Mohammed Ahmed Moalim told Shabelle by telephone that Islamist fighters led by him have seized Ufurow on Wednesday.

“These forces are only a lead up to other forces that will come in days. We were well received in Ufurow,” he said.

He said they would introduce the Islamic Shareh in the area, alleging the residents would welcome the Islamic law.

The Islamic Courts fighters and government forces are less than 20 km away from each other around Bur Hakaba, south of Baidoa. The Islamic Courts forces seem to besieging Baidoa, the only town in the hand of the government from every direction of south and south west of the town.

The Somali government could not be reached for comments about the seizure of the new town

http://www.shabelle.net/news/ne1851.htm

Somalia: Map showing Africa without Somalia
Sun. December 10, 2006 03:37 pm.

Send this news article

Mohamed Abdi Farah

(SomaliNet) The defected members of the transitional parliament in Baidoa city southwest of Somalia who are now in Mogadishu put on view publicly on Sunday a map which they said secretly stolen from the office of Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi in Baidoa.

The map shows all countries in African continent with Ethiopia annexing Somalia.

Copies of the new map of A4 size, which were given away to the reporters in the capital, have caused suspicion drawn by the eyes of some of the people in the capital that it was fake and fabricated by the MPs in Mogadishu, according to its image.

“When you look deeply at the paper map you can suspect it as phony because the font of Ethiopia’s name is not match to other typescripts on the map and it looks like to be fabricated and painted,” a local journalist who declined to be identified argued.

Briefing to the reporters about the revealed map, Abdalla Haji, a member of parliament, said Somalia was not shown on what he called ‘the new Africa map’ and it indicates that Somalia was totally erased from the continent and became part of Ethiopia.

“Ethiopia, our historic enemy, is planning to crack down the Islamic Courts Union and then wipe out the transitional federal government to occupy entire Somalia,” Haji said.

It was for the first time that MPs in the capital exhibited a map showing that Somalia was wiped out of the continent as they proclaimed.

Meanwhile, in a press release in the capital, the MPs condemned the recent UN resolution on partially lifting arms embargo and then authorize regional peacekeepers to enter Somalia legally with their weapons. In the statement, they also accused Premier Ali Gedi of leading Ethiopian troops to capture Somalia and urged all the rest of MPs in Baidoia to arrive in Mogadishu to work together to bring peace in the country.

http://somalinet.com/news/world/Somalia/5617

Civilians flee Somali town as government and Islamist rebels prepare for war

· Ethiopian troops backing prime minister
· US and African Union call for resumption of dialogue

Xan Rice, east Africa correspondent, and Simon Tisdall
Friday December 15, 2006
The Guardian

Somali recruits line up at a training camp. Photograph: Jerome Delay/AP

Hundreds of civilians were reported to be fleeing their homes in central Somalia yesterday as the prospect of a war between Islamist militants and government forces, backed by Ethiopian troops and artillery, appeared to draw closer.
The exodus was under way in the area around Baidoa, the last big town under the control of the western-backed transitional government. Baidoa is under siege on three sides by fighters from the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) movement and rival forces are reportedly only a few miles apart in some places.

much more
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1972521,00.html

Somali militants target Ethiopian troops

Staff and agencies
Friday December 15, 2006
Guardian Unlimited

A Somali government soldier removes the cover of an artillery cannon in a training camp near Baidoa, Somalia. Photograph: Jerome Delay/AP

Islamists in Somalia today distributed sermons calling for holy war amid fears the country is descending into a new cycle of violence.
The sermons are designed to be read during Friday prayers across the country and are aimed at whipping up hatred of Ethiopian soldiers in the country.

"The sermon concerns the holy war on Ethiopian troops inside Somalia," an Islamic official, Sheik Hussein Abdullahi Barre, told The Associated Press. "What we want is that Friday's sermon should be concerned about jihad."

The Mogadishu-based Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) accuses Ethiopia of sending more than 30,000 soldiers over the border to bolster the increasingly beleaguered, western-backed, government of president Abdullahi Yusuf in the city of Baidoa. Ethiopia says it has only sent several hundred military trainers.

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The Guardian

Somali Leader: Peace Talks Not an Option

Friday December 15, 2006 7:46 PM
AP Photo XJD110
By ANTHONY MITCHELL
Associated Press Writer

BAIDOA, Somalia (AP) - Peace talks with Somalia's Islamic movement are no longer an option, the president said Friday, warning that the group is allowing al-Qaida terrorists to ``set up shop'' in the Horn of Africa.

``This is a new chapter and part of the terror group's plan to wage war against the West,'' Abdullahi Yusuf told The Associated Press during a rare interview at his heavily guarded office in western Somalia.

Tension has mounted in recent weeks between Somalia's government, which has international recognition but little authority, and the Council of Islamic Courts, which controls most of southern Somalia. The United States has said the Islamic movement has links to al-Qaida; Islamic leaders have repeatedly denied it.

``We do not give protection to these criminals,'' Islamic courts spokesman Abdirahin Ali Mudey said.

Somalia has not had an effective government since warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, plunging the country into anarchy. The government was formed in 2004 with the help of the United Nations, but it has struggled to assert its authority.

The Islamic courts movement has vowed to launch a holy war starting Tuesday unless Ethiopian troops supporting the government leave Somalia. Ethiopia, a largely Christian nation, fears the emergence of a neighboring Islamic state and has acknowledged sending military advisers - though not a fighting force - to help the government.

Experts fear the conflict could engulf the already volatile Horn of Africa. A recent U.N. report said 10 nations have been sending weapons to the warring sides in Somalia.

War would hit an already devastated country where one in five children die before age 5 from preventable diseases. The impoverished nation also is struggling to recover from the worst flood season in East Africa in 50 years.

``The fighting can happen at any time now,'' Yusuf said, adding that peace talks were impossible now that the Islamic leaders have declared war on his government. The sides have held several rounds of talks in Khartoum, Sudan, but have failed to produce any lasting effect.

``They are the ones who effectively closed the door to peace talks and they are the ones who are waging the war,'' Yusuf said of the Islamic council, noting that his administration would not attack first. Baidoa, the only town the government controls, is surrounded by fighters loyal to the Islamic group.

``We are not under the illusion that peace is possible,'' Yusuf said.

In September, Yusuf survived a suicide car bomb attack - the first of its kind in Somalia - that killed his younger brother. The president blamed al-Qaida and said it only strengthened his resolve to defeat Islamic extremism.

Late Friday, an explosion rocked the capital, Mogadishu, which is controlled by the Islamic courts, but the cause was not immediately known. Sheik Muqtar Robow, the Islamic group's deputy defense chief, said nobody was injured but his forces had sealed off the area and were investigating.

More than 100 government troops defected to the Islamic courts in the capital on Friday.

``We could not bear the extreme conditions we were living in,'' said Farhan Abshir Malin. ``Ethiopian troops have been harassing us. Now we are ready to fight side by side with Islamic courts.''

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Proxy War in Africa’s Horn

December 14, 2006
Prepared by: Stephanie Hanson

In the disputed border area between Ethiopia and Eritrea, tensions have been high all year but neither side appears willing to break the stalemate. Instead, both countries have been amassing troops in neighboring Somalia in what appears to be a proxy war. The build-up threatens to tip the entire Horn of Africa into a regional war (CSMonitor). Such a conflict appears increasingly imminent: this week Somalia’s Islamists threatened they’ll attack (BBC) if Ethiopian troops don’t leave within seven days.

Ethiopia—a Christian nation with a significant Muslim population—sent troops into Somalia in support of the country’s weak, but internationally recognized, transitional government. Since the Islamists’ seizure of Mogadishu in June and the expansion of their area of control, Addis Ababa has been concerned their influence could inflame Ethiopia’s Muslims. Eager to support the enemy of its enemy, Eritrea has provided arms and troops to support the Somali Islamists, as well as other anti-Ethiopian forces in Somalia.

The proxy war in Somalia marks a substantial escalation of the longtime conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Ethiopia refuses to recognize and implement border demarcations brokered in the 2000 Algiers Agreement, which ended a bloody and futile two-year war between them. Eritrea continues to send troops into the disputed area—patrolled by UN troops—and threaten war. An International Crisis Group report warned in December 2005 that peace between the two countries was “fraying dangerously,” and since then the situation has only become more precarious.

If war breaks out in Somalia, Eritrea will benefit from Ethiopia’s preoccupation with the Somali front, which might tempt it to adopt a more aggressive posture on the border region. War would also allow Somalia’s Islamists to drum up Somali nationalism as well as attract further external support. While the Ethiopia-Eritrea border dispute and Somalia’s internal power struggle are linked, the United States should work to resolve them separately, says a new Council Special Report. If it doesn’t, the report says, Ethiopia “may drag Washington into a conflict that will be framed in many parts of the Muslim world as another U.S.-sponsored attack on Islam.”

more w/lotsa links
CFR

Somali Lawmaker Inks Pact With Islamists
By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN 12.16.06, 10:41 AM ET

A Somali lawmaker bypassed the government and signed an agreement Saturday to end hostilities with the country's powerful Islamic militia, a symbolic gesture that is unlikely to have any real effect.

Parliamentary Speaker Sharif Hassan Sheik Aden has made freelance peace initiatives before with the Islamists, but the government says he no longer acts on its behalf. He is considered the government's most sympathetic leader to the Council of Islamic Courts.

The pact - which pledges to halt military action and resume peace talks - comes one day after President Abdullahi Yusuf said peace talks with the Islamists are no longer an option, warning that the group is allowing al-Qaida terrorists to "set up shop" in the Horn of Africa.

"This is a new chapter and part of the terror group's plan to wage war against the West," Yusuf told The Associated Press from his office in Baidoa, about 155 miles from Mogadishu.

Tension has been mounting in recent weeks between the government, which has international recognition but little actual authority, and the Council of Islamic Courts, which controls most of southern Somalia. The United States has said the Islamic movement has links to al-Qaida, an accusation Islamic leaders have repeatedly denied.

The Islamic Courts movement has vowed to launch a holy war starting next week unless Ethiopian troops supporting the government leave Somalia. Ethiopia, a largely Christian nation, fears the emergence of a neighboring Islamic state and has acknowledged sending military advisers - though not a fighting force - to help the government.

The pact signed Saturday calls for "rejecting any interference in the internal Somalia affairs by the neighboring countries," a clear reference to Ethiopia.

Also Saturday, witnesses in Baidoa - the only town controlled by the government - said Ethiopian troops fired at a civilian truck when it failed to stop at a roadblock, killing one person.

Naimo Abukar Hassan, a passenger, said the driver lost control of the vehicle, "then we were under fire."

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Guns silent as Somali Islamists' deadline passes

GalleryBy Hassan Yare
BAIDOA, Somalia (Reuters) - Guns were silent in the sole stronghold of Somalia's interim government on Tuesday as an Islamist deadline to Ethiopian troops to leave or face holy war passed with conciliatory signs.

Around the dusty agricultural trading post where Somalia's shaky government conducts business from a converted warehouse, residents reported calm despite the threat by the country's Islamist movement.

Nonetheless, the Islamists and Ethiopian-backed government troops remained dug in along a tense frontline just kilometres (miles) apart.

Baidoa is a potential ground zero in what many fear will become a regional war, sucking in Horn of Africa rivals Ethiopia and Eritrea and spawning suicide bombings in east Africa.

The Somali Islamic Courts Council (SICC) said they wanted peace talks, and backed off a threat by defence chief Yusuf Mohamed Siad "Inda'ade" that gave the Ethiopians a week to leave -- thrusting war fears into overdrive.

"We want the talks to continue and the Ethiopian troops to leave," SICC spokesman Abdirahman Ali Mudey said. "We did not mean we will attack them if they don't pull out but that talks cannot go ahead unless they pull out."

Inda'ade has made inflammatory remarks in the past, and experts say there has always been a moderate-hardline split in the SICC, which kicked U.S.-backed warlords out of Mogadishu in June and have since taken over most of southern Somalia.

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Somali Islamists clash with government troops in southern region

BAIDOA, Somalia AFP 20/12/2006 04:12

Forces loyal to Somalia's powerful Islamists clashed with government troops backed by Ethiopian forces, a day after the deadline expired for Addis Ababa to withdraw its troops or face major attacks.

"Islamic forces have clashed with the government troops in the Idale region," said Mohamed Abdullahi, resident of the region told АFР.

"There have been casualties, but I cannot say how many," he added.

Officials in the defence ministry confirmed the clashes, but could not provide a casualty figure.

"There have been clashes in Idale," said the official in the defense ministry.

The clashes occurred at the Idale trading post, about 60 kilometres (38 miles) south of the seat of government in Baidoa, which is located 250 kilometres (155 miles) northwest of the capital Mogadishu.

The fighting erupted about two hours after the expiration of a deadline set by the powerful Islamic movement for Ethiopian troops to pull out or face major attacks.

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besides these two articles there was an earlier one saying they were fighting in the south. ~ candy

Rivals in Somalia Pull Back From Confrontation

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
Published: December 20, 2006

NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec. 19 — One week ago, Somalia was on the brink of war, with rival soldiers separated by just a few miles of scratchy desert and rival leaders vowing to crush each other.

The Islamist clerics who rule Mogadishu had threatened Ethiopia with an ultimatum to pull out its troops — which are in Somalia to back up the transitional Somali government — or face a cataclysmic holy war. That ultimatum was supposed to be met by Tuesday.

But the deadline came and went. The Ethiopian troops, by all accounts, have not budged. And now both sides, the Islamists and the weak transitional government protected by Ethiopian muscle, are backtracking from their earlier war-mongering rhetoric in an indisputable change of tone.

“We will not attack,” said Abdulrahim Ali Modei, the information minister for the Council of Islamic Courts. “That deadline was just a guide. We are still hoping for peace.”

Last week, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, the transitional president, rejected any last-minute negotiations, saying, “The door to peace talks was closed.” He blamed the increasingly militant Islamists, who have rapidly expanded their territory, for ruining any chance at reconciliation.

But on Tuesday, Ali Jama, the information minister for the transitional government, sounded much more receptive.

“We won’t launch any attacks either,” Mr. Jama said. “We will wait to see what the Islamists do.”

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Islamists prepare to fight Ethiopians

AFP, MOGADISHU
Wednesday, Dec 20, 2006, Page 6
"I cannot say we will start fighting today or tomorrow, but we expect a heavy war as long as Ethiopians stay inside our territory."

Mohamed Ibrahim Bilal, top Somalian Islamic commander

Somalia's powerful Islamists said yesterday that they were finalizing plans to fight Ethiopian forces deployed in the lawless country as a seven-day ultimatum for Addis Ababa to pull out its troops was due to expire.

But as Islamic fighters and government troops, backed by Ethiopian forces, girded for an all-out war, the Islamists said they might not attack immediately.

"The decision to attack the Ethiopians was already reached, but we are now in the last stages of preparing for the full-scale war," top Islamic commander Mohamed Ibrahim Bilal said.

"I cannot say we will start fighting today or tomorrow, but we expect a heavy war as long as Ethiopians stay inside our territory," added Bilal, who commands Islamic fighters in frontlines near the the the government seat in Baidoa, about 250km northwest of the capital Mogadishu.

"I have heard about people saying the Islamic courts have halted their plan for jihad, this is baseless statement, we shall never renege on our promise to fight Ethiopian invaders," he said.

AFP

The Independent, Peter Boehm, December 20

As anarchy spreads, rampaging militias bring death and carnage to refugees in neighbouring Chad. An exclusive dispatch by Peter Boehm

The village is still smouldering. A girl combs through the remains of a burnt-down hut with her bare hands, trying to salvage knife blades and rakes that were not consumed by the fire. Two women, with tears in their eyes, have broken down in front of a pile of ash, wailing violently.

A band of youths is patrolling the ruins near Koukou-Angarana, bows and arrows slung over their shoulders, boomerangs and knives at the ready. But their decision to form a self-defence group has come too late. The Arab horsemen who swept through the village on their bloody rampage have long since vanished.

It is a tragically familiar scene in Darfur, the province of western Sudan where more than 200,000 people have been killed and at least two million brutally forced from their homes - a genocide unleashed and sustained by the Islamist government in Khartoum - but this man-made inferno now sweeping across the plains is taking place across the Sudanese border in Chad. The pattern is identical to events in Darfur, where the well-armed Arab raiders allied to the Sudanese government set villages ablaze, rape the women, and leave a trail of dead black Africans in their wake. Just as in Darfur, the Sudanese government is being accused of being behind the violence in Chad, an accusation which is rejected by Khartoum.

Mahamat Abdurasset surveys the steaming rubble of Aradipe, a remote Chadian village close to the Sudanese border. His village was attacked by a force of 500 Arab militiamen. "We knew most of them. They are from this village," said Mr Abdurasset, the leader of the self-defence group, pointing to a cluster of huts right next to Aradipe.

Somali Islamist downplays war fears amid clashes

20 Dec 2006 16:30:24 GMT

More (Changes dateline, pvs Baidoa, adds no govt response)

By Sahal Abdulle

MOGADISHU, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Somali Islamists and troops defending the government's only stronghold battled with rockets and heavy weapons on Wednesday at two frontline areas, but a top Islamist leader denied it was the start of war.

"The war has not started. This is a small incident," Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys told reporters after meeting visiting European Union aid chief Louis Michel.

Michel, on a diplomatic push to get the Islamists and rival interim government back to the negotiating table, said the Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) had agreed to resume peace talks in Khartoum without conditions.

"They have accepted our proposal," he said, with both men calling it a "breakthrough".

Government officials were not immediately available for comment.

The talk of fresh negotiations was in stark contrast to two days of clashes that have heightened fears of a Horn of Africa conflict a day after the expiry of an Islamist deadline for government-allied Ethiopian troops to leave.

With a battle under way 70 km (43 miles) southwest of the government's surrounded outpost Baidoa since late on Tuesday, another clash erupted on Wednesday just 25 km (15 miles) southeast of the town on a strategic part of the frontline.

"Neither side is winning. It's the Ethiopian troops who were fighting the Islamists. I am trapped," a driver stranded between the opposing sides told Reuters by telephone, with the sounds of the fighting echoing in the background.

"Bullets and heavy rockets are flying everywhere. Fresh Islamist troops are now fighting Ethiopians who are waiting for backup," said the driver, who declined to give his name.

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MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN
Associated Press
MOGADISHU, Somalia - Fighting erupted for a third straight day between Somali fighters on Thursday, one day after an EU envoy got both the government and a rival Islamic movement to agree to resume peace talks.

Residents heard artillery and gunfire south and east of Baidoa city, where the government is headquartered. On Wednesday, the two sides exchanged mortar and artillery fire, resulting in heavy casualties, government and Islamic officials said.

"We are hearing the echoes of the mortar fires, anti-aircraft missiles and rocket-propelled grenades," said Ahmed Siyad Abdulle, a businessmen in Bur Haqaba, which is controlled by the Islamic movement.

EU envoy Louis Michel said late Wednesday that such skirmishes were likely to continue for now, but he said both sides had broadly agreed to ease tensions.

Somalia's deputy Defense Minister Salad Ali Jelle told reporters that 71 Islamic fighters had been killed and 221 injured in Wednesday's fighting. Two of those killed were foreigners, he said.

Three government troops were killed and seven injured, Jelle said.

In Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia which is controlled by the Islamic group, Muslim leaders said they killed 70 government soldiers, the majority of them Ethiopian. One was an Ethiopian colonel, senior Islamic leader Sheik Mohamud Ibrahim Suley said. The Islamic group said they suffered seven deaths with 22 injured.

Neither claim could be independently verified.

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Islamic leader: Somalia in a 'state of war'; fears of wider conflict grow

Salad Duhul, Canadian Press
Published: Thursday, December 21, 2006

MOGADISHU, Somalia -- Somalia is in "a state of war," the country's Islamic leader said Thursday as a transitional administration backed by Ethiopia battled advancing Islamic forces.

The fighting threaten to spiral into a major conflict in this volatile region, pitting Ethiopia against its bitter rival, Eritrea, which is accused of supporting the Islamic militia.

Analysts believe Ethiopia may soon raise the stakes by deploying attack helicopters in support of the secular administration set up in the garrison town of Baidoa, the only town the transitional government controls.

An Associated Press photographer saw 19 bodies of Islamic fighters in Moode Moode, a town 15 kilometres from Baidoa, where fighting took place Wednesday.

Three Islamic fighters were captured. One, 25-year-old Aweys Hassan Ma'alim, said he had been forced to fight by the Islamic movement.

Another, Adan Abdullahi Mohammed, said he wanted to fight Ethiopians and "die for the sake of Allah in jihad."

Meanwhile, Sheikh Ibrahim Shukri Abuu-Zeynab, a spokesman for the Council of Islamic Courts, said the Islamic military had captured the town of Idale, 60 kilometres southwest of Baidoa, and killed 200 Ethiopian troops. The claim could not be verified.

Ethiopia denounces Eritrea for being involved in Somalia’s war

Aweys Osman Yusuf
Mogadishu 22, Dec.06 ( Sh.M.Network) – Two rival archenemies, Ethiopia and Eritrea, who have unfinished border disputes and fought 1998 to 2000 border battles, exchange rhetoric of accusations over the ongoing fighting in Somalia between Islamic Courts Union and the Ethiopian backed government forces.

Ethiopia laid blame on Eritrea for destabilizing the peace in Somalia and being involved in the war in Somalia.

Mohamood Dirir, Ethiopian tourism minister, accused Eritrea of supporting the Islamic Courts Union in Somalia. He denied that Ethiopian troops in Badioa were involved in the skirmishes near the government garrison town of Baidoa.

He said the Islamists intend to fail the internationally recognized government. “The Islamists are planning to oust the current transitional government and set up an Islamic republic, using their military powers”, he said.

Earlier Eritrea accused Ethiopia of being involved in Somalia militarily and being part of Somalia’s internal problems.

Islamic Courts Union said they were at war with Ethiopian troops in the country not the government, alleging they killed 203 Ethiopian soldiers and wounded more than that number.

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