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Ethiopian forces attack positions near Somali capital test2
Dec. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Ethiopian forces attacked positions within 160 kilometers (100 miles) of Mogadishu, hours after Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said he is being forced into war with Somalia, where Islamic militants have taken power.
The Ethiopian military attacked towns held by the Union of Islamic Courts including Buurhakaba, Beledweyne, Bandiiradleey and Dinsoor, Ethiopia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement on its Web site. Ethiopian planes also bombed Mogadishu airport, according to Agence France-Presse.
Ethiopian troops have advanced to within 100 kilometers of Mogadishu after Islamic forces retreated, AFP said, citing the Somali ambassador to Ethiopia.
``We are only 100 kilometers away from Mogadishu and are heading'' toward the Somali capital, AFP cited Ambassador Abdelkarin Farah as saying at a press conference in Addis Ababa.
The Islamic Courts militia seized control of Mogadishu in June and has since moved across the country, imposing Islamic law in areas it controls. United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan said on Dec. 22 the conflict is leading to disaster on the Horn of Africa, which lies at the end of the shipping lane that leads to the Suez Canal.
`Disastrous Consequences'
The fighting ``will have disastrous consequences for civilians, who are already suffering from the effects of years and instability and deprivation, compounded by the severe flooding that has recently affected parts of the country,'' Annan said in a statement carried by the UN News Service.
Islamic Courts troops retreated from strongholds in Buurhakaba and Dinsoor, which came under heavy attack today, AFP reported, citing an unidentified militia commander.
``The fundamentalist group in Somalia has been retreating in disarray, unable to resist the counter-offensive,'' the Ethiopian Information Ministry said, according to AFP.
Ethiopia's Zenawi said in a televised speech that Islamic militants in Somalia intended to destabilize Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa by allying themselves with anti-Ethiopian forces, forcing him to intervene.
``Ethiopia's defensive measures are targeted only at this terrorist group,'' Zenawi said in the speech on Dec. 24, according to a transcript on Ethiopia's Information Ministry Web site. ``The defensive measures we are forced to take will be limited and proportional to the attacks launched against us and the dangers facing our country, as well as in line with international laws.''
Airports Bombed
Ethiopian warplanes yesterday bombed Mogadishu and Baledogle airports, AFP reported. Thousands of civilians are fleeing, AFP said.
The UN Security Council urged the Islamic Courts and the Transition Federal Institutions, which was forced to leave Mogadishu and is based in Baidao, about 230 kilometers from the capital, to resume peace talks, the UN Newswire reported. The talks were scheduled for this month.
Both sides should ``refrain from any actions that could provoke or perpetuate violence and violations of human rights, contribute to unnecessary tension and mistrust, endanger the cease-fire and political process, or further damage the humanitarian situation,'' the Security Council said in a statement.
The U.S. government says the Islamic Courts militia is run by al-Qaeda. The Islamic Courts denies any connection with the terrorist network, according to a Dec. 23 report on Al-Jazeera.
Years of War
Somalia has seen factional fighting between warlords since the 1991 ouster of the country's dictator Mohamed Siad Barre by warlord Mohamed Aidid.
Barre led the Muslim state since the former British colony of Somaliland and the former Italian trust territory of Somalia achieved independence and unity as Somalia in 1960.
A UN mission which began as a food distribution operation, spearheaded by U.S. troops, pulled out in 1995 after the deaths of 136 soldiers.
In one incident, on Oct. 3, 1993, 19 U.S. Rangers and other UN troops were killed in a battle in the capital, Mogadishu, as the mission turned into a hunt for Aideed. The battle became the subject of the film ``Black Hawk Down.''
Somalia lies on the Horn of Africa, at the entrance of the Gulf of Aden which leads to the 166-kilometer Suez Canal, one of the world's most important shipping lanes.
By Stuart Biggs
To contact the reporter on this story: Stuart Biggs in Tokyo at sbiggs3@bloomberg.net .
Posted on Tuesday 26th December at 12:14:24 Somali flare-up pits three African "dogs of war"
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Three wily old soldiers who know each other only too well from years at the heart of conflict and power-play across the Horn of Africa are once again pitting their military wits in the Somalia war.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, his ally Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf, and their mutual arch-foe -- Somali Islamist leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys -- are the key players in a flare-up many fear could spread across the region.
"These three have a long and tangled history. They can probably read each other's minds by now," said a Western diplomat who tracks Somalia.
"What they all share is plenty of battlefield experience. And you really could call them three of the Horn of Africa's oldest dogs of war."
Meles, who has sent his military into Somalia to curb the rise of a militant Islamist movement, is a 54-year-old former rebel leader who toppled dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1991.
The shrewd and tough Ethiopian leader -- initially a darling of the West but increasingly viewed as an autocrat -- first sent troops into Somalia in the early 1990s to crush Islamic militants, led by Aweys no less.
Meles then fought what many outside the region perceived as a pointless 1998-2000 war with Eritrea over a desolate patch of border. The conflict killed 70,000 people and devastated what were already two of the world's poorest nations.
OLD FOES
Now Meles, who is directing operations from the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, again faces Aweys who controls thousands of fighters from the Islamist stronghold Mogadishu.
The hardline cleric, believed to be in his 60s with about 20 children, sports a distinctive henna-dyed orange beard and was once a colonel in the service of Somali military dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. He was decorated for bravery in the 1977 Ogaden war against Ethiopia.
In the 1990s, Aweys led the radical al-Ittihad al-Islami group, which operated near the border of Ethiopia but was soundly defeated on the battlefield.
Aweys' formal title now is chairman of the "Shuura" or consultative council of the Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC). He is on both U.N. and U.S. terrorism lists.
Completing the trio of major players is Somalia's septuagenarian interim president Yusuf, appointed in 2004 to lead the 14th attempt at restoring central rule to the nation.
Yusuf is an ally of Meles, and as leader of the northern Puntland region of Somalia in the 1990s he helped the Ethiopians inflict defeat on Aweys' al-Ittihad group.
The 75-year-old is said by some diplomats to be in poor health. But aides insist he has been following the last week's fighting actively from a closely guarded compound in Baidoa, the interim government's base in south-central Somalia.
"He is very strong. He is a former military officer, you know. He does exercise every morning," government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari said from Baidoa.
While Meles, Yusuf and Aweys may dominate the stage publicly, analysts say another key player in the region -- Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki -- should not be overlooked.
Before Eritrea's independence, fellow guerrilla leader Isaias fought alongside Meles to help topple Mengistu.
But the two, who are rumoured to be related as their families come from the same region, soon parted ways and fought the bitter 1998-2000 border war.
Now Isaias is accused of sending arms and fighters to back the Islamists. Asmara denies that, but most regional analysts see evidence of Eritrean involvement to spite Ethiopia.
The United Nations said in October Eritrea moved 1,500 troops and 14 tanks into the buffer zone with Ethiopia, giving military analysts concern Isaias may move them across border to give his old foe a two-front war.
By Andrew Cawthorne
Posted on Tuesday 26th December at 12:00:24 Ethiopian jets bomb Somali airports
Ethiopian jets dominated Somalia's skies on Monday and bombed the country's two main airports while ground troops captured a strategic border town, providing Somalia's internationally backed government crucial military aid in its struggle against a powerful Islamic militia, media reports said Tuesday.
The Russian-made jets swept low over the capital at midmorning, dropping two bombs on Mogadishu International Airport, which was just recently reopened after the Islamic takeover of the city. The leader of the Islamic militia, Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, flew into the airport shortly after the attack; it was not clear if he was an intended target.
Airstrikes also hit Baledogle Airport, about 100 kilometers outside Mogadishu.
"We heard the news of the bombs in Mogadishu so we hid in the trees away from the airstrip," said Ahanle Abukar, a guard at the airport. "They dropped a few bombs but no one was here."
Somali troops backed by Ethiopian soldiers also drove Islamic forces out of the key border town of Belet Weyne, then headed south in pursuit of fleeing Islamic militiamen, a Somali officer said. Government troops were enforcing a 3 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew.
"Anyone who has a gun but is not wearing a government uniform will be targeted as a terrorist," said Aden Garase, a government soldier who was put in charge of Belet Weyne.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said Sunday that his country was "forced to enter a war" with Somalia's Council of Islamic Courts "after the group declared holy war on Ethiopia." Since June, the group has seized control of the capital and much of southern Somalia.
So far, Ethiopian and Somali troops have used MiG jet fighters and artillery to attack the militants, who have no military aircraft and can only return fire with much smaller mortars and recoilless rifles.
Posted on Monday 25th December at 12:04:58 Students sign up to fight Ethiopian troops
At least 1,500 students have registered their names to take part in the war between Somalia's Islamists and the Ethiopian troops.
The registration took place in Simad Institute in north of the capital, with a large crowd of people have formed queues to give their names.
Ismail Ali, one of the volunteers said, "I am registering myself to defend my country against the Ethiopian Christians. They have occupied my country and they refused to leave our country. By Allah, we will evict them forcefully."
Islamists said they would close all schools and universities in areas under their administration, urging learners and teachers to take part in a holy war with the Ethiopian troops in the country.
Religious men were delivering encouragement sermons in Simad, inciting students to take part in the war.
Situation in the capital is tense. Islamic Courts Union forces installed checkpoints in the every main road of the Mogadishu, searching cars for explosives and guns.
The fighting rages for the sixth day with both warring groups claim victories.
The fighting, which is spreading into new areas in the country, is feared to be a regional one.
The transitional government was formed in Kenya in 2004 after to years of negotiations between Somalia's warlords.
Posted on Sunday 24th December at 12:02:04 Back
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