Ethiopian troops 'patrolling strategic road'

Mogadishu, November 22, 2006 – Hundreds of Ethiopian troops were patrolling the road that leads to Somalia’s government headquarters after a brief but intense battle in the area this week, witnesses said today.

Ethiopia has vowed to protect Somalia’s weak government against the country’s increasingly powerful Islamic militia, although it denies sending troops there.

Yesterday, however, witnesses and the Islamic group said three Ethiopian troops were killed in a clash with Islamist fighters.

“At least 200 Ethiopian troops are carefully patrolling the road,” said Yusuf Kheyre, a resident of Bardale district about 40 miles south-west of the government base, Baidoa.

Ethiopia acknowledges sending “military advisers” – not soldiers – although Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has promised to send tens of thousands of troops across the border if the Council of Islamic Courts attacks.

Two warlords who were driven out of the capital by the Islamic courts in June were spotted today in Baidoa. Botan Issa Aalin and Mohamed Khanyare Afrah were believed to have been in Ethiopia, training their militias.

Somalia has not had an effective government since 1991, when warlords overthrew a dictator and then turned on each other.

The current administration was formed with the help of the UN two years ago, but it has failed to assert any real control outside the southern town of Baidoa, where it is based.

The Islamic Courts, meanwhile, have steadily gained ground since taking over Mogadishu in June and now control much of southern Somalia.

The group’s strict and often severe interpretation of Islam raises memories of Afghanistan’s Taliban, which was ousted by a US-led campaign for harboring Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida fighters.

The United States has accused Somalia’s Islamic group of sheltering suspects in the 1998 al-Qaida bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Earlier this week, the Islamic council arrested nearly 100 hundred people for watching a movie in Merka, a seaside town about 60 miles south-west of Mogadishu.

“The detainees were watching an Indian film dubbed into Somali language,” said Abdi Shardi, a cinema owner.

Also today, Islamic Courts officials said they would guarantee the safety of aid workers responding to catastrophic floods in this African country - underscoring the government’s weakness outside its base.

The floods have killed at least 150 people in Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia.

“The flood problem in Somalia is more than we can fix alone,” said Sheik Nor Barud, a spokesman for the Islamic courts’ flood relief committee. He said his group will protect relief workers in areas under Islamic control.

Source: Irish Examiner

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