Thousands Flee Fighting in Somalia

An Islamic Courts soldier lies dead at the Moode Moode front, east of Baidoa, Thursday, Dec. 21, 2006. Fighters pounded each other with heavy artillery and mortars for a third day Thursday as Somalia's Islamic leader announced the country was now at war, leaving a day old peace initiative in tatters. Residents said bodies lay in the streets of villages where bloody battles had taken place as the Ethiopian-backed interim government fought for control of strategic areas close to their base with fighters from the rival Islamic movement. (AP Photo/Mohamed Abdulle Hassan Siidi)

MOGADISHU, Somalia, December 22, 2006 – Thousands of Somalis fled their homes Friday as government and Ethiopians troops used artillery to defend against Islamic fighters attempting to advance on the U.N.-backed regime's only stronghold.

Residents reported seeing hundreds of troops and trucks being moved toward the front lines around Baidoa _ the only area the government controls early Friday. Bodies lay in the streets and fighters pounded each other's positions with heavy artillery and mortars overnight, leaving a European peace initiative in tatters.

Fearing worsening fighting, families began to abandon their homes, crops and livestock.

"Unlike during the previous days of the fighting, this morning large numbers of people were coming from the villages around Baidoa and could be seen fleeing from the region," said Duqow Salad, a U.N. aid worker based in Wajid, north of Baidoa.

One government parliamentarian in Baidoa said he feared it will fall to the Islamic group. "More well-armed Ethiopians are pouring in here minute after minute and thousands of Islamic fighters are heading here to force them and the government out," he said on condition of anonymity because he feared reprisals.

Hundreds of people in areas held by the Islamic forces also were fleeing south to the capital, Mogadishu, about 140 southeast of Baidoa.

"I think we have lost hundreds of our animals in the fighting, most of them were caught in the crossfire," said Malable Aden, who reached Mogadishu by car. "We were supposed to reap our harvest of this season, but unfortunately we were forced to leave them behind for the pigs and birds to destroy them."

The leader of the Council of Islamic Courts said Thursday that Somalia was in "a state of war" and called on all Somalis to fight Ethiopian forces in the country. Ethiopia denies its forces are fighting, but says it has deployed several hundred military trainers in support of Somalia's U.N.-backed transitional government.

The clashes threaten to spiral into a major conflict in this volatile region, sucking in Ethiopia and its bitter rival, Eritrea. Analysts believe Ethiopia may soon raise the stakes by deploying attack helicopters in support of the government.

"They (the Islamic group) are claiming that Ethiopia is fighting against them and this is totally false," said government spokesman Zemedkun Teckle. "If the time comes that we have to fight, it will be very clear to everyone and there will be no doubt because we will announce this to our people."

The United Nations has appealed for calm, saying fighting would prevent aid from reaching hundreds of thousands in dire need of help because of hunger and flooding.

Somalia has not had an effective government since 1991. The country's secular interim government, set up in 2004 and backed by the U.N., has rejected religious rule. Muslim leaders have insisted on an Islamic government.

Somalia 's internationally recognized central government holds only a small area around the central town of Baidoa, about 140 miles northwest of the capital of Mogadishu. The Islamic militiamen, meanwhile, control Mogadishu along with most of southern Somalia.

Fighting along two separate front lines continued for a fourth day on Friday, with both sides claiming victory. Around 500 Ethiopian troops with eight tanks and 30 pickup trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns were headed for Bandiradley, an Islamic group stronghold in central Somalia, said witnesses and Islamic officials.

An Associated Press photographer saw 19 bodies of Islamic fighters Thursday in Moode Moode, a town nine miles from Baidoa.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Islamic movement, Sheik Ibrahim Shukri Abuu-Zeynab, said it had captured Idale, a town 37 miles southwest of Baidoa and the scene of fighting Tuesday. He said 200 Ethiopian troops had been killed; the claim could not be verified.

Source: The Associated Press(AP)