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Ethiopia attacks Somalia airports

25/12/06, The Islamic militia remains in control of Mogadishu airport Ethiopian jets have bombed two airports in Somalia in a widening operation against an Islamic militia group. Jets hit the international airport in the capital, Mogadishu, and another at Balidogle, in the south of the country.

The Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) has been fighting Somalia's weak interim government and its Ethiopian backers. Ethiopia's prime minister has said his country is "at war" with the Islamists, and the Red Cross has urged all parties to protect civilians from harm.

Thousands of Somalis have fled the escalating violence, and the Red Cross says the fighting is straining an already weak support system in the country. Red Cross official Pedram Yazdi told the BBC that the organisation was treating 445 people injured during the fighting, including combatants and civilians.

Aircraft are taking some two tonnes of supplies into Somalia from Kenya each day in an effort to keep hospitals adequately supplied, he said.

Town captured

Two senior leaders of the UIC, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys and Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, landed at Mogadishu shortly after the Ethiopian air strike, a clear sign that the attack did not disable the runway. The airport was recently reopened by the UIC - which holds most of central and southern Somalia.

We will overcome the Ethiopian troops in our land. Our forces are alert and ready [to] defend our country Abdirahman Janaqow Islamic Courts spokesman

Ethiopia's Somali test The Ethiopian government said it hit the two airports to stop "unauthorised flights", the AFP news agency reported. The BBC's Adam Mynott, in the region, says Ethiopia is carrying through its threat to hit Islamist positions in pursuit of what it claims is self-defence.

A spokesman for the UIC, Abdirahman Janaqow, told the Associated Press that the Islamists would stand firm against Ethiopia. "We will overcome the Ethiopian troops in our land. Our forces are alert and ready [to] defend our country," he said at Mogadishu airport.

As Ethiopia struck, Somali and Ethiopian troops captured a checkpoint outside the flashpoint town of Beledweyne. UIC forces then left the town, the scene of sustained fighting on Sunday.

There were also reports of heavy fighting at the central flashpoint of Burhakaba, close to the seat of Somalia's transitional government in Baidoa. Fresh fighting between Somali government forces and the UIC erupted last week. 'No meddling'

On Sunday Ethiopia admitted for the first time its troops were fighting in Somalia and began attacking the UIC across a 400km (250 mile) front line along the border. PM Meles Zenawi said Ethiopia was forced to defend its sovereignty against "terrorists" and anti-Ethiopians.

Aid agencies have warned of the civilian cost of fighting "We are not trying to set up a government for Somalia, nor do we have an intention to meddle in Somalia internal affairs. We have only been forced by the circumstances," Mr Meles said.

"We want to end this war urgently and we hope that Ethiopian people stand by the defence forces." The UIC, which has seized control of much of southern and central Somalia, says Ethiopian troops have been fighting alongside government forces for months.

The Islamist group - which controls most of the south, including the capital, Mogadishu - on Saturday appealed for foreign fighters to join its troops in a "holy war" against Ethiopia.

The UN estimates that at least 8,000 Ethiopian troops may be in the country, while rival Eritrea is said to have deployed some 2,000 troops in support of the Islamic group.

The interim government's prime minister, Ali Mohamed Gedi, told Reuters 8,000 foreign fighters had poured into Somalia to back the Islamists. He concurred with a recent U.S. accusation that the Islamists' top ranks were controlled by al Qaeda. Both sides say they have killed hundreds of opponents in days of battles with mortars, rockets, machine guns and tanks, although there has been no independent verification.

Somalia's ambassador to Ethiopia said government forces had killed 500 Islamist troops, most of them Eritreans. A Baidoa taxi driver told Reuters he saw Ethiopian military trucks ferrying injured from the frontlines on Monday.

"I can see seven big trucks carrying wounded Ethiopian soldiers lying on bloodstained mattresses," Abdullahi Hassan said by telephone. "They are heading towards the airport."

The Islamists claim broad popular support and say their main aim is to restore order to Somalia after years of anarchy. Addis Ababa fears a hardline Muslim state on its doorstep and accuses the SICC of wanting to annex Ethiopia's ethnically Somali Ogaden region. U.N. experts said recently 10 different countries were illegally arming both sides.

Neighboring Kenya is bracing itself for an upsurge in refugee flows across its northern border from Somalia. And aid agencies are seeking to help hundreds of thousands of Somalis affected by the conflict and the worst floods for years.


Source:BBC(London)
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