Ethiopian jets hit Islamist positions

December 25, 2006

An Islamic militia fighter at Mogadishu Airport on Monday (Reuters/Shabelle Media)

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) –
The morning after Ethiopia officially plunged into war with Somalian Islamist forces, fighter jets bombed two main airports in Somalia on Monday, in the first direct attack on the headquarters of a movement attempting to wrest power from the internationally recognized government.

Russian-made jets swept low over the capital, dropping two bombs on Mogadishu’s airport, which just recently reopened after the Islamic takeover of the city. Shortly afterward, Baledogle Airport, about 100 kilometers, or 60 miles, outside Mogadishu, was hit, an Islamic soldier said.

“We heard the sound of the jets, and then they pounded,” said Abdi Mudey, a soldier with the Council of Islamic Courts. No reliable casualty reports were immediately available.

On Sunday, the Ethiopian prime minister, Meles Zenawi, formally declared war on the Islamists, saying that he was protecting his nation’s sovereignty against a movement Addis Ababa accuses of being run by terrorists.

The Somali government started sealing its borders Monday, to keep foreign fighters from joining the Islamists who control Mogadishu and much of the country.

“The Ethiopian government is bombing noncivilian targets in Somalia in order to disable and prevent the delivery of arms and supplies to the Islamic Courts,” said Bereket Simon, an adviser to the Ethiopian prime minister.

Ethiopia pushed ground troops deep into Somali territory and bombed targets inside the country Sunday, in a coordinated assault that was the first open admission by Ethiopia’s Christian-led government of its military operations inside Somalia, where — with tacit American support — it has been supporting an interim government.

“Ethiopian defense forces were forced to enter into war to protect the sovereignty of the nation,” Zenawi said Sunday. “We are not trying to set up a government for Somalia, nor do we have an intention to meddle in Somalia’s internal affairs. We have only been forced by the circumstances.”

According to witnesses, Ethiopian fighter jets bombarded several towns Sunday, obliterating an Islamist recruitment center and other targets, while Ethiopian tanks rolled into battle.

The attacks set off riots in Mogadishu, Somalia’s battle-scarred seaside capital, and fighting on several fronts in southern Somalia.

Ethiopia, which commands the region’s most powerful military, did not disclose how many troops, tanks or warplanes it had sent into Somalia, but the United Nations has said that at least 8,000 Ethiopian soldiers may be in the country. Casualties were reported Sunday, but reliable estimates were impossible to ascertain.

Until now, Ethiopian officials had denied that they had any combat forces inside Somalia, saying instead that their involvement was limited to a few hundred military advisers.

Over the past few months, the Islamist clerics in Somalia have threatened Ethiopia for supporting their rivals, the internationally recognized transitional government.

On Saturday, after several days of heavy internal fighting, Islamist leaders announced that Somalia was now open to Muslim fighters from around the world who wanted to wage a holy war against Ethiopia, a country with a long Christian history, even though about half its population is Muslim.

“What did you expect us to do?” said Zemedkun Tekle, a spokesman for the Ethiopian Information Ministry. “Wait for them to attack our cities?”

Even before Ethiopia’s escalation on Sunday, there were signs that the conflict in Somalia could quickly spiral out of control.

According to UN officials, at least 2,000 soldiers from Eritrea, which recently waged war with Ethiopia, are fighting for the Islamists. They have been joined by a growing number of Muslim mercenaries from Yemen, Egypt, Syria and Libya who want to turn Somalia into the third front of what they contend is a holy war, after Iraq and Afghanistan.

For the first time since the Somali Islamists came to power in June and began expanding their reach, they seemed to be losing ground. In at least three places on Sunday — Idaale, Jawil and Bandiiradley — troops from the transitional government were pushing the Islamists back.

American officials acknowledged that they tacitly supported the Ethiopian approach because they felt it was the best way to check the growing power of the Islamists, whom American officials have accused of sheltering terrorists tied to Al Qaeda. A State Department spokesman in Washington said Sunday that the United States was assessing reports of the surge in fighting in Somalia but provided no further comment.

A major question seems to be whether Ethiopian forces will advance into Mogadishu and try to finish off the Islamist military, a possibility that many fear could spur a long and ugly insurgency, or force them back to negotiations with the transitional government.

The rival authorities in Somalia have flirted with the idea of sharing power, but several rounds of peace talks have produced little but broken promises. In a hint of a possible direction to come, the Ethiopian prime minister recently told American officials that he could wipe out the Islamists “in one to two weeks.”

On Sunday, as word began to spread that Ethiopian planes were bombing Somalia, students in Mogadishu rushed into the streets and began rioting.

The Islamists are using teenagers as their main fighting force. Witnesses have said that waves of young, poorly trained Islamist fighters had been mowed down by Ethiopian troops. The Ethiopian military is trained by American advisers and is supplied with millions of dollars of American aid.

On Sunday, Abdulrahim Ali Modei, the Islamists’ information minister, conceded at a news conference that many of their troops had been killed, but he did not sound discouraged.

“These are victories,” he said. “Our soldiers are in paradise now.”

Air strikes raise fears of regional conflict: LA Times

MOGADISHU, SOMALIA — Ethiopian jets pounded Islamic-held positions in southern Somalia, a sharp escalation Sunday of a conflict that diplomats fear could ignite a regional war, according to Abukar Albadri and Edmund Sanders of The LATimes.

Several hundred people have been killed in five days of fighting between Ethiopian forces and Somalia’s Islamic militias. Witnesses and officials said early morning strikes by Ethiopian planes killed about 80 fighters and civilians and wounded an additional 300 in the town of Beledweyne, which has been held by Somalia’s Islamic Courts Union.

Early today, Mogadishu International Airport was also bombed by two Ethiopian jets, damaging the main runway and wounding two employees, said Abdi Rahim Adan Weheliye, the airport manager.

The strike was the deepest foray by Ethiopian forces into Islamist-held areas of Somalia. The airport was believed to be an important transit point for arms and fighters.

“The enemy launched full-scale war against Somalia,” Sheik Mohamoud Ibrahim Suley, an official of the Islamic courts, said Sunday. “The fighting has commenced, and it will not stop unless Addis Ababa stops the aggression.”

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi went on national television to say his country had been “forced to enter into war … to blunt repeated attacks by Islamic courts terrorists and anti-Ethiopian elements they are supporting.” Ethiopia until now had acknowledged only sending several hundred military advisors to Somalia.

International diplomats warn that Somalia’s worsening strife could ignite a broader war in the Horn of Africa.

Somalia has been without a functioning government since 1991. The courts union, an alliance of Islamic religious leaders, seized control of Mogadishu, the capital, and most of southern Somalia this summer and has been battling the weak transitional federal government for control of the rest of the country.

The government of Ethiopia, a country with sizable Muslim and Christian populations, is fearful of an Islamic takeover in neighboring Somalia and backs the shaky transitional regime.

A third country in the region, Eritrea, has been backing the Islamic militias. The U.S. government, which has worked with Ethiopia’s military in the past, has worried that the courts union could provide sanctuary to Islamic radicals from outside Somalia.

Sunday’s attack came one day after the Islamists’ top security officer called on Muslims worldwide to come to the assistance of Somalia in what the militias are characterizing as a “holy war” against Ethiopia.

In Washington, a State Department spokeswoman, Leslie Phillips, said Sunday that U.S. officials had seen the reports of escalated fighting in Somalia, “and we’re following the situation closely.”

An Islamic courts official speaking on the condition of anonymity said 50 Islamic soldiers were killed Sunday after two Ethiopian fighter jets struck key roads, another airport runway and a recruiting center used by the Islamists.

Eric Laroche, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Somalia, urged all sides to cease the hostilities to protect thousands of Somali refugees fleeing the violence.

He added that the fighting was interfering with humanitarian efforts to assist nearly 500,000 victims of flooding in Somalia.

A witness in Beledweyne said some of Sunday’s casualties were flood victims living at a displacement camp in the town near the Ethiopian border.

A spokesman for the U.N.-backed transitional government denied that Ethiopian jets were involved in the attack, but Ethiopian officials confirmed the strike later Sunday.

“The Ethiopian government has taken self-defensive measures and started counterattacking the aggressive extremist forces of the Islamic courts and foreign terrorist groups,” Ethiopian Information Minister Berhan Hailu told Reuters news service. He said the planes also struck targets in Diinsoor, Bandiradley and Buurhakaba.

Experts estimate that Ethiopia has sent more than 8,000 soldiers to support the transitional government. Eritrea, which has battled Ethiopia for years, reportedly has sent 2,000 troops to assist the Islamists, although the government has not acknowledged that.

In Mogadishu, Islamist supporters rioted, burned tires, stoned businesses and chanted anti-Ethiopian slogans.

“We will resort to all tactics, including suicide attacks, if the Ethiopians don’t stop the occupation,” said Hussen Hirre Abdi, 14, attending Sunday’s protest.

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Special correspondent Albadri reported from Mogadishu and Times staff writer Sanders from Nairobi, Kenya. Times staff writer Judy Pasternak in Washington contributed to this report.