Posted on 06/17/2006 8:41:33 AM PDT by catholicfreeper
ABOUT 300 Ethiopian troops crossed into Somalia today, a top Islamist said, as Islamic fighters who wrested control of Mogadishu moved inland toward the seat of Somalia's interim government.
Somalia's interim President Abdullahi Yusuf, a former warlord, is closely allied with Addis Ababa, which was instrumental in his election after peace talks in Kenya in 2004. "There are Ethiopian troops just past the border and coming in," Islamic Courts Union Chairman Sharif Sheikh Ahmed said, citing the incursion in Dollow in southwest Somalia this morning.
The Ethiopian Government had no immediate comment.
Dollow is near the intersection of the Kenyan, Ethiopian and Somali borders and is on the road to Baidoa, where Somalia's weak interim government is based and has been increasingly surrounded by the Islamist militias.
Ethiopia, Washington's top counterterrorism ally in the Horn of Africa, had backed warlords the Islamists have routed from their strongholds in Mogadishu in a swift march from the coastal capital to Baladwayne near the Ethiopian border.
Largely secular Ethiopia has long been wary of the influence of Islam in the region, and has not hesitated to send its military into Somalia. It has fought Islamic forces inside Somalia before, and Mr Yusuf was involved in the fighting.
The warlords have been supported and armed by Ethiopia as a proxy force for years, and are widely believed to have been financed with US money in their last stand against the Islamists, which killed 350 people in battles since February.
The warlords had accused the Islamists of harbouring al-Qaeda members and planning to create an Islamic state. Mr Ahmed again denied any terrorist links.
A United Nations report on violations of an arms embargo slapped on Somalia in 1992 said Ethiopia this year gave weapons to warlord Mohamed Dheere, run out of his stronghold in Jowhar, 90km north of Mogadishu, by the Islamists last week.
Mr Dheere is believed to have taken refuge in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital.
Mr Ahmed's group has said it wants peaceful dialogue with Mr Yusuf's government and has no plans to form its own. It has, however, installed Islamic sharia courts wherever it has taken control and some fear it plans to expand its grip further.
A little good news at last.
300 troops would not be nearly enough to take out the tribals.
"300 troops would not be nearly enough to take out the tribals."
A little logistical support for the warlords?
Still not enough. The things there are low tech- pickups with machine guns and RPGs. The main strength of these tribal islamists is manpower - and their losses are to be measured in it. And the Ethiopians are low tech themselves.
I wish with all these so called 24 hour networks that someone could get some news people down there. I ma not sure from reading the article if these troops are going in to assist the Warlords in that coastal city they mentioned.
They have been fighting off islamics for decades and that is why the Ethopians I know live here.. there homeland areas were over-run by jihadists several years ago.
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