Posted on 12/26/2006 4:10:50 PM PST by jdm
ADDIS ABABA: Somalia’s Islamists are in full retreat after Ethiopian airstrikes and a ground offensive that have killed up to 1,000 of the religious movement’s fighters, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said on Tuesday.
“A joint Somali government and Ethiopian force has broken the back of the international terrorist forces... These forces are in full retreat,” Meles told reporters in Addis Ababa, adding that up to 1,000 Islamist fighters had been killed.
“A few are Somali but the majority are foreigners,” he said of the dead.
Addis Ababa has vowed to protect Somalia’s weak interim government from rival Islamists based in Mogadishu. A week of artillery and mortar duels between the two sides has spiralled into open war that both sides say has killed hundreds.
Meles said most fighters of the Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) had fled to their home areas. He said Ethiopian forces were now hunting down troops from his arch-foe Eritrea, which he accuses of supporting the Islamists.
“The Ethiopian Air Force (will) further intensify pounding selected targets” in its lawless neighbour, the Information Ministry said in a statement, adding that it had “inflicted heavy damages on institutions” controlled by Islamists.
“The only forces we are pursuing are Eritreans who are hiding behind the skirts of Somali women, and terrorist mujahideen,” Meles said.
Ethiopia says the SICC has recruited foreign jihadists, and that a handful of almost 300 prisoners taken after one battle for a central Somali town held British passports.
Meles said he had sent between 3,000 and 4,000 Ethiopian troops into Somalia, but denied they were occupiers. He said it was a small force, but carried a lot of firepower.
“Our military is skirting the towns and attacking only military bases,” he said.
“We have already completed half our mission, and as soon as we finish the second half, our troops will leave Somalia.”
He said he had information 3,000 wounded had been taken to hospital in the Islamist stronghold Mogadishu. But he said there were few civilian casualties because most of the fighting had taken place away from settlements.
Somalia’s internationally backed government called on the SICC to surrender and promised them amnesty if they lay down their weapons and stop opposing the government, spokesman Abdirahman Dinari said from Baidoa, the seat of the government.
Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, leader of the Council of Islamic Courts’ executive body, said the group had asked its troops to withdraw from some areas.
“The war is entering a new phase,” he said. “We will fight Ethiopia for a long, long time and we expect the war to go everyplace.”
On Monday, fighting raged for a seventh day near Daynunay, close to the town of Baidoa. Witnesses reported truck-loads of Ethiopian wounded being evacuated, and Islamist soldiers were said to be reciting the holy Quran as they went into battle.
A MiG fighter struck Mogadishu’s international airport with machinegun fire soon after dawn, airport managing director Abdirahim Adan said.
Not if Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the wimp RATS have their way. They don't like the enemy to die. They would rather beat up on America. How perverted is that?
Let's hear it for our fellow Christians, the Ethiopians!
Christian Ethiopia, the only unslaved nation ever to exist in all of Africa!
May God grant the Ethiopians total victory over these murdering Mohammedans!
Combat aircraft
4 Canberra B57
20 MiG-17
28 MiG-21
19 MiG-23
26 F-5
2 Su-25
8 Su-27
Trainers
20 Aero L-39
4 Cessna T-41
16 T-33
30 T-28
36 F-86
47 Saab 91
Transport aicraft
13 An-12
2 An-26
1 An-32
3 DHC-6
13 C-47 Skytrain
2 C-54
10 C-119
2 Harbin Y-12
1 Il-14
4 C-130
1 Tu-154
1 Yak-40
Attack helicopters
5 Alouette III
2 Ka-50
16 Mi-24
Transport helicopters
1 Eurocopter Puma
6 Bell 204
16 Bell 205
2 Mi-2
22 Mi-8
2 Mi-14
btt
There now, I finished the sentence. < / my bad > LOL ;o)
Sounds familiar. Coupla weeks to defeat them militarily, coupla years to round up the straglers, go home when internationally recognized government can defend itself.
yitbos
Naw. They're too busy contemplating and planning on how they can take this country down.
I'm so glad to know that I'm not the only one that realizes Liberals are planning to destroy as much of our country, our freedoms, our heritage, our economy as they can. They're power-hungry, egotistical cowards, who care about nothing but themselves.
You are so right and you are definitely not alone in your thinking.
Hopefully, the American people will soon subscribe to the same thinking. There are none so blind as those who will not see. Great description of the American people last November. Absolutely "nothing" good will come from the Liberals in Congress. They bring only destruction of our freedoms.
They don't call it Londinistan for nuthin', ya know.
Let's put Pope Benedict over the top!
http://www.islamonline.net/polls/english/24-12-06/Survey.asp
Pass it on.
Makes things simple: if you are caught in Mogadishu and are not Somali, then you will be presumed to be a foreign Islamist fighter and illegal combatant subject to summary execution
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