Somalia Islamists declare holy war against Ethiopia

Oct 9, 2006 (MOGADISHU) — Ethiopian troops briefly entered a strategic hilltop town in Somalia Monday alongside government fighters, residents and Islamic militia said, and Somalia’s radical Islamic forces declared a holy war against Ethiopia.

“I urge all the Somali people to wage holy war against the Ethiopians,” said top Islamic leader Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, wearing combat fatigues and holding aloft an AK47 assault rifle.

“We need action rather than words,” he told a brief news conference in Mogadishu, the capital his forces hold.

He also put the Islamic forces on full alert. “Ethiopian troops have intentionally invaded our land,” Sheik Sharif said. “We will counter them soon.”

Sheik Yusuf Indahaadde, the national security chairman for the Islamic group, also called for holy war and claimed at the same news conference that 35,000 Ethiopian troops were on Somali soil, but did not give any further details. Foreign observers, however, have put the number in the hundreds.

“This is a declaration of war,” Indahaadde said. “We will not wait any more. we will defend the integrity of our land.”

The Islamic courts have declared holy war against Ethiopia on a number of occasions in recent months, but have so far avoided any direct military confrontation.

While Somalia’s weak but internationally recognized government publicly denies it is being supported by Ethiopian troops, government officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, say about 6,000 Ethiopian troops are in Somalia.

The government is increasingly challenged by the hardline Islamic fighters, who oppose all outside intervention, particularly from Ethiopia, Somali’s traditional rival.

The head of a militia allied to the Islamic movement said three Ethiopian battalions totaling 750 men alongside government militia rode into Bur Haqaba Monday morning without a shot being fired. Mohamed Ibrahim Bilial said his militiamen retreated as the Ethiopians entered.

Bur Haqaba is 60 kilometers east of Baidoa, the only town the government controls. It is perched along six hill tops, allowing forces there to control the only road from Mogadishu, which the Islamic movement controls, and Baidoa, 250 kilometers away. It was taken over by Islamic forces in late June.

“We will recapture the town,” Bilial told The AP.

The Ethiopian and government forces later withdrew from Bur Haqaba and reassembled at a military camp 20 kilometers east of Baidoa, residents said.

Ethiopian officials have denied involvement in Somalia – though diplomats, journalists and Somalis have seen their troops in the country. Ethiopians were seen patrolling Baidoa in 11 armored vehicles mounted with anti-aircraft guns Monday.

The reports from Bur Haqaba Monday prompted another denial.

“Any accusations about Ethiopian troops inside Somalia is false,” said Solomon Abebe, a spokesman for Ethiopia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry.

Mohamed Abdi Hussein, the pro-government governor of Bur Haqaba who fled to Baidoa in June when it fell, told the AP no Ethiopian troops had been involved in the recapture of the pro-Islamist town. He urged locals to remain calm.

Somali government officials accused the Islamic group of spreading the claim Ethiopian forces were involved in a bid to heighten tensions.

“I saw government troops and a number of Ethiopian troops,” said taxi driver Salad Ali Mohamed, a Bur Haqaba resident. “Some militiamen loyal to the government joined them when they entered the town but the remainder loyal to the Islamic courts left.”

Somalia hasn’t had an effective national government since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohammed Siad Barre and then turned on one another, throwing the country into anarchy.

The transitional government was formed in 2004 with U.N. help in hopes of restoring order after years of lawlessness. But it has struggled to assert authority, while the Islamic movement seized the capital, Mogadishu, in June and now controls much of the south.

The Islamic group’s strict and often severe interpretation of Islam raises memories of Afghanistan’s Taliban, which was ousted by a U.S.-led campaign for harboring Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida fighters.

The U.S. has accused Somalia’s Islamic group of sheltering suspects in the 1998 al-Qaida bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Bin Laden has said Somalia is a battleground in his war on the West.

(AP/ST)