Contradictory reports about Somali clashes
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) – Contradictory statements are issued about the nature of the fighting in Somalia. While the Somali Islamists say they fought Ethiopian troops, the interim government says the fighting was between his forces with the Islamist militia.
A top Islamic official said Friday that militiamen fought Ethiopian troops in a southern Somalia town, and he called on Somalis to defeat “the enemies who have invaded our land.”
However, an official for the Somali government said the clashes were between his forces and the Islamic militia challenging the government for control of Somalia. He denied Ethiopians, who back his government, were involved.
If confirmed, it would be the first time the Islamic militias that control most of southern Somalia have fought directly with Ethiopian troops.
“New fighting has started in Dinsor. Our forces have been raided by Ethiopian troops, so people get up and fight against the Ethiopians,” Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed told a crowd of hundreds after Friday prayers. Islamic militiamen seized Dinsor on Saturday without encountering resistance or firing a shot.
“Stand up and overcome the enemies who have invaded our land,” he told the crowd, which had gathered to protest a U.N. resolution allowing an African peacekeeping force into Somalia.
Deputy Defense Minister Salad Ali Jelle told The Associated Press that it was Islamic militiamen under the umbrella Council of Islamic Courts who first attacked, fighting transitional government troops at their base in Safarnoolees, a village 35 kilometers north of Dinsor.
“The Islamic courts have attacked our base near Dinsor and we are defending our base,” Jelle said, adding Ethiopians weren’t fighting with the government.
Ethiopian troops were first reported in Somalia in June, soon after the Islamic courts took the capital, Mogadishu. Ethiopia has always said it has only a few hundred military advisers in Somalia to help the transitional government form a national army, but a confidential U.N. report obtained by The Associated Press in October said 6,000-8,000 Ethiopian troops were in Somalia or along the border.
The report also said 2,000 soldiers from Eritrea were inside Somalia. Eritrea denies having any troops in Somalia.
Demonstrations were held in several towns throughout Somalia against Wednesday’s U.N. resolution, which eases a 14-year arms embargo on Somalia so an African force can equip itself. The resolution stopped Somalia’s neighbors – Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya – from contributing troops.
Earlier Friday, Sheikh Abdullahi Ali Hashi, a spokesman for the Islamic courts, said Ethiopian troops had shelled the central Somalia town of Bandiradley, while residents of a nearby village said Ethiopian troops and tanks had taken up positions near the town.
Witnesses in a village near Bandiradley said hundreds of Ethiopian troops and tanks had taken up positions near the town.
They said that this new movement puts these forces and their rival Islamic courts’ militias just over a mile apart.
(AP)