Ethiopian planes bomb Islamist-held airports in Somalia

Dec 25, 2006 (MOGADISHU) — Ethiopian warplanes Monday bombed airports in Somalia’s capital and a second town as its forces struck deeper into the country to fight an Islamist force in an escalation that risks turning an internal conflict into a regional war.

As the rival forces pounded each other with heavy artillery on several frontlines, the aircraft bombed Mogadishu airport and Baledogle airport north of the capital on a second day of air raids against the Islamist positions, witnesses said.

Addis Ababa, which is propping up a weak transitional government and on Sunday acknowledged its troops were directly involved in the fighting, said the aim was to stop the Islamists receiving arms deliveries.

“Unauthorised flights have been forbidden by the (transitional federal government), but some unauthorised flights were observed and that is why the bombardment took place,” Ethiopian foreign ministry spokesman Solomon Abebe said.

Shortly after the airport bombings, Islamic leaders Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys and Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed landed at Mogadishu from an unknown location, an indication that the runway was not heavily damaged.

The government in Baidoa, which is the only major town it controls, ordered the closure of Somali land, sea and air borders, but it was unclear whether it had the resources to do so.

With the foes engaged in heavy artillery duels on frontlines in south and central Somalia for the sixth straight day, the Islamists warned civilians to avoid potential targets of airstrikes.

Government spokesman Abdulrahman Dinari said Eritreans, Ethiopian Oromo rebels and Arab fighters were propping up the Islamists.

Witnesses said thousands of terrified civilians were fleeing the conflict, which has compounded misery for nearly a million people already coping with the aftermath of devastating flooding.

In Geneva, the International Committee of the Red Cross said it would dispatch a planeload of medical supplies to Somalia on Thursday to help “between 600 and 800 wounded people,” spokeswoman Antonella Notari said.

“We do not know at the moment if the people fleeing the combat zones will move within the country or cross borders, in which case we shall act in coordination with the (United Nations) HCR (High Commissioner for Refugees),” Notari said.

Ethiopia had until Sunday claimed only to have military trainers and advisers in Somalia helping the government, but Prime Minister Meles Zenawi accused the Islamists of seeking to destabilise the region and cited a “terrorist” connection, like Washington.

The top US African affairs official, Jendawi Fraser, in mid-December said the Islamic Courts Union that has assumed authority over southern and central Somalia since taking Mogadishu in June from rival warlords is controlled by Al-Qaeda.

Somali government officials claimed that Mogadishu’s airport was used by foreign planes to deliver weapons after reopening in July for the first time in 11 years.

The Islamists Monday renewed a call to the international community to step in, while the African Union added its voice to that of Europe and UN agencies in protesting at escalating violence amid fears it could embroil the Horn of Africa.

The AU plans on Wednesday to organise a meeting of the Arab League and the seven-nation east African regional Intergovernmental Authority on Development to review the developments, AU Commission Chairman Alpha Omar Konare said in a statement.

The nation of about 10 million people had been carved up among rival warlords after the ouster in 1991 of its former dictator. A coalition of warlords backs the current transitional government.

Officials said the Somali government had seized control of Beledweyne close to the Ethiopian border after Islamists pulled out under heavy bombardment, but Janaqow said it was a “tactical retreat.”

The death toll from six days of battle remains unclear, with both sides claiming to have killed hundreds.

The UN World Food Programme, which is dropping relief supplies to Somali flood victims, called on both sides “to allow humanitarian operations to continue unhindered and in safety.”

(AFP)