Ethiopian helicopters attack Kenya border post by mistake
Jan 3, 2007 (MOGADISHU) — Kenya sent extra troops to its border with Somalia Wednesday to keep Islamic militants from entering the country after Ethiopian helicopters attacked a Kenyan border post by mistake while pursuing suspected fighters.
Four Ethiopian helicopters apparently mistook a Kenyan border post at Harehare for the Somali town Dhobley on Tuesday and fired rockets at several small buildings, a security officer said. There were no reports of casualties, but Kenyan tanks were sent to the area early Wednesday, the officer added.
Residents in Dhobley said they witnessed the Ethiopian military aircraft bombing the area.
“Four military helicopters flew over our town several times and bombarded somewhere on the Kenyan side of the border,” Mohamud Ilmi Osman said. Kenyan officials didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Somalia’s government forces, backed by Ethiopian troops, have been pursuing the remnants of the Islamist militia that until two weeks ago controlled most of southern Somalia.
In the Kenyan port of Mombasa, Somalia’s President Abdullahi Yusuf met with his Kenyan counterpart, Mwai Kibaki. Kibaki said Kenya wouldn’t be used as a refuge for people seeking to destabilize governments in the region – clearly referring to foreign fighters for the Somali Council of Islamic Courts.
He added that Kenya had already strengthened patrols along the border with Somalia, a statement from the presidential press service said. It said Kibaki earlier Tuesday had chaired a national security committee meeting, but it did not give any other details.
Kenya deployed troops, armored vehicles and trucks with light weapons along the 675-kilometer border with Somalia.
With attention shifting to suspected al-Qaida fighters believed to be sheltered by the hard-line group, a Kenyan security official said 10 foreigners who had fought with the Islamist movement had been captured there and told interrogators that the militia was doomed by internal rifts.
The official said one of the foreigners arrested was identified as Bashir Ali Makhtar, a member of the Ethiopian rebel group, the Ogaden National Liberation Front. The official said that Makhtar holds a Canadian passport.
Four of the people arrested are Kenyan Somalis recruited into the Islamic militia and three of them Eritreans, including an army colonel, the official said in the northeastern town of Garissa. He did not give details about the other two foreigners arrested Saturday.
According to a U.N. report, Eritrea, Ethiopia’s longtime rival, sent 2,000 troops to support the Islamist movement.
The U.N.’s humanitarian agency said that about 4,000 Somalis were reported to be in the Dhobley area along the border, not yet able to cross into Kenya. The statement released in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, gave no further details.
There is a fear of newly laid land mines in southern Somalia following the latest fighting, the agency added.
(AP)