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20 May 2009 Mogadishu - Ethiopian government have
denied returning to Somalia, where it had previously
been defeated after an intervention, which Addis Ababa
claimed was designed to side with the government of
Yusuf Abdullah in his battle with powerful Islamists.
Ethiopian forces who pulled out of Somalia four
months ago was reported to have been mounting a return
to the war-torn country on Tuesday after Islamist
rebels launched an offensive to topple the fledgling
government, witnesses said.
"No Ethiopian troops have entered Somalia," Ethiopian
state minister for communications Ermias Legesse said.
Witnesses in Kalabeyrka village, about 20km from the
border with Ethiopia, reported seeing troops in dozens
of armoured vehicles mounting roadblocks.
Somali truck driver Abdurahman Afey said: "Ethiopian
forces have been checking vehicles in the Kalabeyrka
area.
"They were asking people where they came from but
they were not arresting anybody," he said.
Another witness, Mohamed Sheikh Abdi, said he saw
Ethiopian forces manning checkpoints in the village.
"They were many and there were also armoured vehicles
including big trucks mounted with anti-aircraft
weapons," he said.
Fierce clashes between Islamist Liberations fighters
and new government's troops erupted earlier this month
and the rebels have seized two key towns north of
Mogadishu in as many days, sparking fears they would
advance to Beledweyne.
Beledweyne is a regional capital controlled by the
Islamist resistance fighters who are loosely allied to
President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed's government and is the
biggest town nearest to Kalabeyrka.
The resistance fights have been led by the Shebab, a
resistance faction accused of links to Al-Qaeda, and
Hezb al-Islam, a more political strong group loyal to
top opposition leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys.
Islamists Fight Near Jowhar
The Islamic Courts Union which supports the Somali
government and al-Shabab fought near Jowhar, a key
town in Middle Shabelle region 90 kilometers (55miles)
north of Mogadishu, witnesses said on Tuesday.
Al-Shabab Islamists have captured Jowhar, a
strategic town which the long road that connects
Mogadishu and central Somalia passes.
Locals said the fighting started after al-Shabab
fighters attacked a base of the Islamic Courts Union
who were routed in recent fighting in Jowhar.
Reports said the two sides have used heavy machine
guns in the fighting and no casualties have been
reported since it was difficult to get any information
from the fighting area.
While admitting that the situation in Somalia was
deteriorating, Ethiopian Communications Minister
Bereket Simon on Monday ruled out re-deployment.
"We are not contemplating going back there for the
moment," he said. "For the moment there is no
immediate danger to Ethiopia."
But an unnamed senior African Union official said an
Ethiopian re-deployment would not be a disaster.
"I would not be overly surprised that Ethiopians are
intervening afresh because they cannot accept to have
Islamist insurgents at the border," the official told
on condition of anonymity.
"It is perhaps an intimidation tactic or the beginning
of an intervention."
"Such an intervention would undoubtedly be soctly
not only to the Ethiopians but also to the African
Union nations states, especially those who have
laboured to contribute to AU-UN join deployment
mission."
Ethiopian troops invaded Somalia in late 2006 to side
with a weak transitional government against an
Islamist movement then led by two Somali sheikhs
Sharif and Aweys, sparkling a wave of heroic struggles
by the Islamists resistance fighters, who eventually
saw the back of their enemy neighbours.
Ethiopia's defeat sent a strong message to
Washington and similar anti-Islamists regimes
worldwide, implanting them with fears of a threat to
their imperialist ambitions with possible security
vacuum as fighters of the toppled Islamist movement
waged relentless battles against them, government
targets and a small African Union so-called
peacekeeping force in Mogadishu.
While Sheikh Sharif later joined a UN-sponsored
reconciliation process and was eventually elected
president in January, Sheikh Aweys has remained in the
opposition and returned from exile last month to
challenge his former ally.
Islamist resistance fighters of Ash-Shabab now control
much of southern and central Somalia, with forces
loyal to the internationally recognized government
pushed back to a few remaining pockets in Mogadishu
and close to the Ethiopian border.
Meanwhile foreign ministers from the six-nation east
African bloc the Inter- Governmental Authority on
Development (IGAD) will Wednesday hold emergency talks
on the crisis in Somalia.
IGAD groups Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti, Sudan
and Uganda.
Regional and international efforts to end the crisis
and establish a central government in the Horn of
African country since the ouster of president Mohamed
Siad Barre in 1991 have failed.
The latest fighting that began on May 7 has killed at
least 110 people and displaced about R30 000, mainly
in Mogadishu.
EsinIslam.Com
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