|
Ethiopian forces 'closing on Somalia capital'
2006-12-26
Ethiopian troops have moved closer to the Somalia capital, Mogadishu, as part of a campaign against Islamist forces fighting a transitional government, a top Somali government envoy said. The Islamists acknowledged that they had been forced to withdraw from many positions but vowed to dig in for a long war as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Tuesday that a week of fighting had left more than 800 wounded and forced thousands to leave their homes. No international agency has yet given a death toll for the fighting but both sides -- the Ethiopian army and their Somali government allies, and the Islamists -- claim to have inflicted heavy casualties. The government forces made their advance after Ethiopian warplanes bombed Mogadishu airport and other airfields held by the Islamists. "We are only 100 kilometres (60 miles) away from Mogadishu and are heading to it," Somalia's ambassador to Ethiopia, Abdelkarin Farah, told a press conference in Addis Ababa. It remained unclear if Ethiopian-backed government forces would attack the heavily fortified Mogadishu, the headquarters of the Islamist movement. The ambassador's statement came after Somali government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari more cautiously told AFP: "We are not yet planning to head to Mogadishu." Islamic fighters withdrew from two frontlines near Baidoa, the government seat northwest of the capital, and in central Somalia, witnesses and officials said. "There is a lot of pressure from every frontline," an Islamic commander told AFP on condition of anonymity, explaining that Islamist forces had pulled back from several posts including Burhakaba and Dinsoor. "This action is a military tactic, it is a kind of military retreat," he added. "We are in a new stage of resistance... we have decided to change our tactics," Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, the head of the Islamist executive committee, told a press conference in Mogadishu. "We are ready to start long-lasting war with Ethiopia." Heavy fighting began on December 20 after Islamist forces demanded the departure of Ethiopian troops supporting the weak government in the Horn of Africa country which has been wracked by conflict since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. In Geneva, an ICRC spokeswoman, Antonella Notari, said more than 800 wounded had been reported at hospitals the agency was in contact with. Thousands have fled their homes, the spokeswoman told AFP. The Ethiopian government said its forces had inflicted "heavy human and material losses" on the Islamists, whom it said were supported by Eritrea and fighters from two groups fighting for autonomy in southern Ethiopia, the Oromo Liberation Front and Ogaden National Liberation front. "The Ethiopian Air Force (will) intensify pounding selected targets," the Ethiopian information ministry said in a statement. Somali government spokesman Dinari meanwhile called for thousands of foreign fighters, believed to be supporting the Islamists, to leave. "We ask all the foreign fighters to pull out of the country and allow Somalis to seek ways of reconciling and establishing peace," he told AFP in Baidoa, which is the only town the government holds. "We strongly appeal to the Islamic courts to put down arms because the government has made a decision to give them complete amnesty," he added. Somalia, a nation of about 10 million people, was carved up among rival warlords after the ouster of Barre in 1991. Since then internationally backed peace initiatives have failed to restore a functional authority. A ruling coalition of warlords was ousted in July but continues to support the transitional government, while the Islamists hold the capital and large swathes of the country. The Islamists have been gaining ground since June when they routed a US-backed warlord alliance in Mogadishu, threatening the authority of the internationally recognised government. The government has military backup from largely Christian Ethiopia, which accuses the Islamists of threatening its security and of ties with Al-Qaeda. The fighting has also heightened fears of a conflict that could draw in Eritrea.
|  | | | Profile |
News229 | Gallery | Links | |
| |
|
|
| 
