Ethiopian jets strike airports
2006-12-25 17:33
Mogadishu - Ethiopian warplanes attacked
two Islamist-held airfields in Somalia on Monday, witnesses
said, in the most dramatic strikes yet of a war threatening to
engulf the Horn of Africa.
The attacks - one on the capital Mogadishu - came hours
after Ethiopia formally declared war, saying it was
protecting its sovereignty against a movement run by terrorists.
Fighting raged for a seventh day near Daynunay, close to the
government seat, Baidoa.
Witnesses reported truck-loads of
Ethiopian wounded being evacuated, and Islamist soldiers were
said to be reciting the Qur'an as they went into battle.
A MiG fighter struck Mogadishu's international airport with
machinegun fire soon after dawn, airport managing director
Abdirahim Adan told Reuters.
Three jets later attacked Somalia's
biggest military airfield at Baledogle, 100km west
of Mogadishu.
Targetting runway
"They are targeting the runway and I can see it being hit,"
said an Islamist fighter who asked not to be named.
The week of intense fighting between Islamists and the
Ethiopian- and Western- backed secular interim government has
turned long-running hostilities into open war.
Analysts say Ethiopia seems to have halted the initial
Islamist assault and saved the government from being overrun.
The Somalia Islamic Courts Council's (SICC) website hailed
"mujahideen" troops who, it said, chanted passages from the
Koran as they went into battle against militarily superior
Ethiopian "crusaders".
Addis Ababa and Washington say the Islamists, who hold most
of southern Somalia after seizing Mogadishu in June, are
terrorists backed by Ethiopia's enemy, Eritrea, and by al-Qaeda.
Ethiopia has vowed to protect the government, which is
virtually encircled by Islamist fighters in the town of Baidoa,
halfway between Mogadishu and the Ethiopian border.
'Terrorists'
A government spokesperson said the administration approved of
Ethiopian use of air power.
"Anywhere terrorists use to bring in
arms and ammunition deserves to be hit," said Abdirahman Dinari.
The government said it had closed all borders - a largely
symbolic measure given that it has little power beyond Baidoa.
Ethiopia said it had attacked the capital's airport to stop
"illegal flights" following the closure of Somalia's borders.
"It was also reported some of the extremists were waiting
for an airlift out of Mogadishu," an Ethiopian spokesperson
said.