War 'entering a new phase'

2006-12-27 11:01

Mogadishu - Ethiopian-backed Somali government troops on Wednesday seized control of the southern town of Jowhar from the Islamists, commanders said.

Islamic fighters using irrigation canals as fortifications earlier battled advancing Somali and Ethiopian government troops with artillery, mortars and heavy machine guns as they defended a major town on the road to the capital, witnesses said.

The militia, which wants to rule Somalia according to Islamic law, stopped what their leaders called a tactical retreat in the village of Jimbale, 140km north of Mogadishu. They were defending the major town of Jowhar, residents said.

"The fighting has started, the two sides are using heavy weapons we have never heard before," Naimo Abdi Aden said by telephone.

Hundreds of people began fleeing Jowhar, anticipating major fighting, but others seemed resigned to it after suffering from drought and flooding over the past two years.

"We do not know where to escape, we are already suffering from floods, hunger and disease," said Abdale Haji Ali from Jowhar. "We are awaiting death."

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said he had been given unconfirmed reports that as many as 1 000 people had died and 3 000 were wounded.

Tactical retreat

"Some of them are Somalis, but a very significant proportion of them are not Somalis," Meles said on Tuesday in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, referring to foreign Islamic radicals who have reportedly joined the fighting.

The International Committee of the Red Cross reported 850 people injured at hospitals supported by the relief agency, but had no figure for fatalities.

Meles said his forces, which entered Somalia in large numbers on Saturday, had completed about half their mission. He said there are only 3 000 to 4 000 Ethiopian troops in Somalia - "but no more".

Ethiopia sent fighter jets across the border on Sunday to help Somalia's UN-recognised government push back the Islamists.

Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, a senior leader of the Islamic group, said he asked his troops to tactically retreat in the face of superior Ethiopian firepower.

"The war is entering a new phase," Ahmed said from Mogadishu. "We will fight Ethiopia for a long, long time and we expect the war to go everyplace."

Ahmed declined to elaborate, but some Islamic leaders have threatened a guerrilla war that would include suicide bombings in Addis Ababa.

At the UN on Tuesday, Francois Lonseny Fall, the UN secretary-general's special representative to Somalia, told an emergency meeting of the security council that fighting has expanded across a 400km wide area, forcing the UN to halt assistance to two million people and evacuate.

US backing for Ethiopia

"Unless a political settlement is reached through negotiations," Fall said, "Somalia, I am afraid, will face a period of deepening conflict and heightened instability, which would be disastrous for the long-suffering people of Somalia, and could also have serious consequences for the entire region."

The security council was expected to continue discussing Somalia on Wednesday.

In Washington, US state department spokesperson Gonzalo Gallegos signaled US backing for Ethiopia by noting that it has had "genuine security concerns" arising from the Islamist gains in Somalia. The US has been supporting Ethiopia's Christian-led government with counterterrorism assistance.

Gallegos pointed out that the Ethiopian military action came at the request of the Somali government, a weak entity with limited reach despite UN and US support. Peace efforts by the government and the Council of Islamic Courts have made little headway in recent months.

"We've instructed our ambassadors in the region to meet with governments to urge them to pressure Somalis to return to the negotiating table. We do not believe this can be resolved on the battlefield," Gallegos said.

Meles said he aims to severely damage the courts' military capabilities and allow both sides to return to peace talks on an even footing. He said he would not send troops into Mogadishu.

Any attempt by the government or Ethiopia to enter Mogadishu would likely end in a disaster similar to the US intervention to create a Somali government in 1992. That UN-sponsored mission ended in 1993, when militiamen shot down a US Army Black Hawk helicopter and 18 servicemen were killed in a subsequent battle.

- AP