Somali govt claims victory
2006-12-21 08:28
Mogadishu - Somalia's transitional government claimed on Wednesday that its Ethiopian-backed armed forces had inflicted heavy losses on Islamic fighters in an upsurge in a conflict threatening to embroil the entire region.
Rival forces pounded each other with heavy shells and rockets near the seat of government in Baidoa, about 250km northwest of the capital, Mogadishu, and hundreds of terrified civilians fled the battlezone.
The information ministry in Baidoa said: "The onslaught of the Islamic Courts Union and their terrorist allies has been defeated", adding that "hundreds" of Islamic fighters had been killed.
The clashes began overnight on Tuesday after Islamist forces attacked government training camps in Daynunay and Manas, each within 30km of Baidoa.
Hundreds of civilians flee
The ministry said: "The ICU sustained hundreds of their combatants dead while other hundreds are wounded." Earlier, Islamic commander Sheikh Mohamed Ibrahim Bilal said the fighting "could result in heavy casualties".
Residents said hundreds of civilians fled the battlezones in southern Somalia, where nearly a million people had already been affected by heavy flooding.
Muhidin Ali Mursal, a resident of a village near Idale, said: "People have already started fleeing from the area and there are a lot of armed forces from both sides."
The fighting came a day after the expiry of an Islamist ultimatum for Ethiopian forces backing the weak government to withdraw.
The statement made no mention of Ethiopian troops despite witness accounts of them participating in the fighting that erupted midnight on Tuesday, two hours after the expiry of the Islamist ultimatum.
It added that the two military outposts had come under sustained mortar fire on the outskirts of Baidoa.
Mediated peace talks collapsed
The fighting took place on the day European commissioner Louis Michel held talks with President Abdullahi Yusuf and Islamists chief Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys.
He added: "Both parties ... have reiterated their commitment to the Khartoum dialogue process and political solution to the Somali crisis." No date for a resumption was given.
Aweys said: "We had a meeting with the European Union and the meeting was significant and it ended in mutual understanding."
Arab League-mediated peace talks collapsed last month after the Islamists refused to meet.
Deputy defence minister Salad Ali Jelle said one group of Islamist fighters involved in the clashes was led by Sudanese national, Abu Taha al-Sudan, one of three extremists wanted by Washington.
Jelle said: "Al-Sudan, the terrorist is leading the Islamic courts militias in the fighting. We have information that he is the one who attacked us in Idale", one of the government training camps.
Ethiopia had sent several hundred military trainers and advisers to help the government, but denied widespread reports that it had deployed thousands of combat troops to Somalia.
- AFP