'We killed hundreds of Islamists'
2006-12-21 07:29
Baidoa - Somali's transitional government claimed that its troops had killed "hundreds" of Islamic fighters in repelling an attack on their positions on Wednesday.
The information ministry said "the onslaught of the Islamic Courts Union and their terrorist allies has been defeated", after they attacked government training camps in Daynunay and Manas, each within 30km of the government base in Baidoa.
The ministry said: "Three 'technicals' - pick-up trucks mounted with machine guns - were burnt and the ICU sustained hundreds of their combatants dead while other hundreds are wounded."
The fighting came a day after the expiry of an Islamist ultimatum for Ethiopian forces backing the weak government to withdraw.
The information ministry statement made no mention of the 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.
The fighting took place on the day European commissioner humanitarian chief Louis Michel held talks with President Abdullahi Yusuf and Islamists chief Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys. He announced their willingness to resume stalled peace talks and halt hostilities.
Arab League-mediated peace talks collapsed last month after the Islamists refused to meet the government until Ethiopian troops, deployed to protect the government, withdraw.
- AFP