Korean Job Discussion Forums

[sundubuman]

Apparently, Israel is not the only ancient pre-Islam nation a bit agitated by Islamic militias on their borders....




Invasion sparks fears of Somalian conflict

Xan Rice
July 22, 2006

FEARS of war in the Horn of Africa have grown sharply after Ethiopia sent troops into Somalia to "protect" its neighbour's fragile government against an advancing Islamist militia.

Dozens of Ethiopian military trucks and armoured vehicles were seen closing in on Baidoa, the seat of Somalia's interim government, which has no army. Journalists reported seeing hundreds of Ethiopian troops patrolling the town on Thursday.

Yesterday's move appeared to be a direct challenge to the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia, which controls the capital, Mogadishu, and much of the south. On Wednesday its fighters advanced to the town of Buurhabaka, 64 kilometres from Baidoa. The movements came as both sides stepped up their verbal battle.

While denying the widely reported incursion, an Ethiopian government spokesman vowed to crush any attempt to topple the secular government of Abdullahi Yusuf, which has close ties with Addis Ababa.

Sheik Mukhtar Robow, the Islamists' deputy head of security, warned that his fighters were ready to take on the foreign troops. "God willing, we will remove the Ethiopians in our country and wage a jihadi war against them," he said.

The aggressive rhetoric and the military moves on both sides have raised fears of a new war in Somalia, deprived of central rule since the dictator Mohammad Siad Barre was ousted in 1991.

"The risk of full-scale war increases by the day," said John Prendergast, of the International Crisis Group think tank.


The direct involvement of Ethiopia, which has been repeatedly accused of crossing into Somalia in recent weeks, represents a dangerous turn of events.

Tensions in Somalia were already strained by the on-off talks between the weak government, which has no control outside Baidoa, and the Islamists, who beat a coalition of US-backed warlords in Mogadishu on June 5 and have steadily spread their influence across the country.

Representatives of the two parties met in Khartoum last month and agreed to recognise each other, even if their differences remained wide. The Government wants an arms embargo lifted and regional peacekeepers sent. The Islamists, who want to impose some form of sharia law, are bitterly opposed to foreign troops - as are many Somalis, particularly in Mogadishu.

However, a second meeting planned for last weekend was boycotted by the Government after it accused the Islamists of breaking a ceasefire agreement by fighting a bloody three-day battle to rout the last remaining warlord in Mogadishu.

Relations appeared to break down completely on Wednesday when the Prime Minister, Ali Mohammad Gedi, accused the militia of plotting to overthrow the Government. His comments, denied by the Islamists, raised alarms in Ethiopia, and are likely to have prompted the incursion.

The invasion is not without precedent: Ethiopia twice crossed into Somalia, in 1993 and 1996, to crush Islamist attempts to seize control.

The Guardian, Reuters