AT least three people were killed when Ethiopian soldiers attacked and captured the Somali town of Garbaharey in the Gedo region of southern Somalia on Monday, according to local sources. An official in Somalia’s capital said that the attack was carried out by a mechanised column of some 500 Ethiopian troops, according to residents contacted by radio. Garbaharey is a stronghold of the Marehan subclan loyal to the divided Somali National Front faction. Garbaharey, is the largest town so far captured by Ethiopian forces, which has crossed into Somalia several times since 1996, to pursue the armed Al-Itihad al-Islam fundamentalist group, alleged by Ethiopia to have bases inside Somalia, from where they carry out guerrilla attacks across the Ethiopian border.