Muslim fighters on Tuesday clashed with Ethiopian forces near the seat of Somalia’s government, inflicting large numbers of casualties and destroying armoured vehicles, officials and witnesses said.
The Islamists, who have vowed holy war against Ethiopian troops protecting the weak government, ambushed an Ethiopian convoy in Qasah-Omane, a small village about 70km south-west of Baidoa, where both sides are girding for war.
As the Islamists claimed victory in the second attack against Ethiopians in three days, witnesses reported fresh fighting at another outpost south of Baidoa, about 250km north-west of the capital.
”Our local Mujahedeens ambushed three armoured vehicles; they blew up one and two others were also lightly damaged,” said Sheikh Mukhtar Robow, the deputy security chief for the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia.
”I can also confirm that soldiers who were on board also suffered casualties,” he told the media in the Islamist-held Mogadishu.
”These operations will continue until we totally defeat the forces of the devil who are in our territories,” Robow explained.
In Adale, about 38km south of Baidoa, witnesses reported a heavy exchange of fire between the Islamists and Ethiopian forces, one of the few direct confrontations in the recent months.
”We don’t know the casualties but we can confirm to you that fighting is raging,” Osman Anteno, a resident, told the media by phone.
Ethiopian officials were not immediately available for comment and the report could not be independently confirmed due to instability and poor communications in the area where the attack was said to have taken place.
In central Somalia, Muslim gunmen stormed Abudwaq town in Galgudud region, seizing it without clashes, an indication that the lawless nation is inching closer to a full-scale conflict.
”The Islamic courts, supported by local militia, have taken control of Abudwaq,” said Mohamed Jumale Agoweyne, a regional Islamic spokesperson.
Islamic leaders said residents are ready to expand the existing sharia courts in the region, home to Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, the leader of the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia.
”The people are ready to set up and expand existing Islamic courts. Who is crazy to fight the implementation of the laws of Allah?” said Sheikh Abdixafid Abdullahi.
The Islamists last month claimed to have drawn first blood in the jihad by attacking another Ethiopian convoy in the same area, killing two soldiers.
Ethiopia denies reports it has thousands of combat troops in Somalia but admits several hundred military advisers, trainers and support personnel have been sent to help the transitional government in Baidoa.
It has also made clear it will defend the internationally backed government and itself from attack by the Islamists, some of whom are accused of links with al-Qaeda and have refused to attend peace talks until the Ethiopians withdraw.
Experts have warned that Somalia could become a battleground for Ethiopia and Eritrea, which has been accused of deploying thousands of fighters to back the Islamists.
According to a recent report compiled by experts monitoring a 1992 United Nations arms embargo, the Somali situation contains ”all of the ingredients for the increasing possibility of a violent, widespread, and protracted military conflict”.
The Horn of Africa nation, home to 10-million people, has lacked an effective government since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. The two-year-old government has failed to exert its control across the whole nation.
Apart from the conflict, recurrent famine, drought and floods have worsened suffering in the country. — AFP
