Somali Islamists and troops defending the government’s only stronghold battled with rockets and heavy weapons on Wednesday at two frontline areas as a European Union envoy flew in to stave off the brewing war.
The flare-ups to the south-west and south-east of the interim government’s surrounded outpost, Baidoa, heightened fears of a Horn of Africa conflict a day after the expiry of an Islamist deadline for government-allied Ethiopian troops to leave.
With a battle under way 70km south-west of Baidoa since late on Tuesday, another clash erupted on Wednesday just 25km south-east of the town on a strategic portion of the frontline where both sides’ fighters have massed.
”Neither side is winning. It’s the Ethiopian troops who were fighting the Islamists. I am trapped,” a driver stranded between the opposing sides told Reuters by telephone, with the sounds of the fighting echoing in the background.
”Bullets and heavy rockets are flying everywhere. Fresh Islamist troops are now fighting Ethiopians who are waiting for back-up,” the driver, who declined to give his name, said.
The newest clash took place between the government’s forward base in Daynunay and Buur Hakaba, the furthest point where Islamist forces had advanced along the road from their headquarters in the traditional Somali capital, Mogadishu.
The Somali Islamic Courts Council (SICC), which has used its military might to spread Islamic sharia law across most of southern Somalia, said it was sending reinforcements from Mogadishu to the front.
Already, the two sides exchanged artillery fire in Idaale, south-west of Baidoa, after a gunfight between reconnaissance units broke out late on Tuesday. At least three fighters were killed and two injured in that battle, both sides said.
A government security source, who declined to be named, said dozens of Ethiopian soldiers on 13 trucks drove from Baidoa to the battle: ”This is the fighting we have been waiting for.”
Envoy visits
Many in the region have feared for months the start of a Somali war, which could bring in rivals Ethiopia and Eritrea and trigger suicide bombings in East Africa.
The rivals for control of the anarchic nation, in an impasse since power-sharing talks broke down in November, have been perched on the edge of war for weeks across a jagged frontline of mainly scrubby plains.
EU aid chief Louis Michel had flown into Baidoa on Wednesday as the fighting raged outside it.
After meeting with top officials and addressing Parliament, Michel flew in the afternoon to Mogadishu, held by the Islamists since they kicked out United States-backed warlords in June.
He was due to speak with top SICC leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, who denies US and United Nations charges he is linked to al-Qaeda. Washington and the Somali government accuse the SICC of allowing an al-Qaeda cell into its top ranks.
The Islamists accuse Ethiopia, Washington’s top counterterrorism ally, of invading Somalia and have threatened holy war against any foreign troops there. Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has publicly encouraged jihadists to join such a war.
Ethiopia said it was not aware of the fighting, and again denied it had any combat troops there.
”If Ethiopia’s few hundred military trainers are attacked, they have the right to self-defence,” Information Ministry spokesperson Zemedhun Tekele said.
Military experts estimate Ethiopia has 15 000 to 20 000 troops in Somalia to back the government, while Eritrea has about 2 000 behind the Islamists. Asmara denies the accusation, and Ethiopia admits only to having a few hundred military trainers in Baidoa. — Reuters