Somalia’s army, backed by Ethiopian forces, on Sunday extended their grip over remote regions in the far south of the country where Islamist fighters had been holed up for days, a commander said. Commander Abdulrasaq Afgebub said the joint forces were in control of Ras Kamboni, a scrubland area on the border with Kenya.
Somali government troops, backed by Ethiopia, said on Wednesday that they had so far failed to capture any Islamist leaders who have been running for two days since abandoning their last remaining stronghold. In Kenya, authorities deported hundreds of Somali refugees who had crossed into the country as Nairobi heightened its frontier security.
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/ 8 December 2006
Fierce fighting erupted on Friday between forces loyal to Somalia’s weak Ethiopian-backed government and powerful Islamists south of the government’s seat of Baidoa, the two sides said. Senior government and Islamist officials said the clashes began at midday around Dinsoor, 110km south of Baidoa, with each putting the blame on the other party.
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/ 6 December 2006
Somalia’s weak government on Wednesday pleaded for international help to fight alleged Islamist terrorism that it warned would have dire global consequences. With fears rising of all-out war between the transitional administration and Somalia’s powerful Islamist movement, the Cabinet urged the world not to ignore its call.
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/ 4 December 2006
Somalia’s weak government on Monday banned vehicles travelling from Islamist-held Mogadishu to its seat in the provincial town of Baidoa, after two suicide car bombings there blamed on the Islamists. Citing fears of more such attacks as the two sides and government ally Ethiopia gird for all-out war, government officials said the ban was necessary to protect the town.
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/ 21 November 2006
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 ambushed an Ethiopian convoy in Qasah-Omane, a small village about 70km south-west of Baidoa.
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/ 26 October 2006
A powerful Islamist movement has seized control of a strategic trading post in southern Somalia, expanding its territorial control and fuelling fears of an all-out war with government troops, residents and militia commanders said on Thursday. The Islamists said the township, which straddles three regions, had fallen without bloodshed, according witnesses.