Mogadishu

Somalia’s powerful Islamist movement claimed on Thursday that Ethiopian troops are shelling a Muslim-held town near the two countries’ border and said it had put its forces on alert for an invasion. Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, chairperson of the executive board of the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia, said the shelling had begun on Wednesday on the town of Beledweyne.

Somalia’s radical Islamic militia has advanced to within 20km of the only town controlled by the government, the closest the fighters have gotten to the fragile administration’s headquarters, an Islamic official. The militia, which has seized much of southern Somalia since taking over the capital, Mogadishu, in June, reached Moode Moode on Tuesday night.

A local militia said on Tuesday it had signed a deal with Somalia’s weak government to retake by force a key southern port it lost to powerful Islamists last week, setting the stage for fresh unrest. ”We have finalised a deal with the transitional government of Somalia to wage attacks on Kismayo,” said Colonel Abdullahi Ismail Fartag.

Somalia’s Islamists said on Tuesday they are readying troops and recruiting young men to defend themselves against suspected Ethiopian soldiers in the country. While witnesses have reported seeing the soldiers near the provincial capital, Baidoa, Ethiopia, which supports the country’s fragile interim government, has denied sending troops.

An Islamist militia firing squad shot a young man convicted of murder on Friday in the first public execution the movement has carried out in Mogadishu since taking the Somali capital in June. Hundreds of Somalis watched as the Islamists shaved Abduqadir Diriye — who killed his victim during the theft of a mobile phone — and made him say prayers, a witness saw.

Anarchic Somalia lurched towards long-elusive stability on Tuesday after an interim accord between powerful Islamists and the weak government, but plans for regional peacekeepers appeared in tatters. As Islamist and government leaders savoured their less than 24-hour-old deal, East African leaders hastily cancelled a summit in Kenya called to discuss the proposed force.

At least 12 people were killed and 11 wounded on Monday when Somali police clashed with gunmen for control of the airport in the government seat of Baidoa, officials and witnesses said. The fighting erupted as members of the weak transitional administration met with Somalia’s powerful Islamic movement in Sudan.

At least five people, including three children, drowned and thousands were forced to flee their homes early on Tuesday after heavy rains flooded vast swathes of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, residents said. The deaths were reported in neighbourhoods in northern and southern Mogadishu inundated by the downpours, they said.

Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi appealed on Monday for foreign aid to train security forces to help his weak government face growing threats from the country’s powerful Islamist movement. Gedi warned of continued instability in the lawless Horn of Africa nation without outside assistance to secure his administration.

Islamists controlling much of southern Somalia warned Ethiopia on Thursday of ”full-scale war” unless it withdraws troops allegedly sent to defend the country’s weak transitional government. The warning was delivered as forces loyal to the Islamist movement advanced toward a town north of the capital, lost earlier this week to warlords reportedly backed by Ethiopian soldiers.

Islamists controlling much of southern Somalia on Wednesday reopened the capital’s main seaport that was closed 11 years ago at the height of unrest and chaos in the lawless nation. In their latest move to assert authority and restore order to Mogadishu, the Islamists declared the Indian Ocean port open for business.

At least five people were killed in an inter-clan revenge attack in southern Somalia, shattering a lull in such violence since Islamists took control of the region, witnesses said on Wednesday. Four people were killed on the spot and a fifth died being taken to hospital after gunmen stormed a crowded cafe late on Tuesday in the town of Wanlaweyne, they said.

Somalia’s dominant Islamic movement on Tuesday launched intensive military training for hundreds of its gunmen under a plan to create instruments of statehood in areas where it holds sway. Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, a hard-line cleric who heads the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia, said trained Islamic forces will disarm civilians and restore law and order.

Islamist courts controlling much of southern Somalia seized a key central port on Wednesday and said at least 100 government troops had defected to their side, in new blows to the weak administration. Hundreds of fighters loyal to the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia faced no resistance as they swept into the port of Hobyo.

Islamists controlling much of southern Somalia said on Wednesday that at least 100 government soldiers had defected to their side, dealing a new blow to the weak transitional administration. The troops, along with seven machine-gun mounted pick-ups known as ”battlewagons” or ”technicals”, crossed into Islamist territory overnight, officials said.

Somalia’s dominant Islamic militia on Sunday seized control of a central township near the coastline that has been a base of piracy and dozens of hijackings of ships in the Indian Ocean, officials and residents said. ”The Islamic courts are in full control of Haradere,” Sheikh Said Ali, an Islamic courts official, said of the township.

Somali Islamic militia on Thursday announced plans to seize control of the central regional capital of Galkayo, sparking a massive deployment by their rivals and raising the spectre of renewed bloodshed. Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, a hard-line cleric designated a terrorist by the United States, said his militiamen have been invited to set up an Islamic court in Galkayo.

Islamic militia on Wednesday seized control of a strategic township near the Ethiopian border from Somalia’s transitional government, further expanding their territory, officials and residents said. There were no reported casualties in the clash, which saw only a brief exchange of fire at about 7am local time.

Somalia’s Minister of Constitutional and Federal Affairs Abdalla Derrow Issak was shot dead on Friday by an unknown gunman in the temporary seat of the transitional government, a relative said. Issak was killed as he left the mosque after Friday prayers in Baidoa, about 250km north-west of the capital, Mogadishu, the relative added.

Somalia’s virtually powerless government said a cargo plane that landed at the capital’s airport on Wednesday morning was carrying weapons for Islamic militants who have seized control of much of southern Somalia. The Ilyushin-76 was only the second aircraft able to land at Mogadishu International airport in more than a decade of anarchy.

Somalia’s Islamists said on Tuesday they would not attend peace talks with the interim government until Ethiopian troops left their soil, and for the first time acknowledged Eritrean backing for their cause. ”As long as Ethiopia is in our country, talks with the government cannot go ahead,” the Islamists’ main leader, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, said.

More than 5 000 people gathered for an anti-Ethiopia protest in the Mogadishu on Monday, days after troops from neighbouring Ethiopia arrived to protect Somalia’s virtually powerless government from Islamic militants. The protesters, gathered in a stadium in northern Mogadishu, chanted anti-Ethiopian slogans and carried signs that said, ”We Must Fight Them!”

Ethiopian troops in armoured vehicles rolled into the central Somali town of Baidoa on Thursday and set up a camp near the home of the interim president, residents said, less than a day after Islamic militants reached the outskirts of the base of a United Nations-backed, but largely powerless, government.