Ethiopia, Somalia briefly occupy town

MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN
Associated Press
BAIDOA, Somalia - Ethiopian troops alongside government forces entered a southern Somali town Sunday, residents said, in a move likely to further strain tensions with Islamic radicals who are tightening their grip on the war-ravaged country.
Well-armed troops aboard seven trucks mounted with machine guns arrived in the agricultural town of Dinsor, witnesses said. The forces then left, residents told The Associated Press.
"They were telling us that they were in control and not to worry," shopkeeper Mohamed Abdi Salam told the AP by telephone.
Somalia has not had an effective national government since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohammed Siad Barre and then turned on one another, throwing the country into anarchy.
The Ethiopian-backed government was formed in 2004 with U.N. help in hopes of restoring order after years of bloodshed. But it has struggled to assert authority, while the Islamic movement seized the capital, Mogadishu, in June and now controls much of the south.
Last Monday, witnesses said hundreds of Ethiopian and government troops forced Islamic fighters to abandon Bur Haqaba, a strategic hilltop town. They said the forces later withdrew.
That move prompted the Islamic forces to declare a holy war against neighboring Ethiopia, accusing them of deploying thousands of troops into Somalia to prop up the country's weak government. Ethiopian leader Meles Zenawi said he was ready to defend his country if attacked.
Ethiopia on Sunday denied its troops had entered Dinsor. Sightings of Ethiopian troops in Somalia have been increasing since July, despite their repeated denials.
Somalia's government also publicly denies it is being supported by Ethiopian troops. However, government officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, say about 6,000 Ethiopian troops are in the country or encamped on the 1,000-mile porous border.
Ethiopia, whose population is nearly 50 percent Muslim, is fearful of a neighboring fundamentalist state.
Both pro-government militia and fighters loyal to Islamic radicals have been positioning themselves in recent days amid fears of a major encounter after a series of small skirmishes. They clashed in a strategic seaport on Friday, hours after a smaller skirmish near Bu'aale, some 220 miles south of Baidoa, the only town controlled by the government.
Fears of new fighting have sparked a mass exodus of refugees into neighboring Kenya, and Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki has called for international support to help stabilize Somalia. Some 30,000 refugees have flooded across the border since the beginning of the year, the U.N. says.
Meanwhile, Islamic radicals in the capital, Mogadishu, closed down a second radio station Sunday, just days after introducing strict new laws for the media in Somalia.
The Islamic group's strict and often severe interpretation of Islam raises memories of Afghanistan's Taliban, which was ousted by a U.S.-led campaign for harboring Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida fighters.
The United States has accused Somalia's Islamic group of sheltering suspects in the 1998 al-Qaida bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, while bin Laden has said Somalia is a battleground in his war on the West.
Source: Assocoated Press Wire