Source ::: Agencies
MOGADISHU • Gunmen yesterday ambushed a Somali military van, killed two soldiers and wounded four others, near the national Somali administration’s seat in Baidoa, sparking fears of an all-out war.
The attack comes as powerful Islamic militia and government forces, who have been firing test artillery, girded for an all-out war after peace talks collapsed in Khartoum.
Government officials confirmed the ambush, and blamed it on the Islamists militia controlling vast swathes of southern and central Somalia.
Witnesses said the soldiers were travelling from Manas military base to Baidoa, about 250-km north-west of the capital Mogadishu when they came under artillery fire from the jungle.
“I saw a government vehicle mounted with a machine gun come under attack as it entered the town. The attack left two soldiers dead and four others wounded,” said Hilaal Mohamed Abukar, who lives near Baidoa hospital.
The Islamists said their supporters had carried out the ambush, killing Ethiopian forces and marking the start of “holy war”.
“Jihad has started around areas where Ethiopian forces are staying, like in Baidoa. We thank the local people who have started ambushing the Ethiopian forces,” said Sheikh Mukhtar Robow, the Islamists’ deputy defense chief.
“The attack was carried out by locals who support the Islamic courts,” he said, adding: “Ethiopians have been killed and others wounded.”
“Wherever Ethiopians are they will be killed. We call on locals who translate for Ethiopians to stay away, otherwise we shall slaughter them,” he told a press conference in southern Mogadishu.
Meanwhile, Somalia's weak transitional government asked the influential speaker of parliament to put off a planned peace mission aimed at averting all-out war with the country's powerful Islamists.
"The government urges the speaker of parliament not to go to Mogadishu before he consults with the government delegation to the Khartoum talks," it said. Amid soaring fears of conflict that could engulf the entire Horn of Africa region, the government-based in the regional town of Baidoa-said Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden should defer his trip to the Islamist-controlled capital, Mogadishu, until he has consulted the administration.
Aden, frequently at odds with the government over dealing with the Islamists, said on Friday he would go to Mogadishu on Sunday in an unauthorised but urgent bid to forestall war after the collapse of peace talks between the two sides.
"We need to know what he is going to table before the Islamic courts in Mogadishu," the government said in a statement from Baidoa, where its forces and the Islamists are girding for battle.
"If he goes without consultations with the government, he will not be representing the government," the cabinet said. "Any agreement reached will be on his own accord and not the government's."
Baidoa residents said government forces, backed by Ethiopian troops, raided houses in this dusty provincial outpost to flush out clerics suspected of links with the Islamic movement. “They didn’t ask us anything but checked all houses in the area and they found nothing,” said Mohamed Mohamud, a resident of Berdale neighbourhood that was raided.
Witnesses reported seeing 33 Ethiopian forces. Somali government officials could not be reached for comment.
“Ethiopian soldiers and Somali government security forces are conducting joint security operations in some villages in Baidoa,” said Adaf Sheikh Mumin, another resident.
“They are looking for Islamic courts supporters who could sneak into Baidoa villages,” he added.
A police official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said “government forces responded and chased the assailants”.
The attacks came as the Islamists and weak government forces reinforced front-line positions on the ground and kept up artillery duels, heightening fears that the Horn of Africa nation was headed to all-out war.
The Islamists has claimed that Ethiopia deployed some 12,000 forces to help the government from a feared advance by the Islamists. Largely Christian Ethiopia denies a claim in an independent UN report it has as many as 8,000 soldiers in Somalia but acknowledges sending military advisors to help protect the government from “jihadists”, some of whom are accused of links with Al Qaeda.
The Islamists, who have started imposing Shariah law, have declared a “holy war” on the Ethiopians. At the same time, the government maintains the Islamists are receiving support from Eritrea, which has denied taking sides in Somalia and angrily rejected allegations it has some 2,000 troops in that country. Early this week, peace talks collapsed in Khartoum after the Islamists refused to meet the government until Ethiopian forces pull out.
Somalia has lacked an effective government since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and a national administration formed in Kenya two years ago has failed to exert its authority.
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