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The San Diego Union-Tribune

Ethiopia launches open war in Somalia

Capital airport bombed; Islamist towns attacked


December 25, 2006

ZANZIBAR, Tanzania – Ethiopia plunged into war with Somalia's Islamist forces today, bombing Mogadishu International Airport in a major escalation that could turn Somalia's internal crisis into a violent religious conflict that engulfs the entire Horn of Africa.

The aerial attack on Mogadishu, the Somali capital, and ground assaults across the border were the first open admission by Ethiopia's Christian-led government of its military operations inside Somalia, where it has been supporting a weak interim government threatened by forces loyal to the Islamic clerics who control the capital and much of the rest of the country.

Ethiopia's prime minister, Meles Zenawi, said in a televised broadcast that he had ordered the action because Ethiopia faced a direct threat to its own borders.


According to witnesses, Ethiopian fighter jets also bombed several towns, obliterating an Islamist recruitment center and other targets, while Ethiopian tanks pushed deep into Somalian territory. The attacks set off riots in Mogadishu, Somalia's battle-scarred capital, and fighting on several fronts in southern Somalia.

Ethiopia, which commands the Horn of Africa's most powerful military, did not disclose how many troops, tanks or warplanes it had sent into Somalia, but the United Nations has said at least 8,000 Ethiopian soldiers may be in the country. Casualties were reported yesterday, but reliable estimates were impossible to ascertain.

Until now, Ethiopian officials denied they had any combat forces inside Somalia, saying instead that their involvement was limited to a few hundred military advisers.

Over the past few months, the clerics in the Council of Islamic Courts in Somalia have threatened Ethiopia for supporting their rivals, the internationally recognized transitional government of Somalia.

Major fighting broke out Tuesday night but had tapered off before battles erupted yesterday and today.

Islamist leaders announced Saturday that Somalia was now open to Muslim fighters around the world who wanted to wage a holy war against Ethiopia, a country with a long Christian history, even though it is about half Muslim.

“What did you expect us to do?” said Zemedkun Tekle, a spokesman for Ethiopia's information ministry. “Wait for them to attack our cities?”

Even before Ethiopia's escalation, there were signs that the conflict in Somalia could quickly spiral out of control.

According to U.N. officials, at least 2,000 soldiers from Eritrea, which recently waged war with Ethiopia, are fighting for the Islamists, who are led by Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys. They have been joined by a growing number of Muslim mercenaries from Yemen, Egypt, Syria and Libya who want to turn Somalia into the third front of holy war, after Iraq and Afghanistan.

On Friday, residents of Mogadishu said they saw boatloads of armed men landing on the city's rocky beaches. After the bombings, Islamist leaders boasted of bringing in more. Still, from the Ethiopian government's viewpoint, the bombings may be delivering at least some of the desired effect. For the first time since the Somalian Islamists came to power in June and rapidly began expanding their reach, they seemed to be losing ground. In at least three places yesterday – Idaale, Jawil and Bandiiradley – transitional government troops were pushing the Islamists back.

Residents of Belet Weyne, near the Ethiopian border, said that after the Ethiopian jets demolished several armed pickup trucks belonging to the Islamists, the rest of the Islamist soldiers fled into the hills.

The bombs also destroyed a recruitment center and a fuel depot, killing at least 10 people, witnesses reported.

Hours later, transitional government troops marched into the area and a new mayor was installed.

Many of Belet Weyne's people seemed relieved, not so much about the change in government but because the fighting appeared to have ended so fast.

“We're so sick of war,” said Ahmed Issa, a shopkeeper. “We'll obey anybody.”

Somalia has been mostly mired in anarchy since 1991, when the central government collapsed, setting off a long, nasty interclan war. While the United Nations and donor countries struggled to get a new government on its feet, a movement of Islamic courts began to gain power. After Islamist leaders defeated the last of Mogadishu's warlords, they immediately restored a sense of law and order unseen in the capital for 15 years. Then they began pushing outward, eventually reaching the outskirts of Baidoa, the seat of the transitional government.

The transitional government has never been popular, and its military forces are divided between rival politicians, many who spend the majority of their time outside of Somalia. This summer, Ethiopia began slipping soldiers across the border to protect both the transitional government and Ethiopia itself. The Islamists had threatened to liberate Somali-speaking areas of Ethiopia and stir up Ethiopia's Muslim population.

U.S. officials acknowledged that they tacitly supported Ethiopia's approach because they felt it was the best way to check the growing power of the Islamists, whom American officials have accused of sheltering al-Qaeda terrorists. A State Department spokesperson in Washington said yesterday that the United States was assessing reports of the surge in fighting in Somalia but provided no further comment.

A major question going forward seems to be whether Ethiopian forces will go into Mogadishu and try to finish off the Islamist military, a possibility that many fear could spur a long and ugly insurgency or simply deal the Islamists enough of a blow to force them back to negotiations with the transitional government.

The Somalian antagonists have flirted with the idea of sharing power, but several rounds of peace talks have produced little but broken promises.

In a hint of a possible direction, Ethiopia's prime minister recently told U.S. officials that he could wipe out the Islamists “in one to two weeks.”

But many analysts fear that the presence of Ethiopian troops in Somalia will only make matters worse, because of the history of conflict between Ethiopians and Somalis. The two nations have battled over contested border areas before, and the difference of religions, with Somalia almost purely Muslim, has often been an aggravating factor.

As word began to spread that Ethiopian planes were bombing Somalia, students in Mogadishu rushed into the streets and began rioting. They kicked in doors and smashed plate-glass windows, yelling at the few shopkeepers still open: “This is not time for business! This is time for war!”

The Islamists are using teenagers as their main fighting force. Last week, right after heavy combat began between the Islamist troops and the transitional government forces, Islamist leaders closed all schools in Mogadishu to funnel more young people into battle.

Witnesses in front-line areas say waves of young, poorly trained Islamist fighters have been mowed down by Ethiopian troops. Ethiopia's military was trained by U.S. advisers and supplied with millions of dollars of American aid.

The Islamists' information minister, Abdulrahim Ali Modei, conceded at a news conference yesterday that many of their troops have been killed, but he did not sound discouraged.

“These are victories,” he said. “Our soldiers are in paradise now.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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