Ethiopia admits Somalia offensive

[Suldaanka]

Ethiopia admits Somalia offensive

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Ethiopia has for the time said its troops are fighting Islamic militiamen that control much of Somalia.

 

Ethiopia's information minister said his country's forces had launched "self-defensive measures" against the Islamic Courts Union (UIC).

 

Ethiopia had previously admitted to sending only army trainers to Somalia.

 

In the latest fighting between the UIC and the weak, Ethiopian-backed government, air strikes and shelling are being reported in border areas.

 

On Sunday eyewitnesses said Ethiopian fighters were bombarding the UIC-held town of Beledweyne near the border, on the fifth day of renewed fighting.

 

"The enemy of Allah has started bombing our civilians," Sheikh Hassan Derrow told AFP news agency.

 

 

[Ethiopia] has started counter-attacking the aggressive extremist forces of the Islamic Courts and foreign terrorist groups

 

Ethiopian Information Minister Berhan Hailu

 

 

Q&A: Islamist advance

Town on brink of war

Can war be averted?

 

A resident told AFP: "We see planes striking us and heavy fighting on the ground intensifying."

 

Ethiopian Information Minister Berhan Hailu later said: "The Ethiopian government has taken self-defensive measures and started counter-attacking the aggressive extremist forces of the Islamic Courts and foreign terrorist groups."

 

The UIC has vowed to drive out Ethiopian troops which it says have been fighting alongside government forces for months.

 

The Islamic group - which controls most of the south, including the capital, Mogadishu - on Saturday appealed for foreign fighters to join them in a "holy war" against Ethiopia.

 

The conflict is also reported to have spread to the Galkayo area further north.

 

Both sides say they have killed hundreds of people since the fighting began on Tuesday - although aid agencies report dozens of dead.

 

The recent clashes have heightened fears of a regional war.

 

The UN estimates that at least 8,000 Ethiopian troops may be in the country, while rival Eritrea is said to have deployed some 2,000 troops in support of the Islamic group.

 

However, Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki denied his country had troops deployed in Somalia

[Suldaanka]

After long patience, NDF launches attacks against terrorist positions

 

Addis Ababa, December 24, 2006 (Addis Ababa) - After a long patience, the Ethiopian National Defense Forces (NDF) on Sunday started taking measures to foil the attack launched against Ethiopia by fundamentalist forces gathered in Somalia, a Spokesperson of the Ministry of National Defense Forces said.

 

The Spokesperson told Ethiopian News Agency on Sunday that the National Defense Forces have initially taken defensive measures against terrorist forces that attempted to infiltrate into Ethiopia to launch attacks and then extended their offensive against terrorists and other Anti-Ethiopian Forces in various parts of Somalia.

 

 

The offensive was launched on terrorist positions at Buur Hakaba, Beledweyne, Bandiiradleey and Dinsoor localities, the Spokesperson said.

 

 

The ministry's spokesperson said it will continue disclosing progress at the front lines.

 

 

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[Suldaanka]

The offensive was launched on terrorist positions at Buur Hakaba, Beledweyne, Bandiiradleey and Dinsoor localities

Listen to the BBC morning programme. Tigre corpses are litred in Iidaale and Manaas areas. Most of them were captured alive and beheaded by the righteos mujahidiin fighters

 

Cadawgu ha jabo. Aaamin

 

Guul iyo gobonimo.

[Suldaanka]

Somalia: Islamists say Ethiopian tanks crushed

 

(SomaliNet) Somalia’s powerful Islamic Courts Union has claimed that its fighters have burnt four tanks from the Ethiopian forces on Sunday in heavy clashes today at Daynunay front near Baidoa city, the seat of the Transitional Federal Government.

 

In urgent news conference held in Somalia capital Mogadishu, Sheik Mohamud Ibrahim Suley, the ICU spokesman for the war affairs said they could afford to resist against the air and ground attacks by the Ethiopian troops.

 

He accused the Ethiopian troops of opening new fronts in central regions of Somalia using excessive power like war planes which air raids on civilian targets around Beledwein city of Hiran region.

 

Sheik Suley said the Ethiopian invaders were defeated in the battle fields. In Bandiredley and Saddeh-Higlo environs of Mudug region he said the Islamists succeeded to consolidate their positions and subjected huge casualties on the Ethiopians.

 

He said when the Ethiopian troops were defeated on the ground they have began using war planes against the Islamic Courts.

 

“Since the fighting seems to intensify, all the Islamist reserve troops are being informed to join the Jihad on Ethiopia and I am telling all the Somali people not to worry about the current war but trust their almighty Allah,” said Suley.

 

Meanwhile, the Ethiopian government has for the first time confirmed the presence of its troops in Somalia and at war with what it called ‘the Islamist terrorists in horn of African country (Somalia).