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MOGADISHU, Somalia (CNN/AP) Dec. 27 — Ethiopian and Somali government troops entered the strategic city of Jowhar, the last major town on the northern road to the capital, routing Islamic militiamen and forcing them to retreat, residents said.
A former warlord, who ruled Jowhar before it was captured by the Council of Islamic Courts in June, led the Somali government troops as they drove into the city, a resident said. “Ethiopian troops and Mohammed Dhere have entered the city,” said Abshir Ali Gabre.
The transitional government, backed by Ethiopia and the U.N., says it is forcing the Islamic militia to retreat
Ethiopia sent fighter jets across the border Sunday to help Somalia’s U.N.-recognized government push back the Islamists. Ethiopia bombed the country’s two main airports and helped government forces capture several villages.
Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, a senior leader of the Islamic group, said he asked his troops to tactically retreat in the face of superior Ethiopian firepower.
Ethiopian PM Meles Zenawi
Ethiopian PM Meles Zenawi has privately threatened for months to send troops into Somalia to fight terrorists, defend Ethiopian interests and prop up the besieged government, which has a very small military force.
He has also said he aims to severely damage the courts’ military capabilities and allow both sides to return to peace talks on an even footing, but would not send troops into Mogadishu. Instead, he said, Somali forces would encircle the city to contain the Islamists.
If he sticks to his plan, the transitional government and the Islamic courts would take peace talks more seriously because neither side would have the upper hand militarily.
ADDIS ABABA, Kenya (IHT) Nov. 1, 2006 – Ethiopia’s prime minister says Islamic militants in Somalia represent a threat to the Horn of Africa and the entire international community and that more must be done to contain them.
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi told The Associated Press that he held out little hope a peace agreement could be reached between Somalia’s internationally recognized government and Islamic militants who have taken over much of the country. Ethiopia, a largely Christian nation, supports neighboring Somalia’s secular government.
“Apparently some people believe that the al-Qaida elements in Mogadishu … are people one can talk to in a reasonable manner, that they can be convinced not to be extremists,” Meles said in an exclusive interview.
Meles has confirmed that he has sent military advisers to help Somalia’s weak government, prompting Islamic leaders to declare a holy war against Ethiopia.
Africa Mourns Their Deaths: Nigerian Fire and Somalian War
Let’s never forget Mark Fineman’s excellent LA Times article, which made Project Censored’s list in 1993, about “The Oil Factor in Somalia.”
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MANILA, Philippines (AP) Dec. 27 — Remains believed to be from the chief of the al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf group, who was the target of a monthslong U.S.-backed manhunt, have been found in the southern Philippines.
Khaddafy Janjalani is on a U.S. list of wanted terrorists with a $5 million bounty on his head for a series of beheadings, bombings and mass abductions. He has proven elusive in the dense jungles of the southern Philippines, and earlier reports of his demise have proven to be premature.
Lt. Col. Ariel Caculitan, the Philippine marines spokesman, said the decomposing remains were found buried in a remote part of Jolo island. Janjalani was believed to have been killed in a Sept. 4 clash with marines, Caculitan said, but DNA tests would be needed for confirmation. The U.S. was providing help in forensic tests.
Abu Sayyaf says it is fighting to create a Muslim state in the southern Philippines, which has a large Muslim population. The government calls them bandits who survive on the ransom money they are able to extract from abductions.
Abu Sayyaf’s founder is Janjalani’s brother, Abdurajak Abubakar Janjalani, who fought in Afghanistan before he was killed in a clash with Filipino police in late 1998. A third brother, Hector, was sentenced to life in prison two years ago for abducting American Jeffrey Schilling in August 2000. Schilling managed to escape eight months later.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Foreign power invades weaker neighbor uusing the pretext of supporting a defeated and unelected government that has little support inside its own country but plenty of support from outside especilly from the so called democratic regimes of the West.
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MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Somalia’s prime minister promised thousands of cheering Somalis peace and stability as he formally took control of the battle-scarred capital for the first time since his government was formed two years ago.
Ali Mohamed Gedi drove through the streets of Mogadishu in a heavily armed convoy a day after Islamic fighters fled and his Ethiopian-backed troops seized the city.
Somalians cheer as the convoy carrying Somalian Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi arrives in Mogadishu. Gedi drove triumphantly into Mogadishu, claiming total victory over rival Islamists and saying his Ethiopian military allies will stay as long as needed. (AFP/Peter Delarue)Hundreds of foreign fighters, mainly Arabs and southern Asians, were seen in Kismayo on Friday. Some of the Islamic movement’s members espouse an extreme form of Islam, and the United States accuses it of harboring al-Qaeda terrorists. Somalia’s president vowed to take the fight to Kismayo. “We are going to go there and confront them,” Yusuf told reporters. “If we capture them we will bring them to justice.”
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."The Islamic courts go over to guerilla warfare. Smart move as the lessons of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Lebanon show that even a very well equipped and trained army cannot defeat organised guerillas fighting on their own ground, and I seriously doubt that the Ethiopian army is anywhere near as well equipeed or trained as the armies of the US, UK and Israel.