Kenya on alert as Somalia fighting nears border
Source: Reuters
(Adds U.S. State Department, paragraphs 3,5) By Noor Ali GARISSA, Kenya, Jan 3 (Reuters) - Kenyan soldiers and helicopters bolstered defences at the Somali border on Wednesday to stop fighting from spilling over after Ethiopian warplanes attacked fleeing Islamists on the other side of the frontier. Kenya sealed the border after Somalia's interim government urged it to stop leaders of the Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) or foreign jihadist supporters escaping. Seeking to block the escape of Islamist leaders by sea, the United States said its forces were deployed off the Horn of Africa nation's coast. The Islamists, who deserted their last stronghold on Monday after two weeks of war against government troops backed by Ethiopian armour, have pledged to fight on after melting into the hills between the Indian Ocean port of Kismayu and Kenya. "We would be concerned that no leaders who were members of the Islamic Courts which have ties to terrorist organizations including al Qaeda are allowed to flee and leave Somalia," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in Washington. The Somali interim government is seeking to install itself in the capital Mogadishu, after breaking out from the provincial outpost of Baidoa, which had been threatened when the Islamists took over much of southern Somalia in June. Near Kenya's border with Somalia, a local police chief said a Kenyan helicopter had escaped undamaged after being shot at by Somali militia on Tuesday. Residents of Liboi, a Kenyan border post, said they saw Ethiopian fighter jets and helicopter gunships flying over the Somali town of Doble, 25 km (15 miles) away, late on Tuesday. They then heard shooting which tailed off after midnight. "When we heard the gunshots we panicked, although we knew it could be these groups fighting across the border," said Liboi businessman Abdi Rage. "The security forces are many here and it is like we are also involved in this fight. Vehicles are moving up and down the border. This is causing tension but at least we feel secure." Local police commander Johnstone Limo said the Ethiopian planes were pursuing Islamists nearby. "Ethiopian planes fired missiles targeting three Somali vehicles. These were allegedly used by the fleeing Islamic forces, and the Ethiopian pilots missed their targets," he said. PEACEKEEPERS WANTED Eight suspected combatants were being questioned after they were arrested trying to enter Kenya on Sunday. One border security source said personnel were under strict orders not to let any Somalis into Kenya, while the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said 400 Somali asylum seekers had been sent back. "Most of those in Liboi are women and children and they should not be sent back to a very uncertain situation," UNHCR head Antonio Guterres said in a statement. An ambush that killed at least one Ethiopian soldier in south Somalia on Tuesday showed that fighting may go on, despite the lightning military offensive by Ethiopian tanks, troops and jets that routed the Islamists from Mogadishu then Kismayu. Analysts say the Islamists, joined by some foreign fighters, may launch an Iraqi-style insurgency against a government they see as a puppet of Ethiopia, a hated and Christian-led power. Kenyan Foreign Minister Raphael Tuju said his country would continue to support the Somali government, which was formed in Nairobi in 2004, and called for regional states to help it stabilise the country and with donor funding. Kenya was due to host a meeting of the U.S.-backed International Contact Group on Somalia on Friday, two days after European officials met in Brussels to push for peace talks. Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi says his forces will stay in Somalia for a few more weeks. Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi said they may stay months. Both have called for foreign peacekeepers to be sent without delay. Uganda has provisionally offered a battalion and President Yoweri Museveni was due to meet Meles on Thursday. Said Djinnit, the African Union's peace and security commissioner, said a decision about a date for the deployment of the African mission -- endorsed by the United Nations before the war -- would be made soon. "We realise the importance of prompt and urgent action so we are talking about days and weeks to take a decision," he said. (Additional reporting by Daud Yussuf in Garissa, Guled Mohamed in Mogadishu, Francis Kwera in Kampala, Ingrid Melander in Brussels, Marie-Louise Gumuchian and George Obulutsa in Nairobi, Paul Eckert in Washington)
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