INTERVIEW-Somali Islamists prepare attack on gov't -PM
Source: Reuters
By Andrew Cawthorne NAIROBI, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Somali Islamist forces backed by 4,000 foreign fighters are moving into position for a possible imminent attack on the interim government's base, Somalia's prime minister said on Wednesday. "I don't think that they are ready for dialogue, for peace and stability to prevail in Somalia. In that case, war may become inevitable," Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi, who flew into Kenya from Baidoa on Tuesday night, told Reuters. Gedi said the Islamists -- who on Tuesday vowed attacks within a week unless Ethiopian forces backing the government left Somalia -- were trying to surround Baidoa, the only town the Western-backed administration controls in its own nation. The Islamists took Mogadishu and a swathe of south Somalia in June, denting the government's aspirations to restore central rule to Somalia for the first time since 1991. Islamist soldiers were in the Buur Hakaba and Dinsoor areas, to the east and south of Baidoa respectively, Gedi said. They had pulled back from Tiyeglow to the north after finding significant numbers of government troops there. "All these movements are an indication that they will try to attack the seat of the government in Baidoa and the surrounding areas. Also, they are planning to surround (Baidoa)," he said. Gedi denied Islamist accusations the government had more than 30,000 Ethiopian troops dug in around Baidoa to protect it. Addis Ababa had sent only several hundred advisers to support President Abdullahi Yusuf's administration, he said. The government's own forces, trained in Baidoa and another town, Jowhar, over the last six months, were ready for battle. "I believe there are enough to challenge those who oppose the government," he said, without giving numbers. "They are on alert to defend the government and the people of Somalia from the hostile aggressions and invasion of well-known terrorists in close collaboration and alliance with the so-called Islamic Courts." "LIKE A FOOTBALL GAME" Gedi said the Islamists had several thousand of their own fighters in south Somalia, backed by 4,000 foreign militants. Of those, about half were from Eritrea while others came from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Chechnya among other places. "We are in a crucial situation ... It is in between peace and war, or in between life and death," he said. "Who will win? You never know. It's like a football game, who will be defeated and who will win." The foreign fighters were split between the front lines, and Islamist strongholds Mogadishu and Kismayu, Gedi said. With Ethiopia's foe Eritrea accused of backing the Islamists -- who have moved to encircle the government as part of their rapid expansion since June, many fear the crisis could become a regional war. Gedi said war could only be avoided by deployment of a U.N.-endorsed African peacekeeping force, and a return to government-Islamist talks which stalled in Sudan recently. The African force, which the Islamists say they would fight, is needed "very soon...urgently", Gedi said. The prime minister said he was not worried by a minister's comments this week from Uganda -- the only country to pledge peacekeeping troops so far -- that Kampala may withhold sending any soldiers until the situation has calmed down. "As far as I know, the government and people of Uganda are very supportive" of the peacekeeping mission, he said. Gedi was hopeful Nigeria, Tanzana and South Africa may contribute troops. While the government was ready to re-start talks about power-sharing with the Islamists, negotiations will have to take place in a new venue since Sudan committed the "embarrassment" of opposing the U.N. resolution on peacekeepers, Gedi said. "It seems that is a closure of the doors of the dialogue in Khartoum," the prime minister said. Gedi said skirmishes between government and Islamist troops in towns around Baidoa in recent days had been relatively minor, involving clashes between respective reconnaissance teams rather than any full-scale fighting. At least two died near Diinsoor.
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