Somali govt, Islamists to resume talks amid clashes
Source: Reuters
(Releads, updates with EU envoy comments, UN) By Sahal Abdulle MOGADISHU, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Somalia's interim government and Islamists agreed to resume peace talks on Wednesday after their forces battled each other with rockets and heavy weapons at two frontline areas fuelling fears of war. After meeting both sides in a day of shuttle diplomacy, European Union aid chief Louis Michel said the government and Islamists were committed to a political solution to the crisis that threatens to suck in other regional players. "They have both decided to resume the Khartoum dialogue process unconditionally," Michel told a news conference in Nairobi, giving no timeframe for the Arab League-mediated talks. The announcement was in stark contrast to two days of clashes that have heightened fears of a Horn of Africa conflict a day after the expiry of an Islamist deadline for government-allied Ethiopian troops to leave. Top Islamist leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys dismissed the clashes. "The war has not started. This is a small incident," he told reporters in Mogadishu after meeting Michel. With a battle under way 70 km (43 miles) southwest of the government's outpost Baido` since late on Tuesday, another clash erupted on Wednesday just 25 km southeast of the town on a strategic part of the frontline. "Neither side is winning. It's the Ethiopian troops who were fighting the Islamists. I am trapped," a driver stranded between the opposing sides told Reuters by telephone, with the sounds of fighting echoing in the background. "Bullets and heavy rockets are flying everywhere. Fresh Islamist troops are now fighting Ethiopians who are waiting for backup," said the driver, who declined to give his name. The newest clash took place between the government's forward base in Daynunay and Buur Hakaba, the furthest point where Islamist forces had advanced along the road from their headquarters in the capital, Mogadishu. The Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC), which has used its military might to spread sharia law across most of south Somalia, said it was sending reinforcements to the front. Residents said Islamists had set up roadblocks in Mogadishu for the first time since seizing it in June, in a new sign of tension. Already, the two sides exchanged artillery fire in Idaale, southwest of Baidoa, after a gunfight between reconnaissance units broke out late on Tuesday. At least three fighters were killed and two injured in that battle, both sides said. A government security source said dozens of Ethiopian soldiers on 13 trucks drove from Baidoa to the battle: "This is the fighting we have been waiting for." ENVOY VISITS Many in the region have feared for months the start of a Somali war, which could bring in rivals Ethiopia and Eritrea and trigger suicide bombings in east Africa. The rivals, in an impasse since power-sharing talks broke down in November, have been perched on the edge of war for weeks across a jagged frontline of mainly scrubby plains. The Islamists accuse Ethiopia, a key U.S. ally in its war on terrorism, of invading Somalia and have threatened holy war against any foreign troops there. Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has publicly encouraged jihadists to join such a war. The United Nations was "obviously extremely concerned about the latest outburst of violence" in Somalia, the U.N. said. "We would continue to encourage a very prompt deployment of IGAD peacekeeping forces as mandated by the U.N. Security Council," chief U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York. Ethiopia blamed the Islamists for the clashes. Military experts estimate Ethiopia has 15,000-20,000 troops in Somalia, while Eritrea has about 2,000 behind the Islamists. Asmara denies the accusation, and Ethiopia admits only to having a few hundred military trainers in Baidoa. (Additional reporting by Daniel Wallis, Guled Mohamed and Bryson Hull in Nairobi, Tsegaye Tadesse in Addis Ababa, Hassan Yare in Baidoa and Iriwn Arieff in New York)
| AlertNet news is provided by |  |
