Ethiopia warns it losing patience as Somalis clash
Source: Reuters
(Adds U.N. condemnation) By Hassan Yare BAIDOA, Somalia, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Ethiopian tanks rolled to the battlefront on Friday as Somali Islamists and Somalia's pro-government troops pounded each other with artillery and rockets in a fourth day of clashes. In its first detailed response to the fighting that has killed dozens and wounded hundreds, Addis Ababa said its patience was running out and demanded the Somali Islamic Courts Council (SICC) stop all "hostile anti-Ethiopian activities". "The situation in Somalia has turned from bad to worse," said a statement from Ethiopia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "Ethiopia has been patient so far. There is a limit to this." The U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the Security Council denounced the fighting and urged the interim government and Islamists to resume peace talks. Ethiopia has said it would make public any intention of war against the Islamists, who already view it as a fait accompli. The Islamists said they would send ground troops to attack en masse on Saturday, as opposed to fighting from a distance with heavy weapons as the two sides have done so far, ignoring a European peace initiative. "Our troops have not started to attack. From tomorrow the attack will start," Islamist deputy spokesman Ibrahim Shukri told a news conference. Witnesses on two fronts near the government's encircled stronghold of Baidoa in south-central Somalia said they heard the rumble of armour before dawn. "I was awakened this morning by heavy sounds of tanks. I woke up and saw seven Ethiopian tanks heading towards Daynunay," Baidoa resident Abdullahi Ali told Reuters. FIGHTING BACK An Islamist fighter near one of the fronts in Daynunay said the tanks had attacked his unit. "We can see Ethiopian tanks. They have started firing heavy shells at us," the fighter, who declined to give his name, told Reuters by telephone, adding he was awaiting anti-tank weapons to fight back. If confirmed, the involvement of the tanks in the battle would raise the stakes in what is the most sustained combat so far in a fight many fear could mushroom across the Horn of Africa, sucking in rivals Eritrea and Ethiopia. European Union aid chief Louis Michel, who met both sides on Wednesday in a day of shuttle diplomacy, urged all parties on Friday to stop fighting and set a date for peace talks. The International Committee for the Red Cross said dozens of people had been killed in this week's clashes and 200 wounded. It appealed to both sides to allow wounded and captured fighters to receive treatment and to avoid hitting hospitals. In New York, Annan was "deeply concerned that the escalation of conflict in Somalia will have disastrous consequences for civilians," his chief spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said. A separate statement, adopted unanimously by the 15-nation Security Council, said that the transitional federal government offered the only route to peace and stability in Somalia, which has been without a strong central government since 1991. NEW FRONT Daynunay is the government's forward military base about 20 km (12 miles) southeast of Baidoa. Ethiopia has said it has military trainers there, but no combat troops. The other front, Idaale, is 70 km (45 miles) southwest of Baidoa, a southern agricultural trading post which is the only town the government controls. The Western-backed but ineffective, government and the SICC say they have killed hundreds of each other's forces across the brushy flatlands around Baidoa. Fighting began late on Tuesday, as an SICC deadline for Ethiopian troops to leave Somalia or face a holy war passed. By Wednesday night, it was clear the EU's announcement the same day that the two sides had agreed to restart peace talks and stop fighting had begun to ring hollow. The SICC has taken control of most of southern Somalia by dint of its military might and imposition of strict sharia law. Washington and what it considers as its top Horn of Africa ally in the war on terrorism, Ethiopia, say the SICC is led by al Qaeda, which the military-religious movement denies. The SICC says it has the popular support the government lacks, bringing law and order to a nation convulsed with anarchy since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in 1991. The SICC said Ethiopian troops were moving by air and ground toward Galkaayo, a strategic central Somali town held as a forward defence base by government-allied Puntland fighters. Ethiopia and Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf, a Puntland native, are keen to keep the relatively stable, semi-autonomous Puntland region and its strategic ports out of SICC hands. A Puntland fighter said by telephone from near Galkaayo: "There is a lot of troop movement. From the way things are going, fighting can start any time." (Additional reporting by Bryson Hull in Nairobi, Guled Mohamed and Sahal Abdulle in Mogadishu, Ibrahim Mohamed in Jowhar, Somalia, Tsegaye Tadesse in Addis Ababa, Laura McInnis in Geneva and William Schomberg in Brussels)
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