MOGADISHU, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Ethiopian troops who left Somalia last month after a more than two-year intervention have crossed back over the border and set up a checkpoint near a town held by Islamic militants, locals said on Tuesday.

"We have been frightened for the last 36 hours because Ethiopian troops and the ousted Baladwayne authorities have come closer," local elder Abdirizak Ali told Reuters. "We anticipate attacks from those troops."

There was no immediate word from Addis Ababa, which had said it was keeping a heavy troop presence on the border in case of threats from the militant al Shabaab insurgent movement. (Reporting by Abdi Sheiky and Abdi Guled; Writing by Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by Louise Ireland)

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