Somalia Islamic Militia Threatens Attack
December 12, 2006
 
They (the Islamic courts) are in a war mode and want to expand by force
A top official of Somalia's Islamic militia vowed Tuesday to launch a 'major
attack' within a week unless troops from neighboring Ethiopia leave this
chaotic Horn of Africa country.
 
The announcement comes amid mounting tensions between the militia and
Somalia's official government, which has the support of Ethiopia but has
struggled to assert control. The Islamic group already has hundreds of
combatants within striking distance of the government base in Baidoa.
 
'If the Ethiopians don't withdraw from Somalia within seven days, we will
launch a major attack,' Sheik Yusuf Indahaadde, national security chairman
for the Islamic group, told a news conference in the capital, Mogadishu.
 
Somali Information Minister Ali Ahmed Jama Jengali said the government was
prepared.
 
'The government forces have established defense lines and will defend the
city,' Jengali told The Associated Press in Baidoa, which was teeming with
soldiers Tuesday. Troops in new uniforms were patrolling the city and
manning checkpoints where they prevented people from entering Baidoa.
 
'They (the Islamic courts) are in a war mode and want to expand by force,'
Jengali said. 'The international community has to wake up to this and see
that this expansion is threatening our country.'
 
A confidential U.N. report obtained by The Associated Press in October said
up to 8,000 Ethiopian troops were in Somalia or along the border backing the
government. Ethiopia has acknowledged sending military advisers, but denies
sending a fighting force.
 
On Monday, Islamic militiamen were moving on the Ethiopian border town of
Tiyeglow to try to seal the 1,000-mile frontier and keep out any advancing
Ethiopian troops while trapping those already in Somalia.
 
Somalia has not had an effective central government since warlords overthrew
longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned on each other.
The transitional government was formed two years but it has been unable to
assert its authority over the country.
 
Since June, the Council of Islamic Courts has seized Mogadishu and taken
control of much of southern Somalia. The group's strict interpretation of
Islam has drawn comparisons to the Taliban, although many Somalis credit the
council with bringing a semblance of order to a country that has seen little
more than anarchy for more than a decade.
 
Besides the political volatility, the impoverished nation is struggling to
recover from the worst flood season in East Africa in 50 years. At least 230
people have died from floods and related waterborne diseases since October
in Kenya, Somalia, Rwanda and Ethiopia, according to the U.N.'s World Food
Program.
 
The rains were supposed to end by November, but are expected to continue
through January in a region where drought left the soil so dry it was unable
to absorb the deluge.
 
 

Source: The Associated Press