Somalis brace for war, troops test weapons
December 15, 2006

Residents of the town housing Somalia's interim government stocked up with provisions on Friday as troops tested weaponry ahead of a feared attack by rival Islamists in the Horn of Africa nation.

"I'm afraid when war breaks out, roads will be closed and food is going to be unaffordable," laborer and father-of-three Said Ali Ahmed said at a cafe in the trading town that lies in the middle of an agricultural area of south-central Somalia.

The Islamists, who took Mogadishu in June and have expanded across most of south Somalia since, have threatened to attack Baidoa if Ethiopian troops protecting the government do not leave by next Tuesday. That could spark all-out war.

"I don't know where to take my family. When war starts here, it is going to be everywhere and most of the roads will be mined as well," added Ahmed.

Adding to the sense of fear, shots rang out late on Thursday night as government forces tested their arms. Witnesses reported seeing tracer bullets and hearing heavy artillery and gun shots echo for several minutes from the airport side of Baidoa.

"I thought the war we are waiting for had started ... I ran back to my friend's home and spent the night there," said resident Abdulkadir Adan, who heard the shots as he walked home.

Deputy Baidoa governor Ibrahim Nur confirmed the shots were only a rehearsal by government troops.

"This was only a test-fire, not war," Nur said.

Government and Islamist troops face off just 30 km (20 miles) outside Baidoa. Regional diplomats fear fighting could quickly spread into a regional conflict given that arch-foes Ethiopia and Eritrea are accused of supporting the government and Islamists respectively.

In Baidoa's coffee and tea shops, possible war between the Islamists and the Western-backed government dominated conversation. Residents saw it as a matter of when rather than if war would break out, and many planned escape routes.

Baidoa has already seen two major suicide attacks, blamed by the government on al Qaeda-linked extremists joining the ranks of the Islamists.

Adding to the tensions, a close relative of Defense Minister Col. Abdikadir Adan Shire, also known as Barre Hiraale, and two bodyguards died on Friday after an attack on their convoy in the remote Kurun village, 70 km (45 miles) west of Baidoa.

"We are carrying out an investigation now but we suspect the Islamic courts are behind this," Hiraale told Reuters.

But Abdifatah Ali, a senior Islamist official, denied the report. "We are not aware of it," he told Reuters by telephone.

Source: The Associated Press