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By Patrick Goodenough - CNSNews.com Managing Editor
27 December 2006
(CNSNews.com) - As Ethiopian troops backing Somalia's weak interim government reported significant gains against Islamist forces with suspected links to al-Qaeda, a bloc of Islamic nations demanded that Ethiopia withdraw its forces from Somalia immediately.
But a State Department spokesman was quoted as saying that Ethiopia was acting out of "a legitimate and genuine security concern."
Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, secretary general of the 56-state Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), warned in a statement issued in Saudi Arabia that the fighting could "engulf the entire region and even beyond."
Ethiopian warplanes reportedly launched air strikes against Islamist positions this week, following several days of artillery firing between the two sides.
In what has become an increasingly complex conflict, Ethiopia is backing Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) against the Islamic Court Union (ICU) -- also known by several other names including the Islamic Courts Council -- which seized control of Mogadishu after routing a reportedly U.S.-supported alliance of warlords and businessmen last June.
ICU advances had raised concerns that the TFG -- which is based not in the capital but the town of Baidoa northwest of Mogadishu -- could be toppled, but Ethiopia's intervention appears to have shifted the balance.
The Islamists, meanwhile, are being supported militarily by Ethiopia's longstanding foe, Eritrea, and the U.N. said in a recent report that as many as eight more nations -- including Iran, Saudi Arabia and other Muslim states as well as non-Muslim Uganda -- have been providing weaponry and equipment to the warring sides.
Furthermore, foreign jihadists are reported to have entered the country to fight alongside the Islamists. Ethiopia, like the U.S., charges that the Islamists have links to al-Qaeda. ICU founder Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, who in the 1990s led the radical al-Ittihad al-Islami group, is on U.S. and U.N. terrorist lists.
In his statement, Ihsanoglu urged all Somalis and neighboring countries "to exercise utmost restraint and responsibility" and said the U.N. should play an effective role in stabilizing the situation.
The official Ethiopian News Agency Tuesday quoted Prime Minister Meles Zenawi as saying that Ethiopian and TFG forces "have broken the back of international terrorist forces in and around Baidoa, and the latter are now in full retreat."
He told a press conference that those wounded in the fighting included "international terrorists."
Meles said the Ethiopian forces had no plans to invade any Somali cities. "We are not after towns, we are after the terrorist groups."
He said the mission -- to protect Ethiopia from terrorists and their backers -- was half-accomplished, and once it was completed, "we will be out of there."
"They pose a very serious threat to us," Meles said. "Our mission is to stop that by degrading their military capability to hurt us. Once we have done that, we have completed our mission."
He also confirmed that there had been what he called a "very limited" air raid on Mogadishu international airport. "The intention was not to cause damage, but to warn off civilian planes that are being chartered to ferry Eritrean troops and ammunition into Mogadishu."
He said he hoped dialogue between the Islamists and TFG would be "revitalized."
But addressing a press conference in Mogadishu, a senior Islamist leader signaled little willingness to consider a negotiated settlement. Sharif Sheikh Ahmed said the Islamic Court Union was "ready to start long-lasting war with Ethiopia."
Wire services Tuesday quoted State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos as saying the Ethiopian military had acted at the request of the TFG.
"We see, and understand, they are facing a legitimate and genuine security concern," he said.
The U.S. military presence nearest to the conflict zone is in the tiny country of Djibouti, located between Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia. Almost 2,000 personnel comprise the Combined Joint Task Force -- Horn of Africa, whose responsibilities include counter-terror training of African militaries and humanitarian projects.
Somalia has been without an effective central government since the dictatorship of Mohamed Siad Barre collapsed amid a civil war in 1991.
The interim administration was formed with U.N. support in neighboring Kenya two years ago and subsequently relocated to Somalia but was unable to base itself in the capital because of the unstable situation.