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Aweys Osman Yusuf
04 January 2007
Mogadishu, ( Sh.M.Network) - Ethiopian and government forces are reportedly spreading into the Somali border along with Kenya to capture the escaping Islamists that are believed to be infiltrated by foreign radicals.
A large number of Ethiopian and Somali government troops have been positioned in Jubba provinces, southern Somalia, where the government said more Islamists who did not surrender themselves or their arms mingled into the society.
An Islamist killed two Ethiopian soldiers and wounded two others on Tuesday in Jilib district, southern Somalia after he ambushed the soldiers at a military camp they were in.
At least six Kenyans were killed on Wednesday after Ethiopian helicopters targeting the escaping Islamists mistakenly air bombed Kenyan border.
It is not yet known where Islamist leaders linger. The Islamic Courts spokesman Abdirahim Mudey told Shabelle Radio by the phone yesterday that Sheik Sharif and Sheik Aweys, the ICU leaders, were in Somalia and protected by tribesmen. He refused to say where exactly they were in the country.
Mohammed Farah Dahir, a resident in Jilib told Shabelle by the phone that the government and Ethiopian forces began collecting arms from the people in Jilib on Thursday.
The collection of arms began after local elders and government officials met and agreed over the issue. At least three pick-up trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns have been handed over to the government forces.
In Mogadishu, today’s is the last day that prime minister Ali Mohammed Gedi said that all arms should be surrendered to the government by the civilian population, but so far that order seems to be ignored by anyone in the capital.
The government threatened it would use force to disarm the heavily armed population in the Somali capital Mogadishu.
Source: www.shabelle.net