Monday, December 11, 2006
By Sahal Abdulle
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MOGADISHU, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Somalia's Western-backed interim government sounded the alarm on Monday over recent clashes with Islamist rivals which it said could spread into a regional conflict involving foreign Muslim radicals.Islamist fighters and pro-government troops were just kilometres (miles) apart after weekend fighting near the Baidoa base of President Abdullahi Yusuf's administration in an escalation of skirmishes many fear could turn into all-out war.
"The Islamic Courts, instead of ceasing their expansion and committing to peace and dialogue, have increased their military expansionist activities and their belligerence to new heights," the Information Ministry said in a statement from Baidoa.
"The Transitional Federal Government draws the attention of the international community to the grave danger that the current situation poses to peace and stability in Somalia and the region and would like the issue addressed urgently."
At least two people have died in Friday and Saturday's fighting near Dinsoor, south-west of Baidoa, the only place Yusuf's government controls in Somalia. Islamist sources said on Monday they had taken Tayeeglow, a town north-east of Baidoa, but that could not be confirmed on the ground.
The Somali Islamic Courts Council (SICC) took Mogadishu in June and now rules much of south Somalia under sharia law. It is trying to block food and fuel reaching Baidoa by truck.
Some experts believe the Islamists also want to to squeeze or break the government's de facto security ring around Baidoa.
The SICC says the government is provoking war by inviting Ethiopian troops across the border in violation of Somali sovereignty. Addis Ababa denies witness accounts of thousands of its soldiers in and around Baidoa.
The government statement sent to foreign media on Monday said the SICC, for its part, was welcoming an "influx of foreign terrorists" into territories it controls.
"Thousands of Eritrean and other foreigners, who are answering the courts' call for 'jihad', are pouring in," it added. "Our intelligence sources also indicate increased flow of arms shipments from Eritrea and abroad."
U.N. experts and other analysts believe arch-foes Ethiopia and Eritrea, who themselves fought a bloody 1998-2000 border war, are backing the government and Islamists respectively.
Addis Ababa admits sending several hundred military trainers, while Asmara denies any involvement.
Source: Reuters, Dec 11, 2006