Ethiopian tanks roll into Somalia

[Liibaan]

Ethiopian tanks roll into Somalia

 

Mogadishu/Nairobi - Fighting between forces loyal to the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) and troops from the UN-backed government restarted on Friday, with reports saying Ethiopia had sent in tanks and helicopters to the front lines.

Both sides have reported heavy casualties after three days of fighting, already in the hundreds, but these numbers could not be independently verified.

 

Some 50 tanks and other armoured vehicles as well as helicopters reportedly moved towards the battlefront on Friday, according to local media. Ethiopia has continuously denied any presence in Somalia, except for a few hundred soldiers training the government forces.

 

Artillery exchanges were reported to have resumed near Idale, 60 kilometres south-west of the government's seat in Baidoa, after abating for a short while Friday morning. Fighting was also reported in Dooynuunaay, 25 kilometres south-east of Baidoa.

 

Witnesses said they saw bodies strewn along roads near the fronts.

 

On Thursday, the leader of the UIC, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, said the group was not fighting the government, but rather the Ethiopian troops said to be in the country training the government forces. The Somali transitional government has also denied that Ethiopian troops are fighting alongside its forces.

 

The first clashes erupted overnight Tuesday in Idale, a day after an EU envoy successfully pushed the warring sides to agree to attend peace talks. Tuesday also marked a one-week deadline given to Ethiopia by the UIC to remove its troops or face attacks.

 

Aid agencies said civilians were fleeing the fighting and said they were concerned about their staff on the ground, who are working to assist flood victims after weeks of torrential rains.

 

The battles have raised fears that an all-out war could break out, sucking in neighbouring Ethiopia and its foe Eritrea, who fought a 1998-2000 border war and could use the Somali conflict as a proxy.

 

On Wednesday, EU envoy Louis Michel met with both sides and convinced them to return to 'unconditional' peace talks, meant to bring some sort of stability to the anarchic country.

 

The UIC dramatically rose to power this year, taking the capital Mogadishu in June and a series of other southern and central Somali towns afterwards. They seek to establish a religious state based on Islamic Sharia law, drawing in ethnic-Somali regions of Kenya and Ethiopia as part of a 'united Somalia.'

 

The weak transitional government, divided and limited to its base in Baidoa, is the 14th attempt at establishing central rule in the country.

 

Somalia has been without a strong government since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohammed Siad Barre by warlords plunged the country into lawlessness.

 

Source: dpa

[Somali_Friend]

Question:

 

There is no Somali from all of Somalia that can pilot/drive a tank?

 

How do they know the TFG has not been training fighter aircraft pilots let alone tank?

 

The somali ethiopian is everywhere from ordinary soldier to general of the most elite commando forces.

 

 

Was the media expecting president Abdullahi Yusuf and his General staff to command a knife and axe weilding nomads from a camel?

The western media does this from ignorance and the ICU people do it as one more untruth.

 

Don't be surprised if you see fighter aircraft pilots of TFG graduating somewhere as a lot of Somali were surprised to see about 180 Police officers graduate in Kenya after many months of training. surprise surprise....