Mogadishu airport bombed

Ethiopian fighter jets bombed Mogadishu International Airport in the middle of Somalia’s capital today.

It was the first direct attack on the headquarters of an Islamic movement attempting to take power from the internationally-recognised government of Somalia.

There was no immediate information about casualties.

Also today, Ethiopian and Somali troops captured a key border town in Somalia.

Residents celebrated as government soldiers moved through the town and headed south in pursuit of fleeing Islamic militiamen, a Somali officer said.

Ethiopia’s prime minister announced last night that his country was “forced to enter a war” with Somalia’s Council of Islamic Courts after the group declared holy war on Ethiopia.

Islamic fighters left the town of Belet Weyne, on the Somali-Ethiopian border along the Shabelle river, overnight after Ethiopian fighter jets bombed Islamic positions yesterday.

Colonel Abdi Yusuf Ahmed, a Somali government army commander, said his forces entered Belet Weyne early today without a shot fired.

Ahmed said his troops would pursue the Islamic fighters south on one of Somalia’s key roads.

Heavy artillery and mortar fire continued to echo through the main government town of Baidoa today, said Mohammed Sheik Ali, a resident.

Government and Ethiopian troops were attempting to push back Islamic forces just 12 miles south of Baidoa.

Yesterday marked the first time Ethiopia has acknowledged that its troops are fighting in Somalia, although witnesses have been reporting their presence for weeks.

Ethiopia supports Somalia’s UN-backed government, which has been losing ground to the Islamists since June.

“Our defence force has been forced to enter a war to defend against the attacks from extremists and anti-Ethiopian forces and to protect the sovereignty of the land,” Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said in a television address last night. “Our intention is to win this war as soon as possible.”

Ethiopia, a largely Christian nation that fears the emergence of a neighbouring Islamic state, dropped bombs on several towns held by the Council of Islamic Courts and its soldiers used artillery and tanks elsewhere.

“They are cowards,” said Sheik Mohamoud Ibrahim Suley, an official with the Islamic council. “They are afraid of the face-to-face war and resorted to airstrikes. I hope God will help us shoot down their planes.”

Experts fear the conflict in Somalia could engulf the already volatile Horn of Africa. A recent UN report said 10 countries have been illegally supplying arms and equipment to both sides of the conflict and using Somalia as a proxy battlefield. Residents living along Somalia’s coast have seen hundreds of foreign Islamic radicals entering the country to answer calls by religious leaders to fight a holy war against Ethiopia.

The Islamic group’s strict and often severe interpretation of Islam raises memories of Afghanistan’s Taliban regime.

The US government says four al Qaida leaders, believed to be behind the 1998 bombing of the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, have become leaders in Somalia’s Islamic militia.

Major fighting broke out on Tuesday night.

Yesterday, Ethiopian forces fought alongside secular Somali soldiers in Dinsoor, Belet Weyne, Bandiradley and Bur Haqaba, officials said.

“I think they have met a resistance they have never dreamt of before,” Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf said in brief remarks from Baidoa on Saturday.

Meles has said his government has a legal and moral obligation to support and defend Somalia’s internationally recognised government. He has repeatedly accused the Islamic courts of backing ethnic Somali rebels fighting for independence from Ethiopia and has called such support an act of war.

Ethiopia and Somalia have fought two wars over their disputed border in the past 45 years, and Islamic court leaders have repeatedly said they want to incorporate ethnic Somalis living in eastern Ethiopia, northeastern Kenya and Djibouti into a Greater Somalia.

A group of ethnic Somali rebels with ties to the Islamic courts said it had intercepted a convoy of Ethiopian troops heading to Somalia on Saturday. According to a statement from the rebel group, the Ogaden National Liberation Front, the convoy turned back carrying several wounded soldiers.

Thousands of Somalis have fled their homes as troops loyal to the two-year-old interim administration fought Islamic fighters who had advanced on Baidoa, about 140 miles northwest of Mogadishu.

Government officials and Islamic militiamen have said hundreds of people have been killed in clashes since Tuesday.

Somalia has not had an effective government since warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, plunging the country into chaos. The government was formed two years ago with the help of the United Nations, but has failed to assert any real control. The Islamic courts, meanwhile, have been steadily gaining power since June.