Somalia: Ethiopian troops pour into north Mogadishu
Published on Tuesday 17th June 2008Somalia: Heavily armed guarded Ethiopian troops have extended on the streets of Karan neighborhood north of Mogadishu Tuesday witnesses said.
The soldiers have firstly entered in Jamhuriya village in the similar district where they have begun to conduct search operations on the civilian vehicles.
Hundreds of residents have started to flee from their homes fearing from the Ethiopian troop’s searching in their district.
Some residents told us that the Ethiopian troops have arrested several people but freed after cross-examinations.
The soldiers were also reported to have killed man they suspected in Fagah area in their early arrival to the north of the capital from their other southern bases.
The Ethiopian troops have started armed maneuver in some areas of Mogadishu in the last 24 hours.
Other marching Ethiopian troops also arrived at Florence Street in Wardhigley district and Yaqshid neighborhood.
Its yet unknown the fierce operations that the Ethiopian troops initiated in some parts of the capital.
Elsewhere fresh fighting has erupted in Jamhuriya neighborhoods north of Mogadishu.
Mortars and machine-gun fire rocked in the village.
The recent fighting started when Ethiopian troops, which prop up the government, moved from their base at a factory in Yaqshid and tried to enter areas not previously under their control.
“ I don’t know The casualties caused by Ethiopians using heavy gunfire and tank shells and machine guns armed islamist fighters in residential areas of the war-torn capital “ Salah Dhere a resident in Jamhuriya who trapped in a house nearby told Shabelle English service.
The violence has swelled an already huge internal refugee problem, with the United Nations World Food Programme already feeding about 1.5 million people, and the International Committee of the Red Cross and the aid group CARE feeding many others.
The upsurge in violence comes as the country is on the brink of a severe drought.
The TFG is only able to survive with Ethiopian military backing and strong international backing from the United States and Britain. Yusuf has renewed calls for the US and the UN support to help the TFG.
Al-Shabab, which means “the youth” in Somali, was initially the youth wing of the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), but is now effectively its military wing. When the UIC was driven from power in 2006 by the Ethiopian-backed TFG, many of its leaders fled to Eritrea, but al-Shabab stayed and regrouped in remote areas.
For the past 18 months, they have been conducting armed battles against the Ethiopian/Somali troops and attacking African Union peacekeepers.
In the last few months, they have launched many hit-and-run raids on small towns, only to disappear before reinforcements arrive, with arms and military vehicles seized from Somali government and Ethiopian troops.
The tactic began as an attempt to stretch the Ethiopian forces supporting the TFG. But they now appear to be consolidating their hold in some areas.
They have recently taken control of Bur Hakaba, near the seat of parliament in Baidoa, Dinsor and Wajid in south-central Somalia, and the southern coastal town of Guda.
The US has recently added al-Shabab to its list of “foreign terrorist organizations,” calling it “a violent and brutal extremist group with a number of officials affiliated to al Qaeda.”
A senior member of al-Shabab, Sheikh Muktar Robow, tol Mareeg reporter that he welcomed the US decision. “Al-Shabab feels honoured to be included on the list. We are good Muslims and the Americans are infidels.”
“We are on the right path,” he said, though he rejected the US accusations that the group is linked to Al Qaeda. “We are fighting a jihad to rid Somalia of the Ethiopians and its allies, the secular Somali stooges,” he added.
The Ethiopian presence, and its actions such as the attack on the mosque, is having the effect of the armed Jihad even the more moderate factions in Somalia who are increasingly unwilling to negotiate until the Ethiopian troops have left the country.