By ANTHONY MITCHELL
The Associated Press
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
The announcement comes amid mounting tensions between the militia and Somalia's official government, which has the support of Ethiopia but has struggled to assert control. The Islamic group already has hundreds of combatants within striking distance of the government base in Baidoa.
"If the Ethiopians don't withdraw from Somalia within seven days, we will launch a major attack," Sheik Yusuf Indahaadde, national security chairman for the Islamic group, told a news conference in the capital, Mogadishu.
Somali Information Minister Ali Ahmed Jama Jengali said the government was prepared.
"The government forces have established defense lines and will defend the city," Jengali told The Associated Press in Baidoa, which was teeming with soldiers Tuesday. Troops in new uniforms were patrolling the city and manning checkpoints where they prevented people from entering Baidoa.
"They (the Islamic courts) are in a war mode and want to expand by force," Jengali said. "The international community has to wake up to this and see that this expansion is threatening our country."
A confidential U.N. report obtained by The Associated Press in October said up to 8,000 Ethiopian troops were in Somalia or along the border backing the government. Ethiopia has acknowledged sending military advisers, but denies sending a fighting force.
On Monday, Islamic militiamen were moving on the Ethiopian border town of Tiyeglow to try to seal the 1,000-mile frontier and keep out any advancing Ethiopian troops while trapping those already in Somalia.
Somalia has not had an effective central government since warlords overthrew longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned on each other. The transitional government was formed two years but it has been unable to assert its authority over the country.
Since June, the Council of Islamic Courts has seized Mogadishu and taken control of much of southern Somalia. The group's strict interpretation of Islam has drawn comparisons to the Taliban, although many Somalis credit the council with bringing a semblance of order to a country that has seen little more than anarchy for more than a decade.
Besides the political volatility, the impoverished nation is struggling to recover from the worst flood season in East Africa in 50 years. At least 230 people have died from floods and related waterborne diseases since October in Kenya, Somalia, Rwanda and Ethiopia, according to the U.N.'s World Food Program.
The rains were supposed to end by November, but are expected to continue through January in a region where drought left the soil so dry it was unable to absorb the deluge.
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AP reporter Mohamed Olad Hassan contributed to this report from Mogadishu.
Source: AP, Dec 12, 2006