Somali militia threaten Ethiopia
Islamic militia leaders in Somalia have threatened to wage what they called a holy war against Ethiopia unless it withdraws its troops from Somalia.
Ethiopia has denied reports its forces crossed the Somali border on Thursday but a BBC reporter has seen Ethiopian troops patrolling the town of Baidoa.
The transitional government of Somalia is based there.
Ethiopia has repeatedly warned it will intervene to protect Baidoa against any attack by Islamist militiamen.
The militiamen are loyal to the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) movement, which last month took control of the Somali capital, Mogadishu.
On Wednesday, militia fighters were reported to have advanced to within 60km of Baidoa but they have denied planning to attack the town.
The United Nations has urged all sides in Somalia to respect a ceasefire agreement and to resolve their differences through negotiations.
BBC African analyst Martin Plaut says the Ethiopian action puts the future of the transitional government in question.
Far from buttressing the administration, he says it may be the final blow to its credibility.
Many MPs will not wish to serve in what will be seen as a puppet government, and observers believe they may leave Baidoa, he says.
Ethiopia has been a long-term ally of President Abdullahi Yusuf and in the 1990s helped him defeat an Islamist militia led by one of the UIC's leaders, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys.
A UN report earlier this year said that Mr Aweys had been getting significant military aid from Ethiopia's rival, Eritrea - a claim Eritrea has denied.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/5201830.stm
Published: 2006/07/21 01:35:17 GMT
Profile: Somalia's Islamist leader
By Joseph Winter
BBC News
Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys is one of the leaders of the Islamist group which controls much of southern Somalia, including the capital, Mogadishu.
The United States says it will refuse to deal with him - he has been on the US list of people "linked to terrorism" since shortly after the 9/11 attacks in 2001.
Mr Aweys has been named to head the Union of Islamic Courts' Shura, a consultative body, while Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, previously chairman, now heads the executive committee.
It is still not clear which man is more powerful.
A former army colonel, Mr Aweys was put on the US list because he used to head al-Itihaad al-Islamiya, an Islamist militant group accused of having links to al-Qaeda in the 1990s.
Mr Aweys, 61, however, strongly denies the US allegations.
"It is not proper to put somebody on a list of terrorists who has not killed or harmed anybody," he told the AFP news agency.
"I am not a terrorist. But if strictly following my religion and love for Islam makes me a terrorist, then I will accept the designation."
Smiling
I met him in 2004 in his large, well-maintained family house set down a labyrinth of dirt tracks in a middle class Mogadishu suburb, over the road from the mosque where he preaches.
Sitting cross-legged on the floor, talking softly and calmly and often smiling through his red, henna-stained beard, the small, elderly man did not give the impression of being a terrorist mastermind.
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SHEIKH HASSAN DAHIR AWEYS
Former army colonel
Led Islamist militia
Defeated by President Yusuf and Ethiopia
Muslim scholar
On US 'terror' list
Denies links to al-Qaeda
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Children were happily running around the house and courtyard, until Mr Aweys shooed them away while I interviewed him.
Afterwards, he tried to convert me to Islam but I managed to avoid this by asking him to pray for me.
He moved around quite openly in Mogadishu, albeit in a convoy of armed guards, including a technical - a truck with an anti-aircraft gun mounted on the back.
But in lawless Mogadishu, such extensive security is not exceptional for those who can afford it.
BBC Mogadishu correspondent Hassan Barise says that despite being on the US list, he has been able to travel abroad quite freely - to Saudi Arabia and Dubai, without being arrested.
He has always denied allegations that he was running training camps for Islamist fighters in Somalia.
Amputations
"No-one here is fighting against the US," he said in 2004, insisting that he is merely a Muslim scholar, who believes that only Sharia law and Islam offer the solution to Somalia's problems.
However, he agreed with those who say that worldwide, Islam is under attack by the US and its allies and supports "the Mujahideen who are fighting back".
After al-Itihaad was defeated in the 1990s, he started to play a key role in the emerging Islamic courts, being set up by businessmen desperate for some kind of law and order in a city ruled by warlords.
Although these courts imposed such punishments as amputations for thieves and stoning to death for serious crimes such as rape and murder, they were warmly welcomed by residents of north Mogadishu, who felt safer than those who lived in warlord-controlled but lawless south Mogadishu.
In the past two years, the gunmen who enforced rulings from the separate clan-based Islamic courts joined forces, becoming Somalia's strongest militia.
Mr Aweys was always the courts' spiritual leader, although Sheikh Ahmed was officially the group's chairman.
Many observers were surprised at the speed with which the Islamic courts militia defeated a coalition of the warlords who had controlled Mogadishu since 1991.
Personal history
Some credit Mr Aweys with organising the fighters' training and strategy, although he was not in Mogadishu during the battles, staying in the central Galgudud region.
Earlier this year, a UN report said that he had been getting significant military aid from Eritrea - a claim Eritrea has denied.
Eritrea may be supporting the Islamists because of its long-standing rivalry with Ethiopia, which is seen as being close to the weak, interim UN-backed government based in Baidoa, about 200km north of Mogadishu.
Mr Aweys has a long personal history of fighting Ethiopia.
Reuters news agency reports that he was decorated for bravery during Somalia's war against Ethiopia in 1977.
Ethiopia later helped the man now interim president, Abdullahi Yusuf, defeat al-Itihaad forces in the 1990s.
However, at an early stage in the fighting, Mr Aweys captures Mr Yusuf and put him in jail.
When Mr Yusuf was elected president in 2004, Mr Aweys said he would support the new Somali leader, even if he pursued those linked to al-Itihaad, as long as he ruled the country according to Islam.
"The good of the Somali people is more important than my personal interests," he said.
However, Mr Aweys' public promotion could set the stage for renewed conflict, with the US and Ethiopia again backing those opposed to Islamist rule.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/5120242.stm
Published: 2006/06/30 07:39:38 GMT
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Ethiopia 'seizes new Somali town'
The Islamists control much of southern Somalia
Ethiopian troops have reportedly moved into another town in south-western Somalia, two days after entering the country to protect the weak government.
Eyewitnesses say about 200 Ethiopian soldiers took control of the airstrip outside Waajid early on Saturday.
There is no confirmation from either the Ethiopian or the Somali government.
The Union of the Islamic Courts (UIC), a militia which controls the capital and much of the south, has vowed to drive out Ethiopian troops.
The Ethiopians moved into Somalia on Thursday and have been seen in Baidoa, where the beleaguered interim government is based.
'Holy war'
Eyewitnesses quoted by the Associated Press news agency say Ethiopian soldiers seized the airport at Waajid, about 70km (43 miles) to the north, before dawn on Saturday.
The town had been controlled by a local militia. It is unclear whether there was any fighting.
Other residents told Somali media that they had seen Ethiopian soldiers in the town centre.
The UIC has pledged to wage a "holy war" to drive out Ethiopian troops.
The Islamic militia drove the warlords from the capital, Mogadishu in June, saying they wanted to restore law and order.
The UIC has since consolidated its power over many parts of southern Somalia.
But Ethiopia is strongly opposed to the militia and has repeatedly warned that it will send its army into Somalia if the government is attacked.
Ethiopia has been a long-term ally of President Abdullahi Yusuf.
UIC leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys has accused him of being "a servant of Ethiopia".
A UN report earlier this year said that Mr Aweys had been getting significant military aid from Ethiopia's rival, Eritrea - a claim Eritrea has denied.
Mr Aweys has denied US accusations that he and the UIC have links to al-Qaeda.
Ethiopia warns Somali Islamists
Friday 21 July 2006 7:54 AM GMT
Islamists oppose the Ethiopian-backed Somali government
Ethiopia says it will "crush" the Somali Islamic courts group, a day after it threatened a holy war against Addis Ababa, which it accused of sending troops to protect Somalia's weak interim government.
Saturday's warning came as witnesses reported an incursion of Ethiopian troops into a second Somali town close to Baidoa, the seat of the country's UN-backed but toothless government, ostensibly to protect it from any advance by the Islamists.
Residents in the town of Wajid, some 100km south of the Somali-Ethiopian border, said about 250 heavily-armed Ethiopian soldiers arrived early in the day.
But a district official in Wajid denied the presence of the troops.
Ethiopia and the Somali government have denied any incursion by Addis Ababa's troops.
A Somali government spokesman said: "This is absolute propaganda from the Islamists. There are no Ethiopian troops in Baidoa. Anybody with the evidence should come forward."
Addis Ababa vowed to "crush" the Islamic militia if they dared cross into its territory.
"Ethiopia has made it clear on several occasions that there is a border line they don't have to cross, if they do they will be crushed," a senior government official said on condition of anonymity.
Call to arms
On Friday, the leader of Somalia's Islamist movement had urged his countrymen to wage a "holy war" against Ethiopia.
The call from Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, head of the consultative Union of Islamic Courts' Shura, came a day after Ethiopian troops moved into Baidoa.
Aweys said Ethiopia deployed troops "to protect a [Somali] government which they set up to advance their interests".
He said Abdullahi Yusuf, the Somali president and his longtime rival, has "been a servant of Ethiopia for a long time".
Residents of Baidoa reported the arrival of nine large Ethiopian military vehicles carrying supplies, but no troops, early on Friday.
Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, chairman of the executive committee of the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia, said: "Somalia is under attack and Somalis must defend their country.
"Anybody who sides with Ethiopia will be considered a traitor."
He was speaking from Mogadishu, the Somali capital, which the Islamists seized from a US-backed alliance of militia commanders last month.
"We are urging Ethiopia to immediately and without delay withdraw its troops and stop interfering in Somali affairs," Sheikh Sharif said.
A convoy of more than 100 trucks with several hundred Ethiopian soldiers rolled into Baidoa and surrounding areas on Thursday, after Islamist militia advanced on a nearby town.
The Islamists pulled back on Thursday, but the Somali prime minister, Ali Mohamed Gedi, accused them of plotting to attack his government in violation of a truce and mutual recognition deal.
Agencies
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