Ethiopian-Somali Talks Fall Apart

Tensions Rise Along Border As Ethiopian Troops Enter Somalia

(AP) 
"There is not a single Ethiopian solider on Somali soil. I deny that the Ethiopians have taken control of Wajid. Our troops control there," Deputy Information Minister Salad Ali Jeeley told The Associated Press in Baidoa, where the fragile transitional government is based.

In the town of Wajid, the base for southern Somalia operations for U.N. agencies and other aid organizations, residents said the Ethiopian troops did not meet any resistance when they took over the airport.

Aid workers and U.N. staff in the town also said there were Ethiopian soldiers in Wajid. They, too, asked not to be identified by name because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Wajid, which has experienced relative peace compared with other southern Somalia towns, such as Baidoa, is run by a clan-based administration that has not allied itself with the transitional government or with the Islamists.

Ethiopian troops first moved into Somalia on Thursday to protect the government, which has been challenged for power by Islamic militants. A force of more than 400 Ethiopian troops entered Baidoa, 150 miles northwest of the capital, Mogadishu, which the Islamic militia controls.

The militia, which also took control of most of southern Somalia over several weeks of fighting last month, deployed some of its fighters to within striking distance of Baidoa on Wednesday. But they pulled back as the Ethiopian troops moved in.

The Islamic militia's leader responded to the Ethiopian incursion by calling on all Somalis to wage holy war against Ethiopia, a largely Christian country that is Somalia's traditional enemy.

Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, in a radio broadcast on Friday, said Ethiopia was seeking to bolster what he described as a puppet regime. He said President Abdullahi Yusuf, his longtime rival, has "been a servant of Ethiopia for a long time."

Residents of Baidoa reported seeing hundreds of Ethiopian troops, in uniform and in marked armored vehicles, entering Baidoa on Thursday and taking up positions around Yusuf's compound.

Somali government leaders may be reluctant to acknowledge that Ethiopian troops have come to their aid because they do not want to appear to be beholden to the country's traditional adversary. Anti-Ethiopian sentiment still runs high in much of this almost entirely Muslim country.

Ethiopia's move could give the internationally recognized Somali government its only chance of curbing the Islamic militia's increasing power. But the incursion could also be the pretext the militiamen need to build public support for a guerrilla war.

The United States on Thursday urged Ethiopia to exercise restraint and said the European Union, the United States, the African Union, the Arab League and others in an international contact group on Somalia will meet soon to consider the volatile situation.

Somalia has been without an effective central government since warlords toppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned on each other, carving much of the country into armed camps ruled by violence and clan law.