Ethiopian Jets Target Islamic Militia

Ethiopia's prime minister says his country has been "forced to enter a war" against Somalia's powerful Islamic movement.

Ethiopia has sent fighter jets into neighboring Somalia, bombarding several towns.

It's the first time that Ethiopia has acknowledged its troops are fighting in Somalia, though witnesses have been reporting their presence for weeks.

Ethiopia, a largely Christian nation that fears the emergence of a neighboring Islamic state, dropped bombs on several towns held by the Council of Islamic Courts and its soldiers used artillery and tanks elsewhere. No reliable casualty reports were immediately available.

Ethiopia has been providing military support to Somalia's U.N.-backed government, which has been losing ground to Islamic forces since June.

"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."

The Council of Islamic Courts controls the capital, Mogadishu. The U.S. accuses the group of having ties to al Qaeda, which it denies.

Experts fear the conflict in Somalia could engulf the already volatile Horn of Africa. A recent U.N. 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, which was ousted by a U.S.-led campaign for harboring Osama bin Laden. The U.S. government says four al Qaeda leaders, believed to be behind the 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, have become leaders in Somalia's Islamic militia.

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency paid Somali warlords to capture the suspects early this year, but they were routed by the Islamic courts, who seized the momentum to take control of the capital, Mogadishu, and most of the southern half of the country. Several rounds of peace talks have failed to yield any lasting results.

Major fighting broke out Tuesday night, but had tapered off before Sunday's battles began before dawn and continued for about 10 hours. Ethiopian forces fought alongside secular Somali soldiers in Dinsoor, Belet Weyne, Bandiradley and Bur Haqaba, officials said.

Witnesses said a strategic road and an Islamic recruiting center were hit in Belet Weyne, and 12 Ethiopian soldiers were reportedly captured nearby.

"We saw 12 blindfolded men and were told they were Ethiopian prisoners captured in the battle," said Abdi Fodere, a businessman in Belet Weyne.

Less serious fighting also was reported in Baidoa — the only town the government controls.

"I think they have met a resistance they have never dreamt of before," Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf said in brief remarks from Baidoa as the fighting began to die down.

But Suley said his forces had destroyed four Ethiopian tanks outside the city.

As Sunday's fighting wore on, the Islamic leadership in the capital, Mogadishu, began broadcasting patriotic songs.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has said his government has a legal and moral obligation to support and defend Somalia's internationally recognized 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 250 kilometers (140 miles) northwest of Mogadishu.

The violence hits an already devastated country where one in five children dies before the age of 5 from a preventable disease. The impoverished nation also is struggling to recover from the worst flood season in East Africa in 50 years.

The U.N. World Food Program said it started dropping food into the region Sunday shortly after the airstrikes started.

"Air drops are a last resort — the roads aren't drying up and people need food," said Leo van der Velden, WFP Deputy Country Director for Somalia.

Government officials and Islamic militiamen have said hundreds of people have been killed in clashes since Tuesday, but the claims could not be independently confirmed. Aid groups put the death toll in the dozens. Somalia's Ambassador to Ethiopia, Abdikarin Farah, said the vast majority of the dead are from the Islamic forces.

Somalia has not had an effective government since warlords overthrew longtime 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.