Attacking at dawn, Ethiopian and Somali government troops yesterday drove Islamic movement fighters out of the last major town on the road to the capital.
A former warlord, who ruled the town of Jowhar before it was captured by the Council of Islamic Courts in June, led the Somali government troops as they drove into the city, residents said.
"Ethiopian troops and Mohammed Dheere have entered the city," Abshir Ali Gabre said.
Dheere, who was wearing a white "I Love Jowhar" T-shirt, shook hands with residents and handed out dozens of the shirts to residents.
Government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari said his troops were heading toward the small village of Balad, about 30km away. A resident there, Mohammed Abdi Hassan, said by telephone that the Islamists had left and that no one was in control.
But fighting could still be heard at a military camp south of Jowhar, and an Islamic movement official said his troops were simply entering a new phase in their battle.
"Our snakes of defense were let loose, now they are ready to bite the enemy everywhere in Somalia," Sheik Mohamoud Ibrahim Suley said.
He did not elaborate, but some Islamic leaders have threatened a guerrilla war to include suicide bombings in Addis Ababa.
Ethiopian forces entered the country in large numbers on Saturday, and Ethiopian fighter jets crossed the border on Sunday to help Somalia's UN-backed government push back the Islamists.
Government forces attacked Jowhar yesterday with artillery, mortars and heavy machine guns, and Islamic fighters used irrigation canals as fortifications, witnesses said. The militia, which wants to rule Somalia according to Islamic law, had stopped what their leaders earlier called a tactical retreat to defend Jowhar.
Hundreds of people have been fleeing Jowhar, anticipating major fighting, but others seemed resigned to it.
"We do not know where to escape, we are already suffering from floods, hunger and disease," said Abdale Haji Ali in Jowhar. "We are awaiting death."
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said on Tuesday that he had received unconfirmed reports that as many as 1,000 people had died and 3,000 were wounded since the fighting began on Saturday.
"Some of them are Somalis, but a very significant proportion of them are not Somalis," Meles told reporters in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, referring to foreign Islamic radicals who reportedly joined the fighting.
The International Committee of the Red Cross reported that 850 people, now at hospitals supported by the relief agency in Mogadishu and Baidoa, had been injured since the fighting began, but there was no figure for fatalities.
Meles said his forces had completed about half of their mission. He said there were 3,000 to 4,000 Ethiopian troops in Somalia -- "but no more."
Meles said he aimed to severely damage the courts' military capabilities and allow both sides to return to peace talks on an even footing. He said he would not send troops into Mogadishu, which the Islamic movement has held since June.
At the UN on Tuesday, the secretary-general's special representative to Somalia told an emergency meeting of the Security Council that fighting had expanded across a 400km-wide area.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique