Somalia's Islamic militia said yesterday it had trained special forces to carry out guerrilla warfare against Ethiopian troops supporting the UN-backed government.
The announcement came during a lull in fighting between the militia and government forces. Islamic forces have declared they want to bring the whole country under Koranic rule and vowed to continue attacks to drive out troops from neighboring Ethiopia, a largely Christian nation that is providing military support.
On Friday, officials said that hundreds of people had been killed since Tuesday night.
"Special forces who are highly trained in guerrilla warfare are now ready to attack Ethiopians, wherever they are in Somalia," said Sheik Ibrahim Shukri Abuu-Zeynab, a spokesman for the Islamic movement.
Sporadic gunfire and shelling could be heard on Friday around Baidoa, the UN-backed government's only stronghold, but residents and officials said the fighting had tapered off.
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, northwest of the capital.
Islamic militiamen have control over Mogadishu along with most of southern Somalia.
The clashes could mean a major conflict in this volatile region.
Ethiopia, which has one of the largest armies in the region, and its bitter rival, Eritrea, could use Somalia as the ground for a proxy war. While Ethiopia backs the internationally recognized government, Eritrea backs the Islamic movement.
In Kismayo, a strategic seaport captured from the government by Islamic militia in September, several foreign Arab fighters were seen by residents unloading from ships.
Government officials said more than 600 Islamic fighters had been killed during four days of clashes. Islamic militia said they had killed around 400 Ethiopians and government fighters. Neither claim could be independently confirmed.
In New York, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called on both sides to "cease the hostilities immediately and to resume the peace talks ... without delay and without any precondition," his spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said in a statement released late on Friday.
He also voiced "grave concern" over reports of the involvement of "foreign forces ... and he implores all involved to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Somalia."
Annan is "deeply concerned that the escalation of conflict in Somalia will have disastrous consequences for civilians, who are already suffering from the effects of years of instability and deprivation, compounded by the severe flooding that has recently affected parts of the country," Dujarric said.
The UN issued a statement in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on Friday calling for an "immediate end" to the conflict.
It was unclear how long the guns would remain quiet, as earlier on Friday four Ethiopian attack helicopters and about 20 tanks headed for battle, witnesses and a government official said.
Bodies lay in the streets of villages where attacks had taken place on Thursday night, and families began to abandon their homes, crops and livestock, fearing worsening fighting. Hundreds of people in areas held by the Islamic forces were also fleeing.
"I think we have lost hundreds of our animals in the fighting, most of them were caught in the crossfire," said Malable Aden, who reached Mogadishu by car. "We were supposed to reap our harvest of this season, but unfortunately we were forced to leave them behind for the pigs and birds to destroy them."
PHISHING: The con might appear convincing, as the scam e-mails can coincide with genuine messages from Apple saying you have run out of storage For a while you have been getting messages from Apple saying “your iCloud storage is full.” They say you have exceeded your storage plan, so documents are no longer being backed up, and photos you take are not being uploaded. You have been resisting Apple’s efforts to get you to pay a minimum of ￡0.99 (US$1.33) a month for more storage, but it seems that you cannot keep putting off the inevitable: You have received an e-mail which says your iCloud account has been blocked, and your photos and videos would be deleted very soon. To keep them you need
The Israeli military has demolished entire villages as part of its invasion of south Lebanon, rigging homes with explosives and razing them to the ground in massive remote detonations. The Guardian reviewed three videos posted by the Israeli military and on social media, which showed Israel carrying out mass detonations in the villages of Taybeh, Naqoura and Deir Seryan along the Israel-Lebanon border. Lebanese media has reported more mass detonations in other border villages, but satellite imagery was not readily available to verify these claims. The demolitions came after Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz called for the destruction of
A US YouTuber who caused outrage for filming himself kissing a statue commemorating Korean wartime sex slaves has been sentenced to six months in prison, a court in Seoul said yesterday. Johnny Somali, 25, gained notoriety several years ago for recording himself doing a series of provocative stunts in South Korea and Japan, and streaming them on platforms such as YouTube and Twitch. South Korean authorities indicted Somali — whose real name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael — in 2024 on public order violations and obstruction of business, and banned him from leaving the country. “The court has sentenced him to six months in
The death toll from a shooting in western Afghanistan rose to 11 on Saturday, after gunmen targeted civilians at a picnic spot in Herat, the provincial authority said. Bullet marks were visible on a wall of the Sayed Mohammad Agha Shia shrine, while bloodstains marked a blanket abandoned at the scene. “Eleven people have been recorded dead and eight others wounded from Friday’s incident, with the condition of two of the wounded reported as critical,” Herat’s information office said in a statement. The update raises a toll of seven killed provided on Friday by the Afghan Ministry of Interior Affairs
RSS