Somalia's powerful Islamist movement yesterday demanded the immediate withdrawal of Ethiopian troops who have moved into the town of Baidoa to protect the country's weak government.
As Baidoa residents reported the arrival of more Ethiopian military vehicles in the town overnight, the Islamists said they could not accept their presence on Somali territory, but stopped short of threatening to attack them.
"We are urging Ethiopia to immediately and without delay withdraw its troops and stop interfering in Somali affairs," said Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, chair of the executive committee of the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia (SICS).
"We are urging Ethiopia to just be a good neighbor," he told reporters in Mogadishu, which the Islamists seized from a US-backed alliance of warlords last month and from where they are expanding their control.
In Baidoa, about 250km northwest, residents said at least nine more large Ethiopian military vehicles carrying supplies, but no troops, moved into the town early yesterday.
"Nine big trucks arrived in Baidoa carrying logistics for the Ethiopian troops," Baidoa resident Hassan Moalim Ahmed told reporters. "There were no soldiers in the lorries, but they had food and military items."
These followed an initial convoy of more than 100 trucks with several hundred Ethiopian soldiers that witnesses said rolled into Baidoa and surrounding areas on Thursday, after Islamist militia advanced on a nearby town.
The Islamists pulled back on Thursday but not before Somali prime minister Ali Mohamed Gedi accused them of plotting to attack Baidoa and the government in violation of a truce and mutual recognition deal.
The Islamists have repeatedly denied they were planning or are planning to attack Baidoa, but their success in taking Mogadishu and asserting control elsewhere is a challenge to the largely powerless transitional government.
Neighboring Ethiopia along with some western countries fears the rise of a fundamentalist Islamic state in Somalia, which has been without a functioning central government for the past 16 years.
Ethiopia has said it will defend the transitional government from attack by the Islamists, who it and the US accuse of harboring extremists, including al-Qaeda members wanted for attacks in east Africa.
Despite increasing eyewitness accounts of uniformed Ethiopian soldiers in Baidoa, however, Somali government officials and Ethiopia continued to deny their presence in the town or anywhere else in Somalia.
"This is absolute propaganda from the Islamists," Somali government spokesman Abdirahman Mohamed Nur Dinari said. "There are no Ethiopian troops in Baidoa. Anybody with the evidence should come forward."
A senior Somali government security source said "a few" Ethiopian troops were in Baidoa, although he insisted they were there to train Somali troops and were not an occupying or protective force.
"A few Ethiopian officers here to help the government train security forces have arrived," the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.
He insisted that the numbers were small and maintained the situation had been exaggerated.
"The media and Mogadishu-based Islamists have blown the matter out of proportion," the security official said. "No Ethiopian troops are here to occupy Somalia.
"As a friendly neighboring country, they will assist the government to form its own forces," he said.
The tension has kept prospects for peace talks between the government and Islamists uncertain, amid growing international concern about a potential eruption of fighting.
On Thursday, UN chief Kofi Annan added his voice to the chorus of concern, calling for all parties involved "to refrain from actions that could further strain relations."
Somalia has been wracked by lawlessness since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, which plunged the nation of about 10 million people into anarchic bloodletting.
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