VARIOUS: Ethiopia Prime Minister Meles Zenawi predicts victory against Somali Islamists, who are in full retreat
Record ID:
1531747
VARIOUS: Ethiopia Prime Minister Meles Zenawi predicts victory against Somali Islamists, who are in full retreat
- Title: VARIOUS: Ethiopia Prime Minister Meles Zenawi predicts victory against Somali Islamists, who are in full retreat
- Date: 27th December 2006
- Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Somali) CHAIRMAN OF ISLAMIC COURTS SHEIKH SHARIF SHEIKH AHMED SAYING: "Our enemies from Ethiopia were more than we expected, and we realized we need more troops. We used ex Somali Military personnel and Islamic courts special militias in the regions and we call others who have not joined us to come and join for Jihad." WIDE OF SHEIKH SHARIF AND ISLAMIC MILITIA CHIEFS (SOUNDBITE)(Somali) CHAIRMAN OF ISLAMIC COURTS SHEIKH SHARIF SHEIKH AHMED SAYING: "Already Ethiopians have started massacring our men and women, some of them are beheaded." SHIEKH SHARIF TALKING TO JOURNALIST
- Embargoed: 11th January 2007 11:06
- Keywords:
- Topics: War / Fighting,International Relations
- Reuters ID: LVAF37ETBEO7Q7KAQJKU9MDSIZPK
- Aspect Ratio: 4:3
- Story Text: Ethiopia said on Tuesday (December 26), it was halfway to victory against Somali Islamists and could seize their Mogadishu stronghold within days after a week of war in the Horn of Africa.
Islamists countered that they were ready for a long war and any attempt to oust them would prove disastrous for their foes. The Red Cross said hundreds were wounded in the latest fighting.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said his forces supporting Somalia's weak interim government had killed up to 1,000 Islamist fighters. There was no independent verification of that. The Islamists also claim to have killed hundreds.
Ethiopia backs Somalia's secular interim government against the Islamists who hold most of southern Somalia after seizing Mogadishu in June. Addis Ababa and Washington say the Islamists are backed by al Qaeda and by Ethiopia's enemy, Eritrea.
The U.N. Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting to be briefed on Tuesday by Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special envoy for Somalia, Francois Lonseny Fall of Guinea.
Meles said his forces' main target now were Eritrean troops and foreign jihadists. He said a handful of Islamist prisoners taken on the battlefield were holding British passports.
"So when we talk about International Jihadists we mean international, not just Middle East. These are the only targets we have; not towns; not the Somali people; not even the Islamic Court militia. So I do no see any reason why this thing should be protracted. I would be very surprised if this thing were not to be wound up over the next days -- at most a week or so," he said.
At least two Ethiopian jets fired missiles on retreating Islamist fighters on Tuesday shortly after pro-government forces recaptured two towns near Baidoa. It was the third day of Ethiopian air attacks in the escalating conflict.
The African Union (AU) backed Ethiopia's right to intervene. Diplomats say that, allied to Washington's tacit support, may embolden Meles to try to seize Mogadishu.
The fighting could now draw in Eritrea on the side of the Islamists, the diplomats said. They added that Kenya, which is taking in a flood of Somali refugees across its north border, was trying to broker ceasefire talks.
The chairman of the Islamic courts Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed told reporters that his troops had been forced to retreat.
"Our enemies from Ethiopia were more than we expected, and we realized we need more troops. We used ex Somali Military personnel and Islamic courts special militias in the regions and we call others who have not joined us to come and join for Jihad," he said.
Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed said Ethiopian forces had been killing civilians.
"Already Ethiopians have started massacring our men and women, some of them are beheaded," Sheikh Sharif added.
The Islamists claim broad popular support and say their aim is to restore order to Somalia under sharia law after years of anarchy since the 1991 ousting of dictator Siad Barre.
The Islamists insisted their retreat was a tactic in what they vowed would be a long war.
Thousands of Islamist fighters crammed into trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns and left Mogadishu for the frontlines.
Addis Ababa fears a hardline Muslim state on its doorstep and accuses the SICC of wanting to annex Ethiopia's ethnically Somali Ogaden region. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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