From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Fri Sep 12 2008 - 07:34:56 EDT
Six Ethiopians killed in Somalia
Thu, 11 Sep 2008 22:26:44 GMT
Ethiopian troops in Somalia
At least six Ethiopians have been killed and 23 others injured in a new series of clashes in the southern part Mogadishu.
One Ethiopian officer was killed in front of the Ethiopian base of Ifka Halane in the capital, a Press TV correspondent reported on Thursday.
More than eight guards of the dead officer were also injured in the fighting.
In another incident, five Ethiopian soldiers were killed in the town of Baletweyn and 15 others injured on Thursday.
Somalia has been without an effective central government since President Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991. In 2006, US-backed Ethiopian troops invaded the country in an attempt to back Somalia's Transitional Federal Government.
Fighting between Ethiopian-backed government forces and insurgents has killed thousands of Somalis and displaced more than a million others. The country is considered as the most dangerous war envrionment on the African continent.
Ethiopians vow to fight Somali fighters
Thu, 11 Sep 2008 16:37:01 GMT
The troops' new announcement runs counter to Zenawi's promises of withdrawal.
Somali-based Ethiopian forces have vowed to fight with Somali fighters calling Premier Meles Zenawi's promises of withdrawal into question.
Local residents in the outskirts of the southern Somali town of Baidoa began to flee as they found out about the new decision by the troops who had poured into the town in their thousands, said one Press TV correspondent.
Last month, the Ethiopian prime minister had said the soldiers were to give up on Somalia 'urgently' after two years of unsuccessful attempt at strengthening the country's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) with a specific view to contain the country's insurgency.
Somalia has been in an ongoing state of upheaval since 1988 when a civil war broke out and warlords ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.
Somalia's Transitional Federal Government, bolstered by US-backed Ethiopian troops, has been embroiled in bitter conflict with the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) and other anti-government groups including the al-Shabaab fighters that form the armed wing of the UIC.
Al-Shabaab came to existence after the Ethiopian surge in 2006 contributed to the TFG's deposition of the popular UIC.
The fighters from both groups, meanwhile, were reported to be preparing for what seemed to be a pincer attack on the Ethiopians. The first contingent of the fighters who was dispatched for the purpose was said to be comprised of around 9,000 gunmen.
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