AP News, December 11th, 2006
Islamic militiamen were moving on an Ethiopian border town to try to seal the 1,000-mile frontier and keep out any advancing Ethiopian troops while trapping those already in Somalia, an Islamic movement official said Monday.
"Our fighters, with a large number of battle wagons, are now advancing on Tiyeglow," said Mohamed Ibrahim Bilaal, an Islamic movement official.
"We will go to all border towns in our country to deprive our enemy of a route to enter into our country. Also we don't want the enemy inside Somalia to get an exit route to flee from it when the jihad starts," Bilaal told The Associated Press by telephone.
Somalia's transitional government, which is backed by Ethiopia against the growing threat posed by the Islamic movement, has sent about 700 troops to defend Tiyeglow, said Mohamed Ali Gaboobe, a government militia commander.
The latest military buildup further raises fears of intensified conflict in Somalia. The Council of Islamic Courts, which controls the Islamic militiamen, already has hundreds of combatants within striking distance of the transitional government in southern and central Somalia.
Tiyeglow is about 90 miles northeast of Baidoa, the only town the government controls. Tiyeglow, on the potholed main road between the Ethiopian border and Baidoa, is believed to be one of the towns through which Ethiopian troops have entered Somalia and may be on their supply route.
Both the transitional government and Ethiopia have consistently denied there are Ethiopian troops in Somalia, with Ethiopia saying it only has a few hundred military advisers helping the transitional government form a national army.
A confidential U.N. report obtained by the AP in October said that there are 2,000 soldiers from Eritrea inside Somalia backing the Islamic movement, in addition to 6,000-8,000 Ethiopian troops in Somalia or along the border backing the government. Eritrea denies having any troops in Somalia.
A Somali human rights group said Sunday it feared renewed fighting could lead to a repeat of past human rights violations, such as rape, torture, kidnapping and looting.
Somalia has not had an effective central government since warlords overthrew longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned on each other.
A transitional government was formed two years but it has been unable to assert its authority over the country. Since June, the Council of Islamic Courts has seized Mogadishu and taken control of much of southern Somalia.
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Associated Press writer Salad Duhul in Mogadishu contributed to this report.
