The Dubious Ethiopian Invasion

of The Somal

Ethiopia had been a satellite in the American/”Israeli” orbit since the days of the Helasi Lasi Empire, with an interruption during the rule of the communist co-detat regime that succeeded the old Emperor’s regime, to return to a stronger submission then it was under him to the two colonialist allies. And as well known there is a group of new African rulers in the Nile basin who are supported by the United States thus consequently the Zionist entity. They are besides Ethiopia those of Uganda, Rwanda, Eretria, Democratic Congo, Kenya, Tanzania and the Popular Army for the Liberation of Sudan. Of course, as well known there are colonialist goals especially for the Zionist enemy that couldn’t be hidden, namely to encircle Arab states. As The Somal is also considered as an Arab state the encirclement naturally includes it. Ethiopia has historical covetous colonialist ambitions, and religious fears thus it was always a target for its wars and invasions, which goes along with American/Zionist policies; so the present Ethiopian invasion of The Somal receives their dubious blessings and full support.

Thus in addition to the Somali Ogadin region, which was annexed by Addis Ababa in the early twentieth century, the “Ethiopian Empire” even though its name changed to the “Republic of Ethiopia”, but still the imperial Ethiopian ambitions in The Somali Land did not change. Ethiopia still looks for annexing more of its land especially to have access to the sea, also making use of the presence of Zionist instigation against any thing that is Arab.

Blundering Into Somalia Yet Again

By Eric Margolis

01/02/07 Ethiopia’s invasion of Somalia under cover of the Christmas holiday was a blatant aggression that is likely to widen the arc of conflict across the dangerously turbulent Horn of Africa. It also marks the opening of a new front in Washington’s war against Islamic militants and reformers.

Claims by Ethiopia that Somalia, a nation without any real military forces, threatened its border were as fanciful as assertions by Washington and Addis Ababa that the so-called "transitional government" they had installed in the town of Baidoa represented anything more than its own well-paid members.

The US-backed and financed Ethiopian offensive was clearly designed to crush the first stable government strife-torn Somalia has had in 15 years of civil war and anarchy. The new Islamic regime, known as the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), recently managed to bring law and order to much of southern and central Somalia. In the north, a secessionist group has proclaimed something called independent "Puntland."

The Union of Islamic Courts ended Somalia’s long civil war by crushing local warlords who were being armed and financed by the CIA. The US claims the Islamic Courts is a second Taliban-style movement containing "terrorists" involved in the 1998 bombings of US embassies in East Africa who will turn Somalia into a hotbed of anti-American subversion. The UIC denies these allegations.

More important, under the Bush/Cheney Administration, any movement that has the audacity to call itself "Islamic" immediately becomes a target of American hostility. The embarrassing total defeat of US-backed Somali warlords by the Islamic Courts militia led directly to Washington’s decision to press Ethiopia to invade Somalia.

Ethiopia has one of Africa’s more powerful, well-trained armed forces with over 1,300 tanks and a modern air force that are now increasingly equipped and aided by the United States.

The repressive regime of strongman Meles Zenawi seems the antithesis of President George Bush’s calls for democracy, but has become a primary ally of Washington that is seen as a bulwark against Islamic forces in Africa. Washington has quietly supported Ethiopia in its long border war against its bitter foe, Eritrea. In recent months, the Eritrea has become an important supplier of small arms and munitions to Somalia.

Somalia’s ragtag Islamist militias are helpless against Ethiopian tanks, artillery and attack aircraft. Ethiopia’s army could quickly occupy all of Somalia, but it would then be very hard-pressed to protect its long, vulnerable supply lines against attack by Somali guerilla forces.

Ethiopia has enough men to wage a two-front war against Somalia and Eritrea, but a prolonged conflict would seriously undermine its fragile economy. Accordingly, Ethiopia’s likely strategy is to protect the western-imposed rump regime in Baidoa and launch attacks to prevent the UIC from consolidating power. But involvement by traditional enemy Ethiopia will undoubtedly further inflame Somali passions and strengthen the Islamic Courts. The latest war in the Horn of Africa could easily widen into a wider conflict that involves Eritrea, strife-torn regions of southern Sudan and Uganda, and northern Kenya, which has many ethnic Somalis.

Equally important, prolonged war with Somalia could open fissures in unstable, multiethnic, multi-religious Ethiopia. Though usually depicted as a Christian nation, at least 50 percent of Ethiopians are Muslim, and 35–40 percent Christians. Ethnic Amhara and Tigrayans comprise 32 percent of the population, while long-oppressed, rebellious Muslim Oromo in the south account for over 40 percent.

Ethiopia’s Muslims have long sought a voice in their nation’s affairs but were brutally repressed by Ethiopia’s royalist, Marxist, and now, the Tigrayn regimes. Conflict with Somalia could re-ignite the Oromo independence movement and lead to the splintering of Ethiopia, producing a reverse mirror image of ethnic-religious strife between Sudan’s northern Muslims and southern Christians and animists.

Ethiopia’s war against Somalia presents a more dangerous regional threat than an Islamic-run Somalia. The Bush/Cheney Administration is again showing its reckless ignorance and arrogance by charging into a tribal conflict, as it did in Afghanistan and Iraq, about which it knows nothing. Once again, Washington’s "cure" will be shown to be far worse than the disease it claims to address.

What Washington should be doing is talking to leaders of the Islamic Courts to ensure Somalia is not used as a new base for al-Qaeda operations. This is a fair request that can be sweetened by offers of financial support and assurances the Ethiopians will be leashed. But this appears too subtle for the administration’s ham-handed crusaders who have already blundered into two lost wars and are now courting a third.

Eric Margolis [send him mail], contributing foreign editor for Sun National Media Canada, is the author of War at the Top of the World. See his website.

Copyright © 2007 Eric Margolis

The Zionist entity took advantage in the past of civil wars especially in The Somal - and moved under a human cover, it established many centers in The capital, Mogadishu, and in other districts to extend help to the Somalis, which is done through a fund supported by the U.S. department of state, the Zionist International Organization, the Zionist "Bnei Brit" organization, "Junit" organization and other Zionist organizations in the United States. This center was rehabilitated by 250 "Israeli" experts, who arrived in The Somal in 1992. The Zionist enemy’s instigation to Ethiopia to invade The Somal as per its philosophy does not contradict with the alleged “human aid”. The Zionist enemy to achieve its goals, besides exploiting the Somali/Ethiopian conflict, it also exploited that between Sudan and Ethiopia, Sudan/Eretria and Egypt/Ethiopia. It continually instigates any possible party against Arab

In order to infiltrate The Somal Land, "Israel" tried to build relations with the leaders of the Somali factions by trying to appease them with direct military, economic and health help that were made through its participation in the second conference for coordinating human assistance for The Somal held in Addis Ababa in December 1992.

Adib S. Kawar

   http://www.dailystar.com.lb Compiled by Daily Star staff Wednesday, December 27, 2006   Ethiopia claims to have Somali Islamists on the run

  The African Union backed Ethiopia's right to intervene. Diplomats say that, coupled with Washington's tacit support, may embolden Meles to try to seize Mogadishu. 

Ethiopia said on Tuesday it was halfway to victory against Somali Islamists and could seize their Mogadishu stronghold within days following 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 killed and 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.

"We have already completed half our mission, and as soon as we finish the second half, our troops will leave Somalia," Meles told a news conference in the Ethiopian capital.

He said a force of between 3,000 and 4,000 Ethiopians had "broken the back" of the Islamic Courts Council around the government's south-central outpost Baidoa, and that the Islamists were in "full retreat." 

Ethiopia backs Somalia's secular interim government against the Islamists, who hold most of southern Somalia after seizing Mogadishu in June.

Somalia's envoy to Addis Ababa said Ethiopian soldiers had advanced to within 70 kilometers of Mogadishu and could capture it in 24-48 hours.

Islamist spokesman Abdi Kafi said any such attempt "will be their destruction and doomsday ... It is a matter of time before we start striking at them from all directions."

Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmad, a senior Islamist leader, confirmed that he asked his troops to tactically retreat.

"We have decided to change our tactics," he said from Mogadishu. "The war is entering a new phase. We will fight Ethiopia for a long, long time and we expect the war to go everyplace."

Ahmad declined to elaborate, but some Islamic leaders have threatened a guerrilla war to include suicide bombings in Addis Ababa. He also accused Ethiopian troops of massacring 50 civilians in the central town of Cadado.

It is unclear whether the Islamist militia will regroup for a counterattack, or switch to hit-and-run tactics the government and Ethiopian troops will have difficulty defending against.

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 ouster of dictator Siad Barre.

The UN 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.

The Information Ministry said two Ethiopian separatist groups were also involved.

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.

"Over 800 war wounded have arrived at the various medical structures around Baidoa and Mogadishu is the last few days," said Antonella Notari, spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross. "Thousands of people are fleeing the combat areas. It is too early to tell if this is a temporary displacement."

The African Union backed Ethiopia's right to intervene. Diplomats say that, coupled with 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 border, was trying to broker ceasefire talks.

Thousands of Islamist fighters crammed into trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns and left Mogadishu for the front lines.

Analysts say Ethiopia's heavy arms and MiG jets had saved the government.

"This is the first stage of victory ... When this is all over, we will enter Mogadishu peacefully," Somali government spokesman Abdel-Rahman Dinari said. "We ask all the foreign fighters to pull out of the country and allow Somalis to seek ways of reconciling and establishing peace. We strongly appeal to the Islamic courts to put down arms because the government has made a decision to give them complete amnesty." - Agencies

   For how long can a state keep  the finger of its permanently mobilized citizenry'
on the trigger in the hostile environment in which  it placed itself
by the force of arms and state terror?

   Ethiopian jets bomb airports in Somalia..
  They are doing the bidding of their western masters who STRESS military aid more than humanitarian or economic aid to poor countries such as Ethiopia…   Mike     How ironic. They can't even provide food and shelter for their population and they are out spending what is left of their economy on warfare.   Yahoo News: MOGADISHU, Somalia - Ethiopian jets bombed Somalia'stwo main airports Monday while ground troops captured three villages and a strategic border town, lending Somalia's internationally backed government crucial military aid in its struggle against a powerful Islamic militia.   About Ethiopia- taken from https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/et.html#Econ   Ethiopia's poverty-stricken economy is based on agriculture, accounting for half of GDP, 60% of exports, and 80% of total employment. The agricultural sector suffers from frequent drought and poor cultivation practices. Coffee is critical to the Ethiopian economy with exports of some $156 million in 2002, but historically low prices have seen many farmers switching to qat to supplement income. The war with Eritrea in 1998-2000 and recurrent drought have buffeted the economy, in particular coffee production. In November 2001, Ethiopia qualified for debt relief from the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative, and in December 2005 the International Monetary Fund voted to forgive Ethiopia's debt to the body. Under Ethiopia's land tenure system, the government owns all land and provides long-term leases to the tenants; the system continues to hamper growth in the industrial sector as entrepreneurs are unable to use land as collateral for loans. Drought struck again late in 2002, leading to a 2% decline in GDP in 2003. Normal weather patterns late in 2003 helped agricultural and GDP growth recover in 2004-05.     Issa  

Ethiopia Hits Somalia Airports
    By Jeffrey Gettleman
    The International Herald Tribune

    Monday 25 December 2006

    Nairobi - An Ethiopian fighter jet strafed Mogadishu's airport Monday in a show of force that took the growing conflict in the Horn of Africa to Somalia's capital for the first time.

    Four more Ethiopian fighter planes then attacked a second, intensely guarded military airport west of Mogadishu, witnesses said, where Islamist forces are said to store their heavy weapons and ammunition.

    Meanwhile, across the country, Somalia's Islamist leaders conceded that they were rapidly losing territory to the forces of Somalia's internationally recognized transitional government.

    In Beledweyne, a town near the Ethiopian border, residents resumed the lives they led before the Islamist regime, not even a day after the Islamist forces pulled out. A truck hauling qat, a mildly narcotic leaf that the Islamists had outlawed, pulled into the market to a burst of cheers.

    "It was wonderful to see that truck," said Farah Abdi Dereer, a vendor of spare parts.

    The fighting between Somalia's transitional government and the country's powerful Islamist movement, based in Mogadishu, has been raging on and off for nearly a week. On Sunday, Ethiopia joined the hostilities, bombing Islamist positions in several front-line areas and pushing ground troops deep into Somali territory.

    Ethiopian officials have said that they sided with the transitional government because the Islamists, whom American officials have accused of harboring Qaeda terrorists, posed a threat to the region.

    On Monday, witnesses in Mogadishu said, a lone Ethiopian fighter jet came roaring over the Indian Ocean around 9 a.m., fired machine guns at the parking lot of the international airport, which was mostly empty, and banked sharply away.

    The attack was apparently meant to be more a show of force than a destructive mission; the only reported casualty was an airport cleaning woman who was slightly wounded. It did, however, have the intended effect of shutting the airport down as Daallo Airlines, one of the last carriers to fly into Somalia, promptly canceled all service.

    Ethiopian officials said they were following specific instructions by the transitional government to seal Somalia's borders so no more foreign fighters could come in. According to United Nations officials, the Islamists are being supported by several thousand Eritreans, Libyans, Syrians and Yemenis who have responded to the call of a holy war against Ethiopia, a Christian- led country.

    In Baidoa, the inland seat of the transitional government, top officials were sounding increasingly confident. After months of isolation in a provincial market town, too weak to spread their administration to Somalia's cities, transitional government officials laid out an ambitious three-part plan.

    "We're going to eradicate the enemy, we're going to appoint administrators and we're going to rule nationwide," said Abdirizak Adam Hassan, chief of staff for President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed.

    A few weeks ago, this would have sounded preposterous. But the injection of forces from Ethiopia, which commands the most powerful military in the region, seems to be dynamically changing Somalia's wobbly balance of power.

    Still, with attacks and counterattacks continuing, the outcome remains far from certain. Western diplomats have cautioned Ethiopia not to try to overthrow the Islamists and occupy Mogadishu, fearing that would spawn a long, messy guerrilla war.

    Already, thousands of people, with barely enough to eat before the conflict started, are fleeing their homes and their farms, creating a worrisome situation for the few aid organizations still operating in Somalia.

    Ethiopian officials reiterated Monday that they felt they were forced to act because of the threat the Islamists posed to their security. Medhane Tadesse, an Ethiopian author who has written extensively on Somalia issues, said he believed the Ethiopian government was not planning a long campaign.

    "What they are trying to do is weaken the Islamists to the point where there can be a negotiated political settlement," he said. "If they stay too long, they will lose."

    So far, the Ethiopian military seems to be selecting targets mostly outside urban areas in an effort to reduce collateral damage.

    But the extent of the casualties is hard to tell. Warfare in Somalia is traditionally mobile and small-scale, fought between armed pickup trucks and small crews of fighters. Red Cross officials have said that they have treated more than 400 people for combat wounds, and United Nations officials put the death toll from the past week in the low hundreds.

    Both sides have published pictures of the dead sprawled on the battlefield. On Monday, the Islamists showed images of prisoners of war with their arms bound behind their backs and their throats slit. Last week, the Islamists vowed to execute all captives.

    Though the Islamist leaders conceded Monday that they retreated from two towns they had controlled - the transitional government said the true number was five - they seemed unbowed. Mosques in Mogadishu continued to blare out recruitment calls and thousands of young men, many in their early teens, continue to enlist.

    But some people in Mogadishu who used to support the Islamists - who did indeed bring a semblance of order to a very dangerous city - were beginning to express doubts.

    Asho Ali, a mother of eight, went to the hospital on Sunday to see her 16- year-old son, who had been wounded fighting for the Islamists. On Monday, he died.

    "For no reason we are losing our children," she said. "Why are they doing this?"

    Go to Original

    Ethiopia Presses Military Offensive Into Somalia
    By Mahad Ahmed Elmi
    McClatchy Newspapers

    Monday 25 December 2006

    Mogadishu, Somalia - Ethiopian troops seized towns throughout southern and central Somalia on Monday and bombed the international airport at Mogadishu, Somalia's capital, in a rapid escalation of a two-day-old offensive against Islamic fundamentalists who've controlled most of Somalia for the past six months.

    The better-armed Ethiopians encountered no resistance from fighters of the fundamentalist Council of Islamic Courts at Baladweyne, a strategic town on the main road from Ethiopia into central Somalia, and later seized Aadado after fighting there. Ethiopian troops and Somali militiamen reportedly were advancing toward Jowhar, an Islamic fundamentalist stronghold 50 miles north of Mogadishu.

    It's not clear, however, whether the Ethiopians intend to seize Jowhar or press their campaign to Mogadishu. Ethiopian officials said they've declared war on Somalia, and analysts said Ethiopian forces, equipped with tanks, heavy artillery and jet aircraft, would likely defeat the more lightly armed Islamic fighters in direct combat.

    But analysts said the Ethiopians would be unable to control Somalia's vast expanses for an extended period and that prolonged fighting would rally both Somalis and foreign fighters to the Islamic cause. They suggested that Ethiopia's likely goal is to force the Islamic Courts to negotiate a power-sharing agreement with Somalia's weak, but internationally recognized transitional government headquartered at Baidoa.

    "The goal is to break the court's military capacity and bring them back to the negotiating table from a position of weakness," said Matt Bryden, a consultant for the Belgium-based International Crisis Group, who's been monitoring the fighting from Nairobi, Kenya. "Neither side can win this conflict."

    Tension between Ethiopia, whose Christian-led government sees itself as a bulwark against the spread of radical Islam, and the Council of Islamic Courts has been building since June, when the CIC seized control of Mogadishu. The CIC quickly routed militia leaders who'd been receiving aid from the United States as part of a CIA-run counter-terrorism program and expanded its control to much of southern and central Somalia, where it imposed Islamic law.

    U.S. officials have charged that the CIC is sheltering al-Qaida figures believed responsible for attacks on Americans, though other diplomats and analysts have questioned the claims. U.S. officials have said they've urged restraint on Ethiopia, but analysts say the U.S. has signaled tacit approval of Ethiopian intervention through a series of recent actions, including a visit to the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, by Gen. John Abizaid, commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East.

    Somalia's transitional government has almost no military forces of its own and is dependent on Ethiopia for protection.

    On Sunday, Ethiopia, saying the CIC threatened its national security, acknowledged for the first time that it had thousands of troops inside Somalia and launched an offensive that included the bombing of four strategic towns in central and southern Somalia.

    On Monday, Ethiopian ground forces moved forward on multiple fronts.

    At Baladweyne, just a few miles from the Ethiopian border, Ethiopian troops encountered no resistance as they entered the town in the early morning, one day after Ethiopian planes had bombed what was described as a training camp for Islamic fighters. Within hours, according to residents of the town, several movie theaters that the CIC had ordered closed had reopened. A CIC ban on the sale and use of khat, a popular narcotic leaf that Somalis chew, also was lifted.

    The Ethiopian forces imposed a three-day curfew on the town, even though many residents reported relief that the fundamentalists had been driven out.

    Fierce fighting erupted in the districts of Daynuunay and Hiiran, northeast of Baidoa, where the two sides exchanged heavy artillery bombardments. Eyewitnesses said several fighters from both sides were killed, but there was no official word on casualties and no reliable way to determine their extent.

    Fighting was also reported at Iidaale in the south.

    In addition to the Mogadishu airport, Ethiopian planes bombed a CIC military airfield at Baledogle, 60 miles west of Mogadishu, and a bridge at Kalabayka in central Somalia, apparently in an effort to prevent Islamic forces from withdrawing toward the south and reinforcing positions closer to the capital.

    The bombing of the airport at Mogadishu came at about 9:30 a.m. when fighter jets dropped two bombs on the runway. The bombs killed a woman maintenance worker and damaged the runway, but did not prevent the arrival an hour later of the CIC's top two leaders, Sheikh Hassan Daahir Aweys and Sheikh Shariif Sheikh Ahmed.

    There was no official word on where the two officials had been, but rumors circulated that they'd spent the last two days in Eritrea, a bitter rival of Ethiopia and the CIC's principal backer. About 2,000 Eritrean troops are reported to be inside Somalia, but their role, if any, in the fighting was unclear.

    Hundreds of foreign fighters, primarily from Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Asian peninsula, reportedly have arrived in recent days to bolster the CIC. Bryden said he'd received reports that many of those fighters were involved in fighting near Baidoa.

    Bryden also said he was concerned that the bombing of the airport at Mogadishu would encourage the CIC, which has no aircraft at its disposal, to seek ways of bombing targets in Addis Ababa and to stir up religious tensions between Ethiopia's Christians and its Muslims, who make up about 50 percent of the country's population.

    "From the perspective of the courts, bombing the Somali capital probably legitimizes bombing the enemy capital," Bryden said. "Whether you deliver it by air or by more primitive means is not the issue."

    McClatchy correspondent Mark Seibel contributed to this report from Washington, D.C.

U.S. trainers prepare Ethiopians to fight


By Monte Morin, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Saturday, December 30, 2006

DIRE DAWA, Ethiopia — As soldiers of Ethiopia’s Christian government continued to rout Islamist militiamen in southern Somalia this week, 2nd Cpl. Wonderfraw Niguse celebrated his own victory on the parched scrublands of eastern Ethiopia hundreds of kilometers to the north.

With the sporadic barking of baboons or braying of donkeys in the distance, the 25-year-old squad leader led two successful ambushes against simulated enemy forces here as his fellow trainees charged through thickets of needle-sharp thorn bushes and down dried river beds.

The feat, which Wonderfraw and his fellow soldiers cheered with songs of victory and courage, was accomplished during a three-month basic infantry skills course offered by the U.S. military at the sprawling Ethiopian Training Academy in Hurso.

“They are very good, these techniques that they are teaching us,” Wonderfraw said through an interpreter. “I appreciate everything they are teaching us, especially the ambush. They instruct us on how to establish it and provide security. The ambush is very interesting for me.”

Troops attached to the Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa have been training Ethiopian soldiers in basic infantry tactics, officer logistics and maintenance since 2003, when the U.S. government identified the East African country as an ally in its global war on terror. Similar training programs are ongoing in Djibouti and Kenya.

 Ethiopia urged to leave Somalia
Wednesday, 27 December 2006, 17:17 GMT

The African Union has called on Ethiopia to withdraw thousands of troops from Somalia immediately.

The call, supported by the Arab League and the east African grouping IGAD, comes after Ethiopia intervened to support Somalia's interim government.

In recent days, Ethiopian and Somali government forces have captured ground previously held by Islamic militias.

They are reported to be 30km (19 miles) north of the capital Mogadishu, after seizing the towns of Jowhar and Balad.

The Somali Prime Minister, Ali Mohammed Gedi told the BBC the people of Mogadishu would welcome his troops with flowers when they arrived in Mogadishu, and said the Ethiopian troops would be sent home as soon as the government controlled the whole country.