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Somalian Islamists Shut Off
// Ethiopia deprived the United Islamic Courts of airports
Ethiopia’s air force bombed the airports of neighboring Somalia yesterday, including Mogadishu International Airport. This way, Addis Ababa is trying to shut off the supply channels of weapons and mercenaries for Somalian Islamists, to whom it declared war a few days before. At the same time, Ethiopian troops supported by tanks and artillery crossed Somalia’s border, beginning a large-scale offensive on the United Islamic Courts grouping. Experts are sure of Ethiopia’s victory, as well as of the fact that Somalia will now become a hotbed of international terrorism.
Ethiopia’s air force attacked Mogadishu International Airport first. Somalia’s capital, as well as the larger part of the country, is now controlled by the United Islamic Courts movement. The airport is located in the center of Mogadishu, and thousands of people witnessed morning events. “I heard the roar of turbines and thought it was a passenger plane coming in to land,” said one of the airport’s employees. At that moment, two MiG jets with Ethiopian markings raided the airport a couple of times, dropping two bombs and shooting away their ammunition loads at it.
“This airport is used for civil flights,” protested the United Islamic Courts spokesman Abdi Kafi after the bombing. “Besides, this raid was made when faithful Muslims begin the hajj, and airports are full of people.”
However, it was definitely not the pilgrims that Ethiopian pilots were interested in. Employees of Mogadishu airport said that almost no one suffered from the raid, just one cleaning woman was slightly injured. Ethiopian jets’ main targets were the runway and the taxi track. They are completely destroyed. Similar bombings were made during the day, targeting some more airports mainly in southern Somalia controlled by the United Islamic Courts.
The purpose of yesterday’s raids is obvious: Ethiopia is trying to close all Somalia’s air gates, to deprive Islamists of supplies from abroad. According to the UN’s findings, such countries as Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Libya, Eritrea, and Djibouti break the international embargo and help Somalia’s Islamists. At the same time, Ethiopian Navy began patrolling Somalia’s coast, to block supply channels from the sea. Large units of Ethiopian troops crossed the border, and moved deep into Somalia’s territory with support of tanks and artillery.
Several days before, Addis Ababa officially declared war against the United Islamic Courts. Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said that his country “was forced to declare war” against Somalian Islamists to “protect its sovereignty and to put an end to the continuing attacks of terrorists and anti-Ethiopia elements which they support”. Addis Ababa underlines that Ethiopia’s actions is not aggression, but a desire to help Somalia’s interim government which is officially recognized by the world.
Somalia’s government yesterday announced the closing of the country’s outer borders. Apparently, twenty ministers with several hundreds of servicemen, who now control just a small area around the town of Baidoa where they are blocked by Islamic forces, are not capable of securing the execution of their own order. So, the interim cabinet acknowledged the fact. “The government decided to close land, sea, and air borders, and asks the international community, including neighboring states, to help carry out this decision,” said the government’s spokesman Abdirahman Dinari. Thus, Addis Ababa may always say that it is carrying out the request of Somalia’s legal government.
However, Ethiopia needn’t worry about the reaction of the world to its full entering into war against Somalia. The West, especially the U.S., is afraid of Somalian Islamists. The United Islamic Courts is compared to the Taliban movement which suddenly appeared in mid-1990s and took over almost entire Afghanistan in the course of just a few months. Talibs’ success was also due to the fact that Afghan people were exhausted by the many-year civil war. So, the people gladly submitted to the new strong power that guaranteed order, even if tough order. Besides, Talibs gave shelter to terrorist number one Osama ben Laden, and turned Afghanistan into one big camp for training Islam warriors.
Situation in Somalia is developing in a similar way. The civil war there is going on since 1991. The United Islamic Courts took control over almost the entire country in half a year. They are strongly supported by rich Muslim states, and attract thousands of Muslim mercenaries from all over the world. The West thinks that Somalia will soon turn into a Taliban’s Afghanistan with all following consequences up to new September 11s.
First serious attempts to influence the situation in Somalia were made in July, a month after Islamists seized the country’s capital Mogadishu almost without fighting. The primary role in the struggle against international terrorism (the West began calling the United Islamic Courts its accomplice) was given to Ethiopia. Several factors conditioned this choice. For instance, Ethiopia is close to the West because of its Christianity. Then, it is Somalia’s close neighbor. Moreover, it has military strength and experience which surpass those of other countries in the region.
Addis Ababa secured the tacit approval and, experts believe, the financial backing from the West, and got down to business zealously. Military advisors from Ethiopia were constantly present in Somalian interim government’s headquarters already since July 2006. Several thousands of Ethiopian servicemen were trying to stop Islamists’ expansion to the north. Ethiopian authorities officially denied their involvement in the military conflict, assuring that they just technically support Somali’s legal cabinet. However, those efforts passed in vain. Despite Ethiopian support, Somalia’s interim government and allied field commanders kept surrendering town by town. At last, it was decided to begin full-scale war against Islamists.
Many experts believe that Ethiopian army, equipped with relatively modern Russian-made weapons and huge military experience, will win victory over armed groupings of Somalian Islamists. However, it should be taken into account, that Ethiopia is counterfacing a grouping united by the strongest ideology in the modern world, which has hundreds millions of supporters worldwide, who are ready to fight till the end even with bare hands. Last Sunday it was proved by the United Islamic Courts’ Information Minister Abdurrahim Ali Modei, when he was asked to confirm or negate Islamists’ large losses. “Yes, it is true. But it is a victory,” he said. “For our soldiers are already in heaven.”
Alexander Reutov
All the Article in Russian as of Dec. 26, 2006
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