Its on in Somalia
The Ethiopian Army has come to the rescue against the Somali-Taliban asshats by dropping bombs on the two main airports around Somalia’s largest city. According to this AP story Mogadishu International Airport had its single runway and a building used by Islamic forces damaged and Baledogle Airport was also hit. These are great strategic moves since both fields have been key supply links for arms from Iran, Syria and Eritrea.
Sunday marked the first time Ethiopia has acknowledged that its troops are fighting in Somalia, though witnesses had been reporting their presence for weeks. Ethiopia supports Somalia’s U.N.-backed government, which has been losing ground to the Islamists since June.
“Our defense force has been forced to enter a war to defend against the attacks from extremists and anti-Ethiopian forces and to protect the sovereignty of the land,” Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said in a television address Sunday night. “Our intention is to win this war as soon as possible.”
Ethiopia dropped bombs on several towns held by the Council of Islamic Courts and its soldiers used artillery and tanks elsewhere. No reliable casualty reports were immediately available.
Remember the the Islamists called jihad on Ethiopia many times over the last few months:
MOGADISHU, Somalia Ethiopian troops briefly entered a strategic hilltop town in Somalia Monday alongside government fighters, residents and Islamic militia said, and Somalia’s radical Islamic forces declared a holy war against Ethiopia.
“I urge all the Somali people to wage holy war against the Ethiopians,” said top Islamic leader Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, wearing combat fatigues and holding aloft an AK47 assault rifle. “We need action rather than words,” he told a brief news conference in Mogadishu, the capital his forces hold.
But you have love the Ethiopian replies like this:
ADDIS ABABA, Dec 23 (Reuters) - Ethiopia said on Saturday an appeal to foreign Muslim fighters by Somalia’s Islamists proved the “extremism” of the movement Addis Ababa accuses of being run by al Qaeda-linked militants.
“If wishes were horses, the extremists in the Islamic Courts Union would have attacked Addis Ababa by now,” Ambassador Solomon Abede, Foreign Ministry spokesman, told Reuters. “Their declaration appealing to foreign Muslim fighters to help in war against Ethiopia proves their extremist behaviour.”