Islamic Bloc Wants Ethiopian Forces Out of Somalia
Patrick Goodenough
Managing Editor(CNSNews.com)
As Ethiopian troops backing Somalia's weak interim government reported significant gains against Islamist forces with suspected links to al-Qaeda, a bloc of Islamic nations demanded that Ethiopia withdraw its forces from Somalia immediately.
But a State Department spokesman was quoted as saying that Ethiopia was acting out of "a legitimate and genuine security concern."
Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, secretary general of the 56-state Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), warned in a statement issued in Saudi Arabia that the fighting could "engulf the entire region and even beyond."
Ethiopian warplanes reportedly launched air strikes against Islamist positions this week, following several days of artillery firing between the two sides. In what has become an increasingly complex conflict, Ethiopia is backing Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) against the Islamic Court Union (ICU) -- also known by several other names including the Islamic Courts Council -- which seized control of Mogadishu after routing a reportedly U.S.-supported alliance of warlords and businessmen last June.
ICU advances had raised concerns that the TFG -- which is based not in the capital but the town of Baidoa northwest of Mogadishu -- could be toppled, but Ethiopia's intervention appears to have shifted the balance.
The Islamists, meanwhile, are being supported militarily by Ethiopia's longstanding foe, Eritrea, and the U.N. said in a recent report that as many as eight more nations -- including Iran, Saudi Arabia and other Muslim states as well as non-Muslim Uganda -- have been providing weaponry and equipment to the warring sides.
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1) Islamic Bloc Wants Ethiopian Forces Out of Somalia
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