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Somalis Expect US, Ethiopian Intervention
IOL - MOGADISHU — Ethiopia and the US are expected to intervene militarily in Somalia especially after the Joint Islamic Courts (JIC) fighters have seized full control of the capital Mogadishu following four months of fighting with a US-backed warlord alliance, well-placed sources told IslamOnline.net on Tuesday, June 6. "Ethiopia has put its troops along the borders with Somalia on maximum alert and might push them into its Horn of Africa neighbor to stem further advances by the JIC fighters," said the sources, which spoke only on condition of anonymity. The Ethiopian government will try everything in its power to prevent the JIC fighters from capturing the strategic central city of Jowhar, some 90 kilometers north of the capital, they added.

The JIC announced Monday, June 6, seizing control of nearly all of the lawless capital and a key supply line for the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT) on its northern outskirts. In a statement read over local radio stations, the chairman of the city's Joint Islamic courts, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmad, said 15 years of warlord control of Mogadishu was over and urged residents to accept the new leadership. "We are not against any group and will deal with the outside world in a manner that takes the interests of our country and people into account first," he said.

At least 347 people have been killed and more than 1,500 wounded, many of them civilians, in fierce battles between the JIC fighters and the ARPCT since February.
Posted by: Steve 2006-06-09
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=155553