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Africa Horn

Somalia goes to war...

2006-12-22

Bodies lay in the streets and fighters pounded each other with heavy artillery and mortars for a third day Thursday as Somalia's Islamic leader announced the country was now at war, leaving a day-old peace initiative in tatters.

The Ethiopian-backed interim government fought for control of strategic areas close to its base with fighters from the rival Islamic movement. The clashes threaten to spiral into a major conflict in this volatile region, sucking in Ethiopia and its bitter rival Eritrea. Analysts believe Ethiopia may soon raise the stakes by deploying attack helicopters in support of the government. An Associated Press photographer saw 19 bodies of Islamic fighters in Moode Moode, a town 15km from the government garrison town of Baidoa, where fighting had taken place Wednesday.

Posted by:Fred

#9 Goodness me! Them boys got lips like .10¢ pickles!

Posted by: Circles it is! 2006-12-22 16:05

#8 Where do we send our donations ?

Posted by: wxjames 2006-12-22 18:36

#7 aQ got NO stingers in the Afghan war as they Afghans wouldn't allow the Arabs in to join the fight. Binnie and pals stayed in Peshawar talking the talk and spreading the moolah, but few Arabs were actually fighting.

Posted by: Brett 2006-12-22 18:21

#6 The Ethiopians were well supplied by the Soviets during the Junta period, including a fair number of Hinds, T-55s, BMPs, MiGs and the like. They have had issues since the fall of the Soviet Union and the collapse of the Communist Junta with spare parts, but they have been working hard in the past decade to rectify that situation.
And any Stingers that Al-Q got during the Soviet War in Afghanistan were stolen from or sold by the other groups that the West supported. Besides which, you won't want to bet your life on the launcher batteries from that period, 15 year shelf life.

Posted by: Shieldwolf 2006-12-22 18:13

#5 Soon to be reporting from Kigali, Ouagadougou, and Brest.

Posted by: Seafarious 2006-12-22 10:17

#4 No wonder they can't find Jamil Hussein in Baghdad, he's in Mogadishu ...

Posted by: Steve White 2006-12-22 08:27

#3 "Analysts believe Ethiopia may soon raise the stakes by deploying attack helicopters in support of the government."

Ethiopia's got attack helicopters? Ex Soviet? Al Quaeda was pretty tough on those in Afghanistan back in the day - but maybe that was by using US Stinger missiles, which hopefully the Somalians do not have. Can't imagine they won't have Chinese equivalents though - or will soon.

Will some 'talented outside observers' be helping the helos with tactics and targetting? And pilotting?

Posted by: Glenmore 2006-12-22 07:44

#2 Is GREEN HELMUT GUY gonna be there????

Posted by: ARMYGUY 2006-12-22 06:37

#1 An Associated Press photographer saw 19 bodies

Did he actually take a photo of the bodies as proof? Perhaps the photographers name was police captain Jamil Hussein who, as we already know, exists (wink, wink,nudge, nudge) and can be trusted implicitly to tell us the truth.

Posted by: Scott R 2006-12-22 01:02

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