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| Africa Horn | |
| Islamic Courts declare "jihad" on Ethiopian troops | |
| 2006-06-19 | |
The Union of Islamic Courts that have taken control of Mogadishu and parts of southern Somalia in recent weeks have declared "jihad" on Ethiopian troops who have allegedly crossed into Somalia. The Chairman of the Courts, Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, said that Ethiopia should not allow its troops to enter Somalia and added that heavily armed militias loyal to the Courts will take military action against the invasion of Ethiopian troops.
The Islamic Courts chief also spoke about interim Somali president Abdullahi Yusuf's comments during an interview with the BBC Somali Section yesterday. Chairman Sheik Sharif said that President Abdullahi should not use terminology that could risk the chance of peaceful dialogue between the interim federal government based in Baidoa and the Islamic Courts who command vast territory in Somalia, including the capital city at Mogadishu. Chairman Sheik Sharif welcomed peace talks with the Somali federal government but warned against the interference of foreign forces intent on invading Somalia. The leader of the Islamic Courts' comments come a day after the Ethiopian foreign ministry denied that Ethiopian military forces have crossed into Somalia to back the Baidoa-based interim government. | |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #10 1. Individual fighters versus fighters even basically trained in coordinated operations is not in the former's favour. The ICU appears to have former expatriates with military training, non-expatriates trained by friendly governments, and perhaps not a few advisors. 2. The Ethiopians fought the Italians on the former's land. The situation is reversed. |
| Posted by: Fordesque 2006-06-19 19:42 |
| #9 Ethiopians have a pretty good reputation as hard-corps individual fighters. They share the same strengths of mountain people as do the Scots' Highlanders. Remember that they defeated the Italians in 1896 in the First Italo–Abyssinian War, and almost beat them a second time in WWII, until the Italians used copious amounts of mustard agent. N.B.: The League of Nations was proven to be useless by this war, acting just the same way that the UN acts today. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-06-19 16:06 |
| #8 Too bad all the B-52Ds are gone. The "Big Belly" mod let them use the entire width of the bomb bay for weapons, 84 500 pounders in the belly and 24 more on the wings. Three cells of D's could really make the ground shake. |
| Posted by: RWV 2006-06-19 15:56 |
| #7 Of course, the fact that for about a half-mile outside the strike box there are fatal concussive injuries just adds to the beauty of an ARCLIGHT. Besides, the level of pre-existing damage to Mogadishu from the decade and a half of looting, and clan fighting, would make any urban renewal a snap : build ANYTHING and you have made a major improvement. |
| Posted by: Shieldwolf 2006-06-19 15:41 |
| #6 Chewing khat makes you dribble green goo down your front, and gaze vancantly into the distance. But I s'pose in some circles that does feel like invincibility. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-06-19 14:22 |
| #5 But chewing Khat makes you invincible. |
| Posted by: Howard UK 2006-06-19 14:06 |
| #4 Tou discount too severly the morale factor of an ARCLIGHT. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2006-06-19 13:42 |
| #3 We don't do ARCLIGHTs anymore. Unnecessary. A Buff with a full load-out of JDAMs making a run, however, sounds like a fine idea. Have we got good GPS coords for these guys? |
| Posted by: mojo 2006-06-19 13:31 |
| #2 I would have no qualms about running an ARCLIGHT strike through the heart of Mogadishu. There would be no islamic court, al-qaida, or any other type of terrorist to raise an objection afterwards. Make it a 9-ship cell, the outer ships overlapping. We can always rebuild afterwards. There will be lots of rubble to use for fill. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2006-06-19 13:18 |
| #1 Yeah, yeah, we know, occupation, infidels, resistance, blah, blah, blah. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2006-06-19 12:13 |