SOMALIA: Hundreds of Kismayo residents joins Islamic Courts as militia to fight Ethiopian troops a day before the ultimatum they issued expires

Somalis of all ages roared support for the powerful Islamists' call to defend their nation against their traditional rival and dozens registered with the movement to fight for their cause Sunday (December 17). The Islamists, who control a swathe of southern Somalia and are challenging the authority of its Western-backed government, have exploited traditional popular Somali hatred against Ethiopia, which in the past has not hesitated to send in troops. "We need to strengthen our religion and defend it from the coming or invading enemy and we would like all our muslim brothers to join us in defending our religion and country," said new recruit Abdi Farah after registering as a jihadi. Tensions are boiling in the Horn of Africa country between the increasingly assertive Islamists and the interim government, as the religious movement extends its authority and tries to get control of weapons in a nation awash in them. "God created some men for food and other men for fighting, we want to be those God created for war and fight our enemy and defend our religion and country, we don't want to be those who get angry when they miss food and feel nothing when the religion is violated," said an official in charge of recruitment for Islamic Courts, Hassan Yakub. Many fear the standoff could erupt into a region-wide war, sucking in Ethiopia and rival Eritrea -- which denies charges of sending weapons to the Islamists. Last week, more than a hundred government soldiers arrived in Mogadishu after defecting from the government base in the central town of Baidoa. The soldier drove in with their battlewagons, some with heavy anti-aircraft machineguns mounted on them. Senior Islamic Courts Union officials welcomed them to the fold. The Mogadishu-based Islamists' defence chief has vowed to strike if Ethiopian troops protecting the government at Baidoa, the only town it controls, do not leave by Dec. 19. The ultimatum has increased fears of a new war in the conflict-riven nation, mired in anarchy since the ousting of a dictator in 1991. The Islamists have declared a jihad against Ethiopia for their support of the embattled Somali government.

ITN Source | December 19, 2006

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