VARIOUS: Violence continues in Somalia as the Somali prime Minister Ali Mohamed Ghedi says there will ber more airstrikes

The United States and Ethiopia denied reports on Wednesday (January 10) that Washington had mounted new air strikes targeting al Qaeda suspects in Somalia. A Somali government source and a local lawmaker said U.S. planes struck several sites on Wednesday after an assault on Monday against a village where the suspects were thought to be hiding. Somalia's Interim Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Ghedi said that the airstrikes will continue. "That area is a safe haven for international terrorists," he said in an interview with an British TV channel. To the question from the reporter whether we should expect more aerial strikes on terrorist strongholds he answered: "Until terrorists are operating in that area we cannot stop it." Residents in Mogadishu were woken by gunfire before dawn on Wednesday in an area housing Ethiopian and Somali troops. The troops were also targeted in a rocket attack on Tuesday (January 9). In the latest in a series of small attacks on Ethiopian troops, another rocket-propelled grenade fired at an Ethiopian military truck in Mogadishu on Wednesday hit a Somali family home injuring two. It was not clear who carried out the attack. Militia loyal to Somali warlords have started coming back to Mogadishu since the defeat of the Islamists. Addis Ababa wants to pull out its troops within weeks, but that would leave the government highly vulnerable if African peacekeepers are not there instead of the Ethiopians to protect it. Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said there had been no serious violence in Mogadishu since Ethiopian troops had arrived. "There is no sign of significant violence in Mogadishu at all. As I said earlier, not one Ethiopian soldier has either been wounded or killed in Mogadishu since our army intervened, not one." Speaking at a news conference Meles said international Jihadists had been attracted to Somalia because of the lawless environment, and had been there for many years. "The present reality is that there are international terrorists in Somalia, they have been there for a very long period and their members have increased dramatically since the takeover of Mogadishu by the Islamic courts. They are not attracted to Somalia by our action or by any one else's action, they are attracted to Somalia by the fact that there is a permissive environment for them in Somalia." Ethiopia sent thousands of troops across the border last month to oust Islamists who had held sway over most of southern Somalia, including the capital Mogadishu, for six months and threatened to overrun the weak government in its base of Baidoa. Meles said Ethiopia wanted to pull out its troops as soon as possible and make way for African peacekeepers. He said so far no Ethiopian soldier had been killed or wounded in Mogadishu. He dismissed the view of some analysts that Somalia could experience a guerrilla insurgency. "People expect Somalia to move in the direction of Iraq and Afghanistan and so on and so forth. So every incident in Mogadishu will be taken as that sign of a repeat of the Iraqi syndrome, of the Iraqi situation. Fortunately I believe that those who are seeking out such signals will seek out such signals in vain, because the situation in Somalia is dramatically different from the situation in Afghanistan or in Iraq." Meles said the strike had killed eight militants and five others were captured. He could not confirm rumours that specific al Qaeda members had been killed.

ITN Source | January 11, 2007

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