ETHIOPIAN TROOPS IN CENTRAL SOMALIA

"Ethiopia is the Israel of the Horn of Africa, and we shall not allow it to meddle in the internal affairs of our country,"

By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN, Associated Press Writer August 22, 2006

BAIDOA, Somalia - Ethiopian troops reportedly arrived in a central Somali town Tuesday in a move that may stoke tensions with the Islamic militiamen who control most of southern Somalia.

Witnesses said the troops entered the town of Galkayo, driving seven pickup trucks mounted with machine guns and six trucks loaded with boxes.

"Their arrival was not a secret," resident Ali Mohamed told The Associated Press by telephone. "They were seen inside the town in 13 vehicles. Some of them were even waving at us."

Ethiopia, which is allied to Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf's government, denied that its troops were in Somalia.

"No Ethiopian troops have crossed the border into Somalia," said foreign affairs spokesman Solomon Abebe. The armed Islamic group known as the Supreme Council of Islamic Courts "wants to use Ethiopia as a disguise or pretext to further advance their own motives."

It was the first report of Ethiopian troops entering central Somalia, where the Islamic courts group has begun expanding its influence, taking over a handful of minor towns. Residents of Galkayo earlier this month held demonstrations saying the Islamic courts group was unwelcome in their town.

On Sunday, government-allied militia officials told the AP that Ethiopian troops had reached Baidoa, where the weak U.N.-backed transitional government is based. Somalia shares an 800-mile border with Ethiopia and it was not clear whether the troops reported Monday were the same ones that reportedly entered Baidoa on Sunday.

There were previous reports of Ethiopian troops entering Somalia in late July to protect the transitional government.

The leader of the Islamic courts group, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, told journalists in Mogadishu on Monday that "we can't accept any foreign soldiers on our soil, specially the Ethiopians."

"Ethiopia is the Israel of the Horn of Africa, and we shall not allow it to meddle in the internal affairs of our country," he said.

Peace talks between the Islamic courts group and the transitional government are scheduled to take place Aug. 31 in Khartoum, Sudan.

Those talks began in June but failed to resume as scheduled in July following divisions within the transitional government. Islamic leaders also refused to attend following the reports of Ethiopian troops entering Somalia in July.

On Monday, an official of the Islamic courts said they would go to Khartoum for the latest talks and discuss the issue of Ethiopian troops in Somalia, instead of refusing to attend.

Somalia does not have a national army or police, nor has it had an effective central government since warlords overthrew longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, and then turned on each other, plunging the country into a spiral of violence and chaos.

The government was established almost two years ago with the support of the U.N. to serve as a transitional body to help Somalia emerge from anarchy. But the leadership, which includes some warlords linked to the violence of the past, has failed to establish any power.