|
Somalia's Islamists give Ethiopia seven days to pull its troops out.
Tuesday Dec. 12, 2006
7:00 PM
By
Sh.M.Network
Union of Islamic Courts headquartered in the Somali capital Mogadishu announced Tuesday that they gave the Ethiopian government seven days to withdraw its military troops from Somalia.
In a press conference held at the Islamic Courts main headquarter in north Mogadishu, the UIC chairperson for security affairs, Sheik Yusuf Mohammed Siad Indho-adde, said the Ethiopian troops should leave Somalia within seven days. “The Ethiopian government must pull its troops out of Somalia in seven days, and then we can talk if it wants peace dialog, but if it does not withdraw its forces from Somalia within the seven days, the Islamic Courts will decided how they will evict Ethiopians out of Somalia,” he said.
The news comes as Islamic Courts reportedly intend to seize fresh towns in southern Somalia.
Ethiopian backed government forces and Islamist fighters fought in Dinsor district last Friday in which Islamists claimed they captured four pick up trucks of which two were mounted with artillery guns.
Indho-adde stressed that they heard Kenyan government has invited 1,500 Ethiopian troops in its territory (northeast Kenya) to invade Somalia's Islamic Courts. “We are warning and asking the Kenyan government not let Ethiopians use its land to attack Somalia,” he said.
He said large number of Ethiopian military forces is in different locations in the country, reiterating that they have seven days to leave.
Tension in Somalia has escalated after the United Nations Security Council approved lifting arms embargo on Somalia to let regional peacekeeping troops to come in and protect the fragile government based in Baidoa.
Three days are left for peace talks between the interim government and Islamists that are expected to meet in Sudanese capital Khartoum on 15 December.
Indho-adde warns that the war will be a regional one if Ethiopia does not take its troops out.
Earlier they asked Muslim jihadists around the world to come to Somalia to fight with foreign troops in the country.
Diplomats fear that Somalia could become a proxy for Ethiopia and Eritrea that fought their border battles in 1998 and 2000. |
