By Mustafa Haji Abdinur
Mogadishu - Islamist officials warned against United Nations authorisation of a peacekeeping force for Somalia, saying they would invite Islamic fighters from around the world to join in the fight against it.
Islamist officials said the two sides began to exchange fire around 9am (03H00 GMT) when Ethiopian troops fired 12 missiles into the Islamist-held town of Bandiradley, about 630km north of Mogadishu.
"We exchanged heavy fire this morning," said Mohamed Mohamoud Jumale, the Islamist spokesman in central Somali region of Mudug, where Bandiradley is located. "We didn't suffer any causalities,
but I think they did.
"It was sporadic, but I think the game has begun and the worst fighting will take place in the coming hours," he said.
In Mogadishu, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, leader of the executive wing of the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia (SICS), told an anti-Ethiopia, anti-US rally that Ethiopian forces were
trying to surround Bandiradley.
"Ethiopian soldiers have massed around Bandiradley and started firing missiles toward our positions," he told a crowd of at least 10 000 people, urging prosecution of a holy war against Ethiopia.
"Their tanks are trying to surround the area and now they are about 10 km away from the town where our fighters are based," Ahmed said, vowing that Islamist fighters would resist Ethiopia to the death.
"We will never accept surrender to Meles, we are devoted to our religion and will fight until we die," he said. "That is our promise."
He referred to Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi who has declared the Islamists a "clear and present" danger to his country and said Ethiopia is prepared for war to defend itself and the weak
Somali government.
There was no immediate reaction from Addis Ababa to the claims of clashes, which could not be independently confirmed.
But tension in the Bandiradley area has been mounting since the Islamists took the town from Somali government-allied local militia earlier this month, bringing them to their northernmost point since seizing Mogadishu in June.
The move took them to within 100km of the semi-autonomous enclave of Puntland, where authorities have vowed to resist the Islamist advance toward the region's main town of
Galkayo.
Puntland has strong ties with Ethiopia and when Bandiradley fell to the Islamists on November 12, residents of Galkayo reported large movements of Puntland troops accompanied by Ethiopian military convoys.
Mainly Christian Ethiopia, with a large and potentially restive Muslim minority, is wary of the rise on its border of the Islamists, some of who are accused of links with al-Qaeda.
Reports of the artillery battles come as fears for a full-scale war between the Islamists and the Ethiopian-backed government have skyrocketed with many concerned it could engulf the wider Horn of
Africa region.
Diplomats and security analysts believe the conflict could suck in Ethiopia's arch-foe Eritrea, which denies UN experts' claims it
is backing the Islamists, as well as other nations allegedly arming the rival sides.
In Mogadishu, the Islamists denounced not only Ethiopia but the United States, which intends this week to introduce a UN Security Council resolution authorizing a regional peacekeeping force to
help the Somali government.
The draft resolution calls for an easing of the much-violated 1992 UN arms embargo on Somalia to permit the proposed force that the Islamists have vowed to fight.
"If the arms embargo on Somalia is lifted, we will invite all Islamists around the world to Somalia and they will fight by our side," said SICS security chief Sheikh Yusuf Mohamed Siad
Indoa'adhe.
"We shall not hesitate if the UN Security Council lifts the arms embargo and I am sure more Islamist fighters will mass in Somalia," he said, raising the specter of further bloodshed.
The Islamists took Mogadishu in June and now control most of southern and central Somalia while the government is confined to its seat of Baidoa, the only town it controls.
Somalia has lacked an effective government since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was toppled in 1991. - Sapa-AFP
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