KISMAYU, Somalia, 1 January 2007 — Fighting erupted yesterday on the outskirts of Somalia’s militant Islamic movement’s last remaining stronghold as thousands fled advancing Ethiopian troops supported by tanks and MiG fighter jets. Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi said his Ethiopian-backed government troops were going after three Al-Qaeda terror suspects wanted in the 1998 bombings of US embassies in East Africa that killed more than 250 people.
He said militants in Kismayu, Somalia’s third-largest city, were sheltering accused bombers Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan and Abu Taha Al-Sudani.
The fighting broke out in Helashid, 18 km northwest of Jilib, the gateway to the Islamic group’s coastal stronghold of Kismayu, where an estimated 3,000 hardcore fighters were preparing for a bloody showdown.
“I can hear artillery and heavy weapons being fired outside of town,” Abdi Malik, a charity worker in Jilib, told The Associated Press by telephone.
Ethiopian MiG fighter jets were also buzzing Kismayu, an AP reporter said.
Islamic leaders vowed to make a stand against Ethiopia, which has one of the largest armies in Africa, or begin an Iraq-style guerrilla war.
“My fighters will defeat the Ethiopians forces,” Sheikh Ahmed Mohamed Islan, the head of the Islamic movement in the Kismayu region told The Associated Press. “Even if we are defeated we will start an insurgency. We will kill every Somali who supports the government and Ethiopians,” he said.
Jilib resident Mohamed Suldan Ali said the Islamic forces had littered the approach to the town with remote-controlled land mines.
