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Minister Denies Any Ethiopian Armored Vehicle Blasted Or Soldier Killed

Shabelle Media Network (Mogadishu)
NEWS
November 20, 2006
Posted to the web November 20, 2006

By Aweys Osman Yusuf
Mogadishu
Somalia's interim government has denied that a number of Ethiopian armored
vehicles were blown up and soldiers killed in an ambush attack on the outskirts
of Baidoa, a seat for the government.
Salad Ali Jelle, assistant minister of defense, has told Shabelle Radio in
Mogadishu that there were no clashes between number of Ethiopian troops with
number of battlewagons and armed residential militiamen in Kansah Omane
environs near Bardale district in southern Somalia.
Ironically, the Union of Islamic Courts information secretary Abdirahim Ali
Mudey, has stated Bardale residents whom he said were against Ethiopian troops
in their country have blown up two Ethiopian armored vehicles, alleging that
residents have also killed at least 50 soldiers.
The government's assistant minister of defense Jelle has vehemently denied that
any fighting against Ethiopians had taken place in southern Somalia, indicating
that it was a propaganda overstated by Islamic Courts.
Somalia has become a great political challenge for long time rival enemies,
Ethiopia and Eritrea, which fought over borders from 1998 to 2000.
Both countries have been among the ten countries recently mentioned in UN
report that were accused of providing Somalia's vying parties with various
types of weapons.
International experts for Somalia's political challenges say they fear Somalia
could become a proxy war for Ethiopia and Eritrea that are deeply involved in
meddling the country's exacerbating situations.
Jelle admitted the presence of thousands of Ethiopian forces in Somalia's Bai
provincial town of Baidoa where the interim government has remained largely
powerless following its formation in neighboring Kenya in 2004.
"for the past 16 years Somalia has had no special national forces so the
Ethiopians are here to train our military troops", he said.
Asked if the government has ordered the publishing of billions of fake Somali
shillings, Jelle denied the government ordered fake Somali money. "The
government is legitimate. If it had to order publishing Somali shillings, the
Somali parliament has to approve it in majority".
The minister's remarks came as large numbers of Ethiopian troops and armored
vehicles had crossed into the Somali border, passing through Gedo province in
Southern Somalia and then to Baidoa, the government's temporary headquarter.


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