Ethiopia attacks Somali Islamic militia

MOGADISHU (Somalia)—Ethiopia launched an attack Sunday on Somalia’s powerful Islamic movement, sending fighter jets across the border and bombarding several towns in a major escalation of the violence that threatens to engulf the Horn of Africa.
Ethiopia confirmed the attacks, the first time it has acknowledged that its troops were fighting in Somalia, though witnesses have reported their presence for weeks. “After too much patience, the Ethiopian government has taken a self-defensive measure and has begun counterattacking the aggressive extremist forces of the (Islamic council) and foreign terrorist groups,” said Ethiopia’s foreign affairs spokesman, Solomon Abebe. The Council of Islamic Courts has vowed to drive out troops from neighboring Ethiopia, a largely Christian nation that is providing military support to Somalia’s U.N.-backed government. “They are cowards,” said Sheik Mohamoud Ibrahim Suley, an official with Somalia’s Council of Islamic Courts. “They are afraid of the face-to-face war and resorted to airstrikes.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has said his government has a legal and moral obligation to support and defend Somalia’s internationally recognized government. He has repeatedly accused the Islamic courts of backing ethnic Somali rebels fighting for independence from Ethiopia and has called such support an act of war.
The militants, who want to govern Somalia according to Islamic law, invited foreign Muslims on Saturday to join their holy war against Ethiopian troops.—Agencies