Last stronghold of Somali government under attack

Fighting between Islamists and the embattled interim government continued yesterday, with rockets and machine guns fired at the government's last stronghold in the country.

A deadline set by the Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC), which controls much of the country, for troops from neighbouring Ethiopia to pull out passed unheeded, but a top Islamist leader, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, denied the fighting marked the start of all-out war.

"The war has not started. This is a small incident," Sheikh Aweys told reporters after meeting the European Union's commissioner for development aid, Louis Michel.

Mr Michel is on a diplomatic visit to persuade the Islamists and the interim government to return to negotiations. He said the SICC had agreed to resume peace talks in Khartoum without conditions. "They have accepted our proposal," he said, with both men calling it a "breakthrough".

Interim government officials were not immediately available for comment.

The talk of fresh negotiations was in stark contrast to the two days of clashes that have heightened fears of widespread conflict.

With a battle under way 43 miles south-west of the government's surrounded outpost Baidoa since late on Tuesday, another clash erupted on the front line yesterday just 15 miles south-east of the town. "Neither side is winning. It's the Ethiopian troops who were fighting the Islamists. I am trapped," a driver stranded between the opposing sides told Reuters by telephone, with the sounds of the fighting echoing in the background.

"Bullets and heavy rockets are flying everywhere. Fresh Islamist troops are now fighting Ethiopians who are waiting for backup," said the driver, who declined to give his name.

The latest clash took place between the government's forward base in Daynunay and Buur Hakaba, the furthest point Islamist forces have advanced along the road from their headquarters in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu.

The SICC, which has spread Islamic sharia law across most of southern Somalia, said it was sending reinforcements from Mogadishu to the front.

The two sides had exchanged artillery fire in Idaale, south-west of Baidoa, after gun battles between reconnaissance units late on Tuesday. At least three fighters were killed and two injured, both sides said.

A government security source, who declined to be named, said that dozens of Ethiopian soldiers on 13 lorries drove from Baidoa to the battle. "This is the fighting we have been waiting for," he said.

Many in the region have for months feared the start of a Somali war, which could bring in the rivals Ethiopia and Eritrea. The two sides have been in an impasse since power-sharing talks broke down in November, and have been on the brink of war for weeks across a jagged front line of scrubby plains.

Mr Michel met officials in Baidoa yesterday as the fighting raged outside town. He then flew to Mogadishu, held by the Islamists since they ejected US-backed warlords in June, speaking with Sheikh Aweys, who denies US charges he is linked to al-Qa'ida.

The Islamists accuse Ethiopia, Washington's top counter-terrorism ally, of invading Somalia, and have threatened war against any foreign troops there.

Al-Qa'ida's leader, Osama bin Laden, has publicly encouraged jihadists to join such a war. Ethiopia blamed the Islamists for the clashes, accusing its fighters of launching artillery attacks against government positions in Baidoa.

A spokesman for the information ministry, Zemedhun Tekele, said Ethiopia would defend its sovereignty if attacked by the Islamists, adding that such a move would be announced "to the world".

Military experts estimate that Ethiopia has up to 20,000 troops in Somalia to back the government, while Eritrea has about 2,000 behind the Islamists.

Eritrea denies the accusations, and Ethiopia admits only to having a few hundred military trainers in Baidoa. REUTERS