Ethiopian Air Force ops over Somalia

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Some news excerpts of potential interest -

Ethiopian planes bomb Islamic-held airports in Somalia
by Mustafa Haji Abdinur
December 25, 2006

MOGADISHU (AFP) - Ethiopian warplanes have bombed airports in Somalia's capital and a southern town a day after Addis Ababa acknowledged its military was fighting the Islamist forces in the lawless nation. As rival forces pounded each with heavy artillery on several frontlines, witnesses said the planes bombed the runways at airports in the capital Mogadishu and Baledogle, about 90 kilometres (55 miles) to the northwest.
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Addis Ababa said it carried out the attacks to stop "unauthorised flights" some of which the Islamists were waiting for. "Unauthorised flights have been forbidden by the TFG (Transition Federal Government), but some unauthorised flights were observed and that is why the bombardement took place," said Solomon Abebe, the foreign ministry spokesman.

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http://www.somalilandnet.com/news/wnews/headline/13372367.shtml
Plane Cited in Arms Trafficking for Somalia Union Islamic Courts

Dec 12 2006 - A deeply disturbing report of a Ghana-registered plane being used by the most shadowy international arms traffickers the African continent has been ever plagued with.
A Ghanaian registered Boeing 707, suspected of being involved with Russian-Israeli mafiosi facilitator Viktor Bout's worldwide arms trafficking and smuggling network of charter flights, was recently spotted off-loading 40 tons of ammunition at Mogadishu Airport in Somalia.

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Somalia: Ethiopian Gunship Helicopter Shot Down in Bandiradley
Shabelle Media Network (Mogadishu)
December 25, 2006
Aweys Osman Yusuf
Mogadishu

Islamic Courts Union has alleged its fighters have shot down an Ethiopian helicopter in Bandiredley, about 630 km (400 miles) northeast of the capital Mogadishu.

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Ethiopian helicopters miss Somali target, bomb Kenyan border post
AFP
35 minutes ago

Ethiopian helicopters pursuing Somali Islamists missed their target and bombed a Kenyan border post, prompting Kenyan fighter planes to rush to the area, officials said.

A top Kenyan police official, who requested to remain unnamed, told AFP that the four helicopters targeted the Somali town of Dhobley, about three kilometres (two miles) from the frontier line, only to end up dropping bombs on Kenya's Har Har border post.

"At about 4:30 pm (1330 GMT), the four helicopters wanted to bomb Dhobley, but it appears they missed target and dropped three bombs in Har Har, which is on our side of the (Kenyan) border," said the official.

"The helicopters then returned and dropped three other bombs," he added. "We have just sent our planes there."

There was no immediate mention of the casualties.

The bombing came hours after Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki held talks with the national security committee at the port city of Mombasa.

The country has reinforced ground and aerial patrols along its 700 kilometre (435 mile) border with Somalia to prevent the Islamists, who are being pursued by a combined Ethiopian-Somali force from sneaking into the country.

Also, Kibaki held talks with his Somali counterpart Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed and asked him to resume talks with the Islamists, who lost control of their last stronghold early Monday but have vowed to carry out guerrilla campaigns against rival troops.

Kibaki said "Kenya would not be used as a refuge for those who seek to destablise other governments in the region noting that Kenya had already beefed up patrols along the common border with Somalia," his office said in a statement.

The United Nations said thousands of refugees fleeing recent fighting were stranded at Dhobley and Kenyan police said they would not allow them in for security reasons.

"Around 4,000 Somalis are said to be in Dhobley along the Kenya-Somalia border, waiting, not yet able to cross," UN Office for Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) said in a statement released here.

"We will never allow them to cross over," a top police commander in northeastern Kenya told AFP, adding: "If we allow them they will bring in security problems."

Police said they are probing eight suspected Islamist fighters who tried to infiltrate into the country after the Islamists were vanquished after nearly two weeks of artillery duels.

The Somali government and their Ethiopian backers have vowed to pursue the Islamists, who are accused of links with Al-Qaeda.

Kenya already hosts at least 160,000 refugees who fled fighting more than 15 years of unrest in Somalia.

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Kenya: Fleeing Somali Militia Shoot Kenyan Aircraft
The Nation (Nairobi)
January 4, 2007
Hussein Abdullahi

Garissa: Fleeing Somali militia shot at a Kenyan army helicopter at Hulugho border point in Ijara district just as the government closed its borders with Somalia and beefed up security along the border.

Preliminary reports indicate that heavily armed Somali Islamist militia sprayed the helicopter with bullets on Wednesday at about 5pm but the shots missed the aircraft by a whisker. The suspected militia then fled on foot.

Witnesses said the suspected Islamist militia opened fire on the chopper, which had been deployed to strengthen air surveillance in the wake of Ethiopian invasion in Somalia.

Villagers said the militia, who later fled on foot towards Kolbio border point, spotted the low flying aircraft and opened fire probably after mistaking the Kenyan aircraft for that of the invasive Ethiopian troops.

North Eastern Provincial Commissioner Kiritu Wamae declined to confirm or deny the shooting incident and referred journalists to the Department of Defence (DOD).

Mr Wamae however confirmed that security personnel stationed along the volatile border found two vehicles and an armoured vehicle abandoned near the scene of the bombardment. A US made M16 automatic rifle was also recovered at the scene.

The PC said the vehicles are believed to have been abandoned by the defeated and retreating Islamic Court Union (UIC) militias.

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CBS: U.S. Attacks Al Qaeda In Somalia
Jan. 8, 2007(CBS/AP) A U.S. Air Force gunship has conducted a strike against suspected members of al Qaeda in Somalia, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports exclusively.
The targets included the senior al Qaeda leader in East Africa and an al Qaeda operative wanted for his involvement in the 1998 bombings of two American embassies in Africa, Martin reports. Those terror attacks killed more than 200 people.
The AC-130 gunship is capable of firing thousands of rounds per second, and sources say a lot of bodies were seen on the ground after the strike, but there is as yet, no confirmation of the identities.
The gunship flew from its base in Dijibouti down to the southern tip of Somalia, Martin reports, where the al Qaeda operatives had fled after being chased out of the capital of Mogadishu by Ethiopian troops backed by the United States.
Once they started moving, the al Qaeda operatives became easier to track, and the U.S. military started preparing for an air strike, using unmanned aerial drones to keep them under surveillance and moving the aircraft carrier Eisenhower out of the Persian Gulf toward Somalia. But when the order was given, the mission was assigned to the AC-130 gunship operated by the U.S. Special Operations command.
If the attack got the operatives it was aimed at, reports Martin, it would deal a major blow to al Qaeda in East Africa.
Meanwhile, a jungle hideout used by Islamic militants that is believed to be an al Qaeda base was on the verge of falling to Ethiopian and Somali troops, the defense minister said Monday.
While a lawmaker had earlier told The Associated Press that the base was captured, Somalia's Defense Minister Col. Barre "Hirale" Aden Shire said troops had yet to enter it and that limited skirmishes were still ongoing, though troops were poised to take the base.
Ethiopian soldiers, tanks and warplanes were involved in the two-day attack, a government military commander told the AP on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Shire said there had been heavy fighting with high numbers of casualties.
"There are a lot of casualties from both sides," he said, declining to give details.
Residents in the coastal seaport of Kismayo, some 90 miles northeast of Ras Kamboni, said they saw wounded Ethiopian soldiers being loaded onto military helicopters for evacuation.
"I have seen about 50 injured Ethiopian troops being loaded onto a military chopper," said Farhiya Yusuf. She said 12 Ethiopian helicopters were stationed at the Kismayo airport.
Somali officials said the Islamic movement's main force is bottled up at Ras Kamboni, the southernmost tip of the country, cut off from escape at sea by patrolling U.S. warships and across the Kenyan border by the Kenyan military.
In Mogadishu, Somalia's president made his first visit to the capital since taking office in 2004. During the unannounced visit, President Abdullahi Yusuf was expected to meet with traditional Somali elders and stay at the former presidential palace that has been occupied by warlords for 15 years, government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari said.
U.S. officials warned after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that extremists with ties to al Qaeda operated a training camp at Ras Kamboni and that al Qaeda members are believed to have visited it.
Three al Qaeda suspects wanted in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa are believed to be leaders of the Islamic movement. The Islamists deny having any links to al Qaeda.
Somalia's government had struggled to survive since forming with backing from the United Nations two years ago, and was under attack by the Islamic militia when Ethiopia's military intervened on Dec. 24 and turned the tide.
But many in predominantly Muslim Somalia resent the presence of troops from neighboring Ethiopia, which has a large Christian population. The countries fought two brutal wars, the last in 1977.
On Sunday, gunmen attacked Ethiopian troops, witnesses said, sparking a firefight in the second straight day of violence in the capital, Mogadishu.


Somalia: Ethiopian Fighter Jets Bomb Southern Region
Shabelle Media Network (Mogadishu)
January 8, 2007
Aweys Osman Yusuf
Mogadishu

Ethiopian fighter jets have reportedly air bombed the town of Afmadow in Lower Jubba region, southern Somalia.

Reports from Afmadow and Dhobley near the Kenyan border indicate that Ethiopian warplanes bombarded targets of Islamist suspects in the area. Remnants of Islamist fighters are still believed to linger in ahideous jungle in the district of Afmadow.

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Somalia: Insurgents down Ethiopian helicopter in Mogadishu
Fri. March 30, 2007 07:29 am.- By Mohamed Abdi Farah. - Send this news article


(SomaliNet) An Ethiopian helicopter gunship has been shot down in the Somalia capital Mogadishu on Friday as it was shelling positions of the insurgents – with the heavy fighting continues on the streets for the second day.

Somalinet reporter saw when anti aircraft bullet hit the helicopter that was flying over near the battle area in Wardhigley neighborhood, south of the capital.

It was the first time that an Ethiopian helicopter was brought downed in Mogadishu since violence erupted in the capital last week.

“The helicopter crashed near the airport of Mogadishu and then exploded,” said Hussein Ahmed, one resident.

The plane was shot down as Ethiopian troops using tanks are in fierce face-to-face fighting with hundreds of Somali gunmen for the second day.