Ethiopia Rides Into Somalia, Jihad Declared

Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, speaking on Radio Shabelle, said Ethiopia's decision to send troops to protect the transitional government in Baidoa, 150 miles northwest of Mogadishu, must be met with war.

"I am calling on the Somali people to wage a holy war against Ethiopians in Baidoa," said Aweys, accused by the United States of having ties to al-Qaida. "They came to protect a government which they set up to advance their interests."

Residents of Baidoa reported seeing hundreds of Ethiopian troops, in uniform and in marked armored vehicles, entering Baidoa on Thursday and taking up positions around transitional President Abdullahi Yusuf's compound. Ethiopian and Somali government officials have denied Ethiopian troops are in the country, though witnesses from five towns reported seeing them.

"Abdullahi Yusuf is in the pocket of Ethiopia," Aweys said in the nationwide broadcast. "He's been a servant of Ethiopia for a long time."

Islamic militants had rallied people to condemn the presence of Ethiopians after Friday prayers.

Demonstrators in Mogadishu shouted anti-Ethiopian and anti-U.S. slogans as they marched in the capital, accompanied by dozens of Islamic militiamen and trucks mounted with heavy weapons.

"We are against Ethiopian troops invading our country," read some of the banners carried by demonstrators, most of them men.

"God is Great!" shouted the protesters.

Radical Islamic militia, however, later gunned down two people during a rare demonstration against the rulers of Mogadishu.

Demonstrations are rare when the government's thugs kill anyone who dares do so. Heck, the jihadis had no problem killing people watching the World Cup. Where's the UN calling for a cessation of the violence and imposition of a ceasefire? Where are the blue helmets to stop the killings in Mogadishu? *cricket*

UPDATE:
The mullahs in charge of Mogadishu and much of Somalia are calling for jihad. That isn't anything new, but they're now doing it against Ethiopia, which is trying to stabilize the situation there because Somalia's woes will quickly spread if not contained.

Austin Bay has more on the situation in Somalia. Ethiopia is coming in to assist the Transitional Federal Government, but the Islamists in Mogadishu are already portraying this as an invasion. It isn't good at all, and the international community dithers as calls for jihad are being made by the mullahs in charge. Michelle Malkin and Blue Crab Boulevard have more.

UPDATE:
Fears of an 'all out war' on the Horn of Africa appear to be growing states this roundup in the Christian Science Monitor, despite the fact that there are differing accounts of the situation. What do they think has been going on there for years? The fighting between rival gangs has been virtually nonstop since the early 1990s, and now the Islamists are in charge. Somalia's gang warfare has been playing out beneath the radar because of situations elsewhere, but it's no less dire now that Ethiopia is stepping in than when it was fighting between rival groups throughout the country.

The CSM's roundup, including a link from SomaliNet about demonstrations in Mogadishu, but avoids discussing the matter of attacks on the anti-Islamists.