Philadelphia Inquirer
January 5, 2007
They prevented escape by sea of militiamen who battled government troops near Kenya.
By Elizabeth A. Kennedy, Associated Press
MOGADISHU, Somalia - Somalian government troops backed by Ethiopian soldiers battled about 600 Islamic militiamen yesterday on the southern tip of this Horn of Africa nation, and U.S. Navy forces prevented the gunmen from fleeing by sea, authorities said.
A U.S. diplomat said she hoped peacekeepers from the region could be in place by month's end in Somalia, where the Council of Islamic Courts militias were driven from the capital of Mogadishu and much of the south last week. But peacekeepers could face bloody reprisals from the militias, who want to rule by the Koran and have vowed to launch a guerrilla war.
Somalia's interior minister said thousands of Islamic fighters were still hiding in the capital.
"There are 3,500 Islamists hiding in Mogadishu and in the surrounding areas, and they are likely to destabilize the security of the city," Hussein Aideed said.
The battle between the estimated 600 militiamen and the Ethiopian and Somalian troops took place far to the southwest, near the border with Kenya.
"We hope they will either surrender or be killed by our troops," Somalian government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari said.
Kenya has closed its border, fearing militiamen would slip across the frontier. That has prevented thousands of Somalian refugees from seeking safety in Kenya, according to the United Nations.
Dinari said that some fighters were trying to escape by sea but that U.S. Navy forces were deployed to stop them. 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.
In Mogadishu, residents of this ruined seaside capital have been on edge since the U.N.-backed Somalian government took over last week with crucial military aid from neighboring Ethiopia.
The city is still teeming with weapons. Some of the feared warlords of the past - who fled when the Islamists seized the capital in June - have returned to the capital with their guns.
Ethiopian MiG fighter jets and tanks were vital to helping the weak Somalian military rout the Islamists. Now, though, Ethiopia wants to pull out in a few weeks, saying its forces cannot afford to stay.
Jendayi Frazer, assistant U.S. secretary of state for Africa, said yesterday that Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni had promised President Bush in a recent phone call that he could supply 1,000 to 2,000 troops to protect Somalia's government and train its troops.
"We hope to have the Ugandans deployed before the end of the January," Frazer told journalists after meeting with Museveni in the Ethiopian capital.
Museveni and Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said after meeting with Frazer that they supported an African Union resolution to put peacekeepers in Somalia as soon as possible.
Rice Announces U.S. Aid to Somalia
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday that the United States would provide $16 million in aid to Somalia and said a new government there gave Somalis a chance to move beyond two decades of chaos.
Rice said there would be $11.5 million in food aid, $1.5 million in nonfood aid, and $3.5 million to help refugees.
In a written statement, she said creation of a U.N.-backed government represented a "historic opportunity" for Somalis to end the "warlordism, extreme violence and humanitarian suffering."
Rice has dispatched her top aide for African affairs, Jendayi Frazer, to the region for discussions on promoting a peacekeeping force for Somalia and to urge a political dialogue leading to national reconciliation.

1800 soldiers are stationed in Djibouti, right?

wonder if any of these ships were dropping off SEALs.

CNN reported that Navy SEAL units are training Kenyan troops

I love euphemisms.

I guess the US Navy expected these guys to start paddling their wooden rafts out to sea.... I'm sure the sharks would have a field day.