Somalia Islamic Courts-Ethiopia fighting has been reported in the town of Dinsor, 70 miles south-west of the Somali interim governmant's government base in Baidoa.
Ethiopia claims that it has only a few hundred `advisors' supporting what's left of the non-Islamist Somali interim government.
The Islamic Courts militia, which rules most of Somalia has already declared `holy war' against Christian Ethiopia.
"New fighting has started in Dinsor. Our forces have been raided by Ethiopian troops, so people get up and fight against the Ethiopians," Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed told a crowd of hundreds after Friday prayers.
Since the Islamic jihadis seized Dinsor on Saturday without encountering resistance or firing a shot, an `invasion' by Ethiopia seems unlikely.
Earlier Friday, Sheikh Abdullahi Ali Hashi, a spokesman for the Islamic courts, claimed that Ethiopian troops had shelled the Somali town of Bandiradley, and that Ethiopian troops and tanks had taken up positions near the town.
If this is true, the Islamic Courts advance into Dinsor puts the two fighting forces only a mile apart.
The UN Security Council unanimously passed a resolution yesterday calling for an African led peacekeeping force to Baidoa and easing an international arms embargo on Somalia to help the interim government re-arm.(That's how things work sometimes when you don't have oil to sell, unlike the Sudan/Darfur situation). The Islamic Courts have rejected this and say they will attack any force coming into Somalia.
The Islamic Courts are receiving assistance from Iran and Hezbollah, as I revealed here, and Somali fighters from the Islamic Courts fought with Hezbollah in the recent Lebanon War.
As I predicted. look for this to heat up...especially as the jihadi government in the Sudan continues mopping up in Darfur.
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