Shabelle Media Network (Mogadishu)
Aweys Osman Yusuf
25 December 2006
Mogadishu — Two Ethiopian fighter jets have bombarded Baladogle airport, 100 km (67 mile) south of the capital Mogadishu. Witnesses said three missiles struck the airport and a nearby neighborhood.
The number of casualties is still sketchy.
The Ethiopian warplanes air bombed the capital's main airport early Monday morning, with one person injured.
The transitional government has announced Monday that it closed all borders of the country from air, land and sea. Abdirahman Dinaari, the government's spokesman, asked the international community to assist the Somali government enforce the new restrictions.
Ethiopian fighter jets have for the second day air bombarded Somalia's Islamist controlled areas in central and southern areas of the country.
The international community warned that the exacerbating war in Somalia could trigger a full-scale war in the Horn of Africa.
Ethiopia, which is a largely Christian country, fears that an Islamic republic could be set in neighboring Somalia by Islamic Courts movements that encircled the Somali transitional government based in Baidoa, southern Somalia.
The US government, which is also worried that Islamists in Somalia might give safe heaven to international terrorists, has backed the Ethiopian military to prevent the movement.
The Islamic Courts Union seized the capital Mogadishu in early June this year, expanding their military powers into central and southernmost of the country.
Somalia has been with an affective government since 1991 when warlords toppled former president Siad Barre.
A huge demonstration is being orchestrated by Islamist officials in Mogadishu to protest against the Ethiopian invasion in Somalia.
Situation in the capital has been tense lately with angry people smashing window shops and cars, demanding that every Somali individual should go to the front line of the war with the Ethiopian military troops.
The fighting has intensified on Monday around Galinsor and Bandiradley in central Somalia.
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