Mogadishu — A large number of Ethiopian troops in military vehicles on Sunday reached Somali villages after crossing its borders with Hiran region in Central Somalia.
The Ethiopians, according to residents in the Beledweyne town, 335 kilometres north of Mogadishu, seem more serious than before to tackle the authority of Al-Shabaab, the radical Islamist group opposing the Transitional Federal Government, in Hiran region.
Residents along the border area contacted by The Nation confirmed that the Ethiopian troops crossed the border between Somalia twice in five days.
"In both cases, the Ethiopians were accompanied by highly trained Somali soldiers that are loyal to the TFG," said Mr Aden Abdi Yusuf, a businessman in Beledweyne.
The Ethiopian troop's movements come at a time Al-Shabaab militants occasionally venture close to the border with Ethiopia.
According to Hussein Abdallah, a loyalist of Ahlu Sunna wal-Jamea, a moderate Islamist group allied with the Somali government, the movements may be a preliminary action to signal Al-Shabaab authorities that the Ethiopians are capable of weakening the strength of the radical Islamists.
This will be done should they continue pressing hard on the TFG and the peacekeepers serving the African Union Mission in Somalia, Amisom, in Mogadishu.
Early this month, Ethiopian Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi said that he would deploy forces should Amisom peacekeepers guarding vital installations in Mogadishu find themselves in great danger and request assistance.

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Somalis, like all Africans, are beautiful people, but! Somalis for generations have been infected by that nasty mental virus from across the Arabian Peninsula.
Ethiopians, who know history, are keenly aware of just how nasty is that mental poisoning, that arab crap, from across the Arabian Peninsula.
Therefore, Ethiopians would be remiss if they did not do everything in their power to eradicate the arabic mental virus from Somalia; because the aim of the arab expansionists have ALWAYS been to IMPOSE and to nasty up the world with their islamic mental plague.
So, the beautiful people of Somalia can stay, but their islamic insanity MUST GO!
And the Ethiopians, with the bad experience, WILL help see to it that muslim mania is confined, and not allowed to again take root and spread.
EVERY indigenous African nation SHOULD support the Ethiopian 'surgeons' in eradicating this horrible arab plague of islam!
I cannot agree more. The problem of Somalia is the disease from the Arabian desert. The beautiful people of Somalia should welcome Ethiopia to help them stabilize and build their nation.
While preoccupying itself with thoughts of how to fight America and the world, Al-Shaabab has no time to think of nation building or the daily needs of ordinary Somalians. Somalians who are thinking of a future and a place among the community of nations should support Ethiopia and oppose the terrorist cartel called Al-Shaaabab.
excisionist
what president zenawi talkin bout vital installations in mogadisho there is none and who gave him the moral authority to invade somalia im thinkin U.S IS BEHIND ALL OF THIS CHEAP ETHIOPIA FOR A VERY LITTLE AMOUNT OF DOLLARS ARE WREAKING HAVOC somalia has nothing to offer not that i support al-shaitn deliberate but rather for the sake of humanity ethiopia HAS its own problems that it cant solve as a reminder they will leave empty handed
OMUGABE While somalis are infected by what you described as arab whatever you seem to be equally infected by american IDEALS so are you any different take your name and minus o what do you get think men think god gave you a head to use not abuse stop this mentality of islam bashing look at the quagmire AMERICA is in right now