[Beirut Daily Star: Region] Somalia's Al-Shabaab militant group warned Sunday against any foreign military intervention after the government pleaded for help. "We are sending our clear warning to the neighboring countries ... send your troops to our holy soil if you need to take them back inside coffins," Al-Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Ali said in Mogadishu.| Nobody else gets to play with our toys. |
Ethiopia's communications minister told AFP its troops could not intervene without an international mandate. But residents of Beledweyn, some 300 kilometers north of the capital Mogadishu and close to the border with Ethiopia, reported seeing Ethiopian soldiers near the town.
Hardline Islamist insurgents, on an offensive since May 7 to oust a UN-backed transitional government led by Sharif Sheikh Ahmad, have this week stepped up attacks. The drive against Sharif's administration has been spearheaded by the Al-Shabaab militant group and the more political Hizb al-Islam (Party of Islam) of Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, a former Sharif ally.
Three high-profile officials, including a security minister, have been killed this week. In Mogadishu, civilians continued to flee the city in record numbers Saturday.
"The government is weakened by the rebel forces," Speaker Sheikh Aden Mohammad Nour told reporters. "We ask neighboring countries - including Kenya, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Yemen - to send troops to Somalia within 24 hours," he said. "We have a state of emergency in this country today because foreign fighters from all over the world are fighting the government."
An Al-Qaeda operative from Pakistan was commanding the fighting in Mogadishu, said Nour, adding that without help from its neighbors, "the trouble caused by these foreign fighters will spill to all the corners of the region."
But Ethiopian Communications Minister Bereket Simon told AFP Saturday: "Any further action from Ethiopia regarding Somalia will be done according to international community decision."