AFRICA- - Ethiopian aircraft have dropped bombs and fired missiles on several towns in Somalia in what a government spokesman described as a "counter-attack" against the Islamic Courts Union.

Somali government forces have been fighting the Islamic courts for six days, but this is the first time Ethiopia has admitted to becoming involved.
"After too much patience, the Ethiopian government has taken a self-defensive measure and has begun counterattacking the aggressive extremist forces of the [Islamic council] and foreign terrorist groups," Solomon Abebe, Ethiopia's foreign affairs spokesman, said.

Berhan Hailu, the Ethiopia's information minister, said his country's forces had targeted several fronts including Dinsoor, Bandiradley, Belet Weyne and the town of Buur Hakaba - close to the interim government's encircled base Baidoa.

'Full-blown war'

Somali government forces and the Islamic courts both say they have killed hundreds since fighting began on Tuesday. Aid agencies say that dozens have died.

Ethiopia has previously denied that its forces were fighting in Somalia, saying it had sent only military advisers.

Sheikh Mahmud Ibrahim Suley, an Islamic Courts leader, said the Ethiopians had used MiG warplanes and helicopters against their positions.

"Today the war is being fought by land and air," he said, adding that the group's fighters had destroyed five Ethiopian tanks.

Ali Ahmed Jama, the Somali government information minister, said: "Fighting is going on from one part of the country to the other. The Islamic Courts ... will lose in this fighting."

Witnesses said that the Ethiopian combat aircraft bombed towns in central Somalia.

"I saw five military aircraft flying over Belet Weyne," said Ahmed Atto, a freelance reporter in the area.

One source from the town of Belet Weyne said: "The planes hit an Islamic centre where Islamic officials in the region have been enrolling volunteers who wanted to join the war."


Another witness said strikes were attacking the roads and defences of the Islamic militia.

"Now there is a full-blown war," said one fighter close to the semi-autonomous Puntland region, north of Baidoa.

Somalia is seen as a potential proxy battleground for Ethiopia, which has one of the largest armies in the region, and its rival Eritrea, which backs the Islamic courts.

Somali sovereignty

The Islamic Courts Union has vowed to drive out Ethiopian troops that are providing military support to Somalia's UN-backed government.

Ibrahim Hassan Adow, the group's foreign affairs chief, said the courts will not negotiate with the government because the administration is the "puppet of another foreign country".


He also denounced the US, saying Washington should be calling on Ethiopia to withdraw its troops.


Ali Mohamed Gedi, the Somali prime minister, has vowed that his government will "defend the people it is responsible for and Somali sovereignty" and said the Islamic fighters should return to negotiations.

Several rounds of talks, mediated by the Arab League, have failed to produce any lasting effect.

"They will be responsible for any consequences that may result from rejecting our call," Gedi said.

source: aljazeera and agencies