Islamic Hideout in Somalia Said Captured

Heavily armed Transitional Federal Government soldiers patrol in the street of Mogadishu, Thursday, Jan 11, 2007. Somali and Ethiopian forces skirmished with Islamic militiamen in southern Somalia early Thursday, setting off a brush fire, residents said by two-way radio. The fighting comes after Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said his forces were carrying out mop-up operations against Islamic militants in the extreme southern corner of Somalia and that he expected to withdraw his troops within a few weeks. (AP Photo/Mohamed Sheikh Nor) (Mohamed Sheikh Nor - AP)

Since Tuesday, there have been several attacks on government forces and their Ethiopian allies, and five people have been killed, witnesses said. In addition, assailants threw a grenade into a Mogadishu hotel Thursday, killing a government soldier, said lawmaker Jini Boqor. The hotel is used by Somalia's police chief.

The United States, United Nations and the African Union all want to deploy peacekeepers to stop Somalia from returning to clan-based violence and anarchy. But so far no African governments have responded to the call for an 8,000-strong peacekeeping force for the country, although Uganda has indicated it is willing to send 1,500 peacekeepers as part of a wider mission.

On Thursday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the international community to redouble efforts to stabilize Somalia and reiterated his concern that U.S. attacks were harming civilians and could have "unintended consequences."

Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki said in a statement on a government Web site Friday that U.S. involvement in Somalia is creating turmoil in the Horn of African region and would "incur dangerous consequences." Eritrea and Ethiopia are bitter rivals.

Ethiopian and U.S. forces are pursuing three top al-Qaida suspects believed to be in Somalia. The U.S. has repeatedly accused the Somali Islamist movement of harboring the suspects, wanted in connection with the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.

Recent air attacks against the fleeing Islamic movement have killed 70 nomadic herdsmen in the last four days, British charity Oxfam said Friday, citing its local Somali partner organizations. It said the deaths occurred near Afmadow, about 220 miles southwest of Mogadishu.

The United States has said it conducted one airstrike and no civilians were killed. The Ethiopian military has used attack helicopters against militants in Somalia.

The U.N. food agency said it has started distributing food to 18,000 Somalis, including many women and children who fled fighting in the south. The agency said ongoing military activity meant they could not get food to 190,000 more people who were desperately in need.

Somalia has not had a functioning government since clan-based warlords toppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned on each other, sinking the country of 7 million people into chaos.

___

Associated Press writers Salad Duhul in Mogadishu, Nasteex Dahir Farah in Kismayo, Celean Jacobson in Johannesburg, South Africa, and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.