Word: baidoa
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...long included U.S. training for Ethiopian troops inside Ethiopia - back a transitional Somali government formed in October 2004 after talks between warlords and civilian leaders. Until now, that government has won international recognition, but never exercised real power and has been confined to the small southern Somali town of Baidoa. Both the U.S. and Ethiopia have backed the warlords as well. The exact nature of those relations have never been made public, but an indication of their value to the U.S. came in March 2003, when warlord Mohammed Dhere captured one of the suspects in the east Africa bombings...
...which call themselves the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), have consolidated their claim to Mogadishu and expanded their control to include most of Somalia, particularly the fertile lands and strategic ports in the country's south. Meanwhile, the U.N.-backed transitional government is unraveling. Confined to the squalid town of Baidoa near the Ethiopian border, the government is dependent on foreign money and security and crippled by internal dissent and mass resignations...
...football from Germany were beaten, and men wearing long hair were forced to have it cut. Talks between the Islamists and the fragile interim Somali government - elected in neighboring Kenya more than two years ago but powerless ever since and holed up in the southern Somali city of Baidoa - also stalled...
...Then, in the past week Islamic forces surrounded Baidoa. The Islamic Courts Union says it will not attack the interim government, which is mostly secular in outlook, but the government?s closest ally, Ethiopia, is worried enough to be massing troops to take on the Islamic forces itself. The Islamists and Somali journalists say that Ethiopia has already sent troops over the border, a claim Ethiopia denies. But there is no doubting Ethiopia's intentions. ?We will use all means at our disposal to crush the Islamist group if they attempt to attack Baidoa,? Ethiopian Information Minister Berhan Hailu told...
...than it already is. John Prendergast, a senior adviser at the International Crisis Group and an Africa specialist in the Clinton administration, says a conflict would likely end the transitional government?s chances of taking over in Mogadishu, severely damage the Islamists capacity to lead, flatten the city of Baidoa and leave Ethiopia with heavy casualties. ?The [Islamic] militias are highly motivated and disciplined and would rally around the slogan of protecting Somalia from foreign invaders,? says Prendergast. ?But the reaction from Ethiopia would be hellish and the Islamists know that...