Ethopia bombs Somalia airports jihad ratlines

Washington Post:

Ethiopian fighter jets bombed two main airports in Somalia on Monday, including Mogadishu International Airport, in the first direct attack on the headquarters of an Islamic movement attempting to wrest power from the internationally recognized government.

Russian-made jets swept low over the capital at midmorning, dropping two bombs on Somalia's main airport, which recently reopened after the Islamic takeover of Mogadishu. An Associated Press reporter who arrived shortly after the strike saw one wounded woman taken away. The runway and one building used by the Islamic forces were damaged.

Shortly afterward, Baledogle Airport, about 60 miles outside Mogadishu, was hit, an Islamic soldier said. There were no reliable casualty reports available for either attack.

"The Ethiopian government is bombing non-civilian targets in Somalia in order to disable and prevent the delivery of arms and supplies to the Islamic courts," said Bereket Simon, an adviser to Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. Ethiopia and the Somali government have long accused the Islamic council of recruiting foreign fighters into its ranks.

The Somali government started sealing its borders Monday in an attempt to keep foreigners from joining the Islamists. Residents living along Somalia's coast have seen hundreds of foreign Islamic fighters entering the country to answer calls by religious leaders to wage a holy war against largely Christian Ethiopia.

But the move is unlikely to have any major immediate effect, particularly along Somalia's 1,860-mile coastline. The country has no coast guard or navy and piracy is rampant.

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Somali troops, backed by Ethiopian soldiers, also captured a key border town early Monday and residents celebrated as government soldiers moved through the town and headed south in pursuit of fleeing Islamic militiamen, a Somali officer said.

Islamic fighters left the town of Belet Weyne, on the Somali-Ethiopian border, overnight after Ethiopian fighter jets bombed Islamic positions Sunday, residents said.

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I have often stated that most of the foreign fighters in Iraq came through the Damascus airport. The Ethiopian operation against he Somalia airports is an attempt to keep the same thing from happening there. While Somalia has little control over its coast, the US could put up an effective blockade if it brought more ships to the area. Isolating the battlefield would put the Islamist up against the Ethiopian hammer. The Islamist light infantry does not seem to have an answer for the Ethiopian air force at this point. We need to find ways to support the destruction of the Islamist in Somalia.

Bill Roggio has a round up of news on the Somalia front. He says the transitional government has chased the Islamist from two towns. Gateway Pundit says the report of a Somalia helicopter being shot down is using a bogus picture of a chopper that crashed in Iraq.

The stakes are pretty big for al Qaeda in this battle and the loss by the Islamist religious bigots would certainly hurt their propaganda campaign.