Ethiopia denies its troops entered Somalia

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Witnesses said Tuesday that Ethiopian troops have crossed the border into war-ravaged Somalia and appear to be stationing themselves in a town at a strategic crossroads. Ethiopia denied the reports.

A witness said he saw 12 military vehicles, but the number of troops was not clear, nor was it clear if they were a vanguard of a larger force or an attempt to protect the porous border from Somalia's Islamic insurgents.

Ethiopian Foreign Ministry spokesman Wahde Belay, however, said Tuesday's reports were untrue.

"That information is false," he said. "Our troops have not returned to Somalia. Our troops are on our side of the border."

There have been sporadic reports of Ethiopian troops crossing into Somalia since early this year when Ethiopia pulled out the forces it had sent there in 2006 to restore the U.N.-backed government to power in the capital, Mogadishu. Islamist fighters who had seized the capital along with much of southern Somalia, were outgunned by Ethiopian firepower but began an Iraq-style insurgency.

Since then, Somalia has changed administrations, but the insurgents have continued to attack government forces and fighting intensified this month.

Witnesses said they saw Ethiopian troops in the Somali town of Kalabeyr, 14 miles (22 kilometers) from the Ethiopian border and 11 miles (18 kilometers) north of Belet Weyne, the provincial capital of Somalia's Hiran region. Kalabeyr lies at a strategic junction of a road that links southern, central and northern Somalia to the Ethiopian border.

Local bus driver Farah Ahmed Adan said he saw 12 military vehicles.

"Some of them were digging trenches while others were guarding the whole area," he said. "They stopped me and checked my car and then ordered me to move."

Resident Tabane Abdi Ali said the troops spoke Ethiopia's Amharic language and their vehicles carried Ethiopian number plates. Another resident, Fadum Duale, said the troops crossed the border late on Monday night and appeared to be taking up defensive positions.

Somali Information Minister Farhan Ali Mahmud would not comment on the reports of Ethiopian troop arrivals. The government directly controls only a few blocks of the capital, Mogadishu. Allied militias control parts of central Somalia.

Islamist forces, strengthened by at least two defections of groups of government soldiers, have attacked Somali forces in Mogadishu and seized territory in central Somalia in recent days.