Another Front Opens on the War

AP reports:

NAIROBI, Kenya - Ethiopia is prepared to invade neighboring Somalia to defend its U.N.-backed government against what appeared to be an imminent attack by Islamic militiamen, a government spokesman said Wednesday.

The militiamen, who hold most of southern Somalia, deployed hundreds of fighters outside the town where the largely powerless government is based and said they planned to seize it.

"We have the responsibility to defend the border and the Somali government.We will crush them," Ethiopia's Minister of Information, Berhan Hailu, told The Associated Press.

Jihadi Watch reports that the Islamists have temporarily pulled away from the capital.

Read it here:

UPDATE

Now there are reports that the invasion is underway.

MOGADISHU, Somalia -- Hundreds of Ethiopian troops in armored vehicles rolled into Somalia on Thursday to protect their allies in this country's virtually powerless government from Islamic militants who control the capital.

The move could give the U.S.-backed Somali government its only chance of curbing the Islamic militia's increasing power. But Ethiopia's incursion could also be just the provocation the militia needs to build public support for a guerrilla war.

"We will declare jihad if the Ethiopian government refuses to withdraw their troops from Somalia," a top Islamic official, Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, told The Associated Press.

Read it here.

Sound familiar? Just as in Lebanon, Jihadis take advantage of a weak government to create chaos, and then when confronted by outside forces, pose as defenders of the nation.