Somali Talks Collapse, War Looms

KHARTOUM/MOGADISHU ? The collapse of peace talks between the powerful Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia (SICS) and the interim government and uncertainty regarding a proposed mid-December date for a resumption of talks gave credence to fears that a full-scale war in the Horn of Africa nation was in the offing.

"The intransigence of both parties lead to the collapse of the negotiations and now there is a risk of clashes," UN special envoy for Somalia Francois Fall told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"We fear the parties may slide into conflict."

The two rivals sides reinforced front-line positions on the ground and kept up artillery duels, turning the land outside the government seat of Baidoa into a war zone, witnesses said.

"Our Mujahadeen are now ready in frontline trenches and all other fighters have reinforced the war zone," SICS commander Mursal Haji Ali said, speaking from the village of Moote Moote where his forces are gathering.

Witnesses also confirmed the government was sending more men to the frontline and that its forces had stepped up checks of the few vehicles attempting to travel to Baidoa.

"It is clear that heavy fighting will start soon," Adan Isak Nurow, a resident of the town of Burhakaba, told AFP.

Witnesses said the two sides fired artillery shells and rockets into the air in shows of force for the second day running, sending hundreds of local residents into a panicky flight.

The SICS, formerly known as Islamic Courts, has been steadily gaining more grounds and power since seizing Mogadishu from US-backed warlords in June.

<b>Trading Barbs</b>

Somalia's newly empowered SICS traded barbs with the government and neighboring Ethiopia over the collapse of the peace talks, which were set to begin Monday but never started.

"The talks collapsed because of Ethiopian troops," Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, the SICS executive committee, told AFP in Mogadishu.

The SICS said Ethiopia refused to heed calls to pull out 12,000 forces already sent into south-central Somalia.

"We can confirm that there are 12,000 Ethiopian forces inside Somali territory," Ahmed told thousands of soldiers from the former Somali army who joined his troops in southern Mogadishu.

He stressed that the Ethiopian troops are ready to launch attacks.

"They are going to attack us and take our country and that will not happen by the wishes of Allah."

In return, the powerless interim government blamed SICS for the failure of the talks.

"Their pre-conditions showed their desire of turning Somali into a battlefield," charged Deputy Premier Abdullahi Sheikh Ismail, the chief government negotiator.

Ismail accused the SICS of violating previous agreements, threatening that the government would not stand hand-folded.

"We will not sit and watch while criminal acts of the Islamic courts devastate Somalia," he said. "Our hands will not be tied. We will act very soon."

Home to about 10 million largely impoverished people, Somalia has lacked almost all the trappings of a functional state, such as national systems of education, healthcare and justice, for the past 15 years.

Neighboring Ethiopia, the main alley of the interim government, also weighed in.

"They [SICS] are making conflict inevitable," foreign ministry spokesman Solomon Abebe told AFP.

Addis Ababa denies sending thousands of troops into Somalia, and only acknowledges dispatching several hundred armed military trainers.

But a confidential UN report recently confirmed that 6,000 to 8,000 Ethiopians and 2,000 Eritrean troops were operating inside Somalia.

Relations between Somalia and Ethiopia have been frosty since they fought in 1977-1978 over the ownership of the barren Ogaden region, which is largely inhabited by ethnic Somalis.

In a new boost, about 100 fighters loyal to Defense Minister Abdikadir Adan Shire Barre Hiraale shifted allegiance and joined the SICS.

SICS officials said last week that an estimated 3,000 people had enlisted for jihad and that they had set up an additional seven recruiting stations.