icNorthWales
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
The African country has seen fierce fighting in recent days between Islamist militants and soldiers from Ethiopia and Somalia's transitional government.
The US is also carrying out air strikes in southern Somalia against Islamic fighters suspected of links with al Qaida. America claims that Somali Islamists sheltered al Qaida operatives linked to the 1998 US embassy bombings in East Africa.
A large number of people have been killed in the raids.
Ethiopia's prime minister said on Tuesday that many international terrorists had been killed, injured or captured in the fighting in Somalia.
Meles Zenawi was quoted by the French newspaper Le Monde as saying that suspected terrorists from Britain were among them.
"Many international terrorists are dead in Somalia," Meles was quoted as saying.
"Photographs have been taken and passports from different countries have been collected. The Kenyans are holding Eritrean and Canadian passport holders. We have injured people coming from Yemen, Pakistan, Sudan, the United Kingdom."
Ethiopia forces invaded Somalia last month to prevent an Islamic movement from ousting the weak, internationally recognised government from its lone stronghold in the west of the country.
There were reports at the weekend that British passport holders were involved in the fighting. However, the Foreign Office said it could not confirm the latest claims that Britons were among those injured.
Source: icNorthWales, Jan 09, 2007