Al-Sharq al-Awsat – Report by Khalid Mahmud in Cairo: “Somalia: Islamic Courts Accuse Mossad of Backing Ethiopian Army Against it. Transitional Government Denies Presence of Israeli Experts in Baidoa”

A leading official in Somalia’s Islamic Courts organization has accused the Israeli intelligence service (Mossad) of giving security and logistical assistance to the government of Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi within the framework of its preparations to launch war on the Islamic Courts that have been in control of the Somali capital Mogadishu and several areas in central and southern Somalia since June.

The official, who asked to remain anonymous, said in a telephone contact with Al-Sharaq al-Awsat from Mogadishu that Israeli intelligence agents are helping Ethiopian forces that are in the southern city of Baidoa, the stronghold of the transitional government, to prepare the attack which the government forces, backed by the Ethiopian army, will launch against the Islamic Courts militias in the town of Bur Hakkaba on the strategic road between Mogadishu and Baidoa. He added that the Islamic Courts have frequent information but refused to identity their sources or the nature of the work that the Israeli agents are doing.

He said the Addis Ababa regime wants the help of Israel’s security and military expertise to fight the Islamic Courts and pointed out that the Ethiopian-Israeli cooperation has full US agreement.

He added that the Mossad’s secret hands were in the capital Mogadishu before the Courts’ control and said several warlords had connections with the Mosad agents.

But an official in the transitional government in Baidoa denied in a telephone contact with Al-Sharq al-Awsat the presence of any Israeli experts or agents in the city and said the remarks of the Islamic Courts’ official about their presence to help Ethiopia aim at causing confusion about the Ethiopian forces’ mission of training and preparing the transitional government’s military and security forces.

[Passage omitted on press conference by the Somali foreign minister in Paris and Kenya’s backing down on supporting sending peace-keeping force to Somalia]