Ethiopian Military Halfway to Mogadishu

Tue, Dec 26, 2006 at 1:18:17 pm PST

Ethiopia says they’re kicking Islamist butt in Somalia: Ethiopia predicts victory against Somali Islamists.

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Ethiopia said on Tuesday it was halfway to victory against Somali Islamists and could seize their Mogadishu stronghold within days following a week of war in the Horn of Africa.

Islamists countered that they were ready for a long war and any attempt to oust them would prove disastrous for their foes. The Red Cross said hundreds were wounded in the latest fighting.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said his forces supporting Somalia’s weak interim government had killed up to 1,000 Islamist fighters. There was no independent verification of that. The Islamists also claim to have killed hundreds.

“We have already completed half our mission, and as soon as we finish the second half, our troops will leave Somalia,” Meles told a news conference in the Ethiopian capital.

He said a force of between 3,000 and 4,000 Ethiopians had “broken the back” of the Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) around the government’s south-central outpost Baidoa, and that the Islamists were now in “full retreat.”