MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somalia's provisional government said on Wednesday that Ethiopian troops had crossed the border, in the largest of several recent incursions, to try to capture the southern port of Kismayu. (Read map caption below)
Ethiopia's government denied the accusation, saying it did not have a single soldier on Somali territory.
Officials of the transitional national government (TNG) of President Abdiqassim Salad Hassan said Ethiopian soldiers had entered Baidoa town, a base for Somali militia groups allied to Addis Ababa, on Tuesday on their way further south to Kismayu.
Officials said the Ethiopians had invaded to support Somali warlord General Morgan, who first captured and then lost Kismayu this week in a battle against an alliance of clans loyal to Abdiqassim's government.
Somali officials did not say when the incursion took place or how many troops were involved but added the Ethiopians had cut off Baidoa's telecommunications links to the outside world.
Villagers in Somalia's Gedo region bordering Ethiopia said a large number of Ethiopian troops backed by tanks and armored personnel carriers had crossed the frontier on Monday.
Somali Information Minister Zacharia Mohammed Hajji Abdi, speaking on Tuesday evening, said other Ethiopian forces had crossed the border in a number of places in the north and south of the Horn of Africa country.
Somalia's TNG has repeatedly accused Ethiopia of sending in troops to support a coalition of warlords known as the Somali Reconciliation and Restoration Council (SRRC) which opposes Abdiqassim's administration.
The SRRC's warlords, who include Morgan, have prospered since the 1991 fall of Mohammed Siad Barre and resent Abdiqassim's attempt to extend his control over their patchwork of territories.
The SRRC is based in Baidoa, a key town in central Somalia 200 km (120 miles) northwest of the capital Mogadishu. Kismayu lies 500 km (310 miles) to the south of Mogadishu.
Diplomats say Ethiopia sees little to gain from a strong, independent government in Mogadishu and is suspicious of perceived Islamic fundamentalist backing for Abdiqassim.
But the chief of staff in Ethiopia's Foreign Ministry, Yemane Kidane, denied his country was helping the SRRC.
``Militarily speaking the SRRC is stronger than the so-called TNG organization,'' he told Reuters in Addis Ababa. ''They do not need our support.''
MAP CAPTION:
The news come a day after the Somali information minister, Zakaria Mohamud Hajji Abdi, said a large number of Ethiopian troops had crossed the border and entered Baidoa. However Ethiopia's senior foreign affairs official, Yemani Kidane, has denied any involvement in the situation. Mr Kidane, whose government does not recognise Somalia's transitional government, told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme that his country has not and does not need to deploy any troops in Somalia. "Our troops are at the border," he said. (BBC)