Ethiopian soldiers enter second Somali town, witnesses say

MOGADISHU, Somalia -- Ethiopian troops moved into a second Somali town on Saturday to protect the country's weak, U.N.-backed government, but talks aimed at easing tensions in this Horn of Africa nation fell apart.

About 200 Ethiopian troops, in pickup trucks mounted with machine guns, moved into Wajid and took control of the airport, witnesses said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they feared reprisals. Wajid is a U.N. aid base 46 miles southeast of the Somali-Ethiopian border.

In Wajid, residents said the Ethiopian troops did not meet any resistance when they took over the airport. Aid workers and U.N. staff in the town also said there were Ethiopian soldiers in Wajid. They, too, asked not to be identified by name because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Wajid, which has experienced relative peace compared with other southern Somalia towns, such as Baidoa, is run by a clan-based administration that has not allied itself with the transitional government or with the Islamists.

Ethiopian troops first moved into Somalia on Thursday to protect the government, which has been challenged for power by Islamic militants. More than 400 Ethiopian troops entered Baidoa, 150 miles northwest of the capital, Mogadishu, which the Islamic militia controls.

The Islamic militia's leader responded to the Ethiopian incursion by calling on all Somalis to wage holy war against Ethiopia, a largely Christian country that is Somalia's traditional enemy.

Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, in a radio broadcast on Friday, said Ethiopia was seeking to bolster what he described as the puppet regime of President Abdullahi Yusuf, his longtime rival.

Residents of Baidoa reported seeing hundreds of Ethiopian troops entering Baidoa on Thursday and taking up positions around Yusuf's compound.

Somali government leaders may be reluctant to acknowledge that Ethiopian troops have come to their aid because they do not want to appear to be beholden to the country's traditional adversary.

Ethiopia's move could give the internationally recognized Somali government its only chance of curbing the Islamic militia's increasing power. But the incursion could also be the pretext the militiamen need to build public support for a guerrilla war.

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Associated Press writers Salad Duhul in Mogadishu and Mohamed Olad Hassan in Baidoa contributed to this report.