Western Ally, Ethiopia Defeats Islamic Militia Grip On Mogadishu

U.S. and Western governments gained a critical victory this week when their proxy war agent, Ethiopia was able to defeat the Islamic militia groups that gained conrol of Somalia's, capital city, Mogadishu. These Islamic militia groups were openly aligned with Al Qaeda and likely would have allowed this terrorist organization a geographically critical area to plan and carry out attacks in Africa, the MidEast of even Europe.

The U.S. State Department was mum whether there was military aid or other covert aid offered to Ethiopia's air force or army. However 1,500 U.S. military personel could easily have acted as advisors due to their close stationing in nearby Dijbouti. And U.S. military satellite assistence may have been funneled to Ethiopia as well. With U.S. forces tied down in Iraq and Afghanistan, there was likely some sort of concentrated covert CIA and U.S. military attempts to aid Ethiopia to fight the Islamic militia groups that seized control of the capital of Somalia a few weeks ago.

If indeed there was a U.S. proxy war against the Islamic militias in Somalia, which seems more than reasonable given the high stakes involved, then this was a very successful covert action. It also marks the first major return to covert warfare on this scale since the Reagan Administration. While the Islamic militia groups are vowing a return to power in Mogadishu, nonetheless they have taken a huge hit that will take some time to recover from for some time.

Several factors helped to make this a quick successful operation. The Islamic militia groups were unprepared to withstand air force attacks, and the operation was quick enough to knock these groups out despite a flow of arms and aid from Syria, Libya and Yemen. With this flow of outside arms into Somalia, Western powers no doubt mounted a counter offensive by arming Ethiopia with both arms and the military intelligence necessary to help return the government of Somalia to control over the Islamic militia groups.

With the bloody fighting between Islamics and Christian in Darfur in Sudan, likely the next major battlegrounds for open warfare between Islam and Western faith will be in North Africa. The escalation of combat in Somalia this past week is another example of this trend of conflicts.