Residents inspect a fire engine damaged during an Ethiopian air strike at Mogadishu's international airport Dec. 25, 2006. Ethiopian warplanes attacked two Islamist-held airfields in Somalia on Monday, witnesses said, in the most dramatic strikes yet of a war threatening to engulf the Horn of Africa. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery >>>

    ADDIS ABABA, Dec. 26 (Xinhua) -- The African Union (AU) said Tuesday Ethiopia has the right to intervene militarily in Somalia as it feels threatened by a fundamentalist militia operating there.

    The African Union would not criticize Ethiopia as it had "given us ample warning that it feels threatened by the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC)," said Patrick Mazimhaka, deputy chairman of the AU Commission.

    "It is up to every country to judge the measure of the threat to its own sovereignty," he said in a statement.

    Mazimhaka said the international community had a responsibility to support the transitional government.

    The African Union would meet in two days to discuss the situation, he said.

    "The African Union must plan to get a force to intercede and stabilize the situation," he added.

    Since Sunday, the Ethiopian National Defense Forces, together with the forces of Somalia's Federal Transitional Government (TFG), have launched counterattacks against the UIC in Somalia, saying that their patience "has been exhausted."

    At present, the joint forces are advancing on the Somali capital Mogadishu.

Ethiopian jets bomb Somali airports taken by militants

    BEIJING, Dec. 26 (Xinhuanet) -- Ethiopian jets dominated Somalia's skies on Monday and bombed the country's two main airports while ground troops captured a strategic border town, providing Somalia's internationally backed government crucial military aid in its struggle against a powerful Islamic militia, media reports said Tuesday.

    The Russian-made jets swept low over the capital at midmorning, dropping two bombs on Mogadishu International Airport, which was just recently reopened after the Islamic takeover of the city. The leader of the Islamic militia, Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, flew into the airport shortly after the attack; it was not clear if he was an intended target. Full Story

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