In brief: Somali anger at Ethiopians boils over

MOGADISHU, Somalia – Gunmen attacked Ethiopian troops supporting the Somali government Sunday, witnesses said, in the second straight day of violence in a city struggling to emerge from more than a decade of chaos.

Farah Abdi Hussein, who witnessed the attack, said gunmen launched grenades at Ethiopians about 2 1/2 miles from the airport. One Somali soldier was wounded, according to a Somali military official asked not to be named for fear of reprisals.

The unrest comes at a precarious time for Somalia’s transitional administration, which is trying to assert some control for the first time in a capital that has seen little more than chaos in the 15 years since clan warlords toppled a dictatorship and then turned on each other.

The government, backed by Ethiopia’s military, drove out a radical Islamic militia last week. But many in predominantly Muslim Somalia resent the presence of troops from neighboring Ethiopia, which has a large Christian population and has fought two wars with Somalia.

On Saturday, hundreds of protesters took to the streets, burning tires and smashing car windows while denouncing the presence of Ethiopian forces and shouting defiance at the Somali government’s call for disarming Mogadishu.

Two people died in Saturday’s violence, including a 13-year-old boy. It was not clear who shot the man or the teenager.

On Sunday, a similar protest took place about 215 miles away in Belet Weyne, after Ethiopian troops there detained a Somali military commander who refused to hand over an Islamic militiaman, witnesses said. That protest also turned violent, killing a 20-year-old civilian, Abdi Nor Salah Gedi told the Associated Press by telephone.

Clan elders held emergency meetings Sunday and hundreds of Somali troops patrolled Mogadishu, setting up six extra checkpoints in areas where residents burned tires during Saturday’s protests.

Dahir Abdi Kulima, a chieftain of the Hawiye, the dominant clan of southern Somalia, said the government’s reliance on Ethiopia is backfiring.

“Since the Ethiopians arrived people are sleeping and waking with worry about what will happen next,” Kulima told AP during a break in a meeting with about a dozen other Hawiye elders. “This is a sign of upcoming problems in Somalia.”

The most senior U.S. diplomat for Africa said Sunday that the United States would use its diplomatic and financial resources to support the Somali government.