Ethiopian troops seen to have pushed into Somalia

MOGADISHU - Several hundreds of Ethiopian troops and scores of armoured military vehicles were witnessed to have crossed into neighbouring Somalia on Saturday, local witnesses said.

Ethiopian forces were reported to have pushed up to 50 km into the town of Guriel in central Somalia's Galgudud region and some 30 km into the town of Beletweyne in its Hiran region.

Several hundred Ethiopian troops convoyed by lorries and armoured vehicles were seen to have passed through Guriel, and the scale of troop movements was one of the largest in the recent past, local witnesses were quoted by the media as saying.

Kenyan residents and officials also confirmed the incursion of Ethiopian troops into the East African country, saying they crossed the Kenyan town of Mandera bordering with Ethiopia and Somalia.

So far, the report has not been confirmed by Addis Ababa.

The Ethiopian movement comes after Kenya's military operations in mid-October against Somalia's Islamist rebel group Al-Shabaab, who has been blamed for a series of abductions of foreigners on its soil.