Ethiopian soldiers back in Somalia: witnesses

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Ethiopian troops who left Somalia last month after a more than two-year intervention have crossed back over the border and set up a checkpoint near a town held by Islamic militants, locals said on Tuesday."We have been frightened for the last 36 hours because Ethiopian troops and the ousted Baladwayne authorities have come closer," local elder Abdirizak Ali told Reuters from Baladwayne town, which al Shabaab insurgents have held since late 2008."We anticipate attacks from those troops."There was no immediate word from Addis Ababa, though it had said it was keeping a heavy troop presence on the border in case of threats to its security from the militant rebels.Al Shabaab, which means youth in Arabic and is on Washington's list of terrorist organizations, took advantage of Ethiopia's final pullout of Somalia a week ago to take more towns and increase its territorial control in the south.Though it has held Baladwayne, near the Ethiopian border, for several months, it spectacularly took Baidoa, the seat of the Somali parliament, on January 26, the same day that Ethiopian soldiers left and crossed back over the border.Al Shabaab has been holding demonstrations this week against Somalia's new President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, a moderate Islamist whom they accuse of selling out to the west.Ahmed was elected at the weekend as part of a U.N.-brokered plan to try and form a unity government and bring peace to Somalia ..more..http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE5121F820090203?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews