The Battle for Diinsoor

Just two days after a security council resolution was passed, Ethiopian and Transitional Federal Government (TFG) forces attacked the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) in Diinsoor (about 100km south of Baidao). UIC has taken over the town about a week ago without any fighting.

Diinsoor and the surrounding villages are important for both sides as the UIC is already encircling Baidao from the west and east and if they consolidate control over Diinsoor they will have cut-off the TFG effectively from the rest of Somalia.

So far, the reports show that UIC is having the upper hand, but it's anticipated (by UIC) that the area of the conflict might widen to the east and west of Baidao. The worse case scenario (even worse than UIC forces clashing with Ethiopia) would be UIC forces against Puntland forces, but this is so far unlikely.

The Islamic Courts have emerged just few months ago and they've already turned everything upside down. The coming year promises to be an eventful and dangerous year for Somalia, I'll have a post on that soon.