MOGADISHU, July 20: Somalia’s Islamists vowed a ‘holy war’ on Thursday against Ethiopian troops crossing into the Horn of Africa nation, while Addis Ababa threatened to ‘crush’ any attack on the interim government it supports.

The aggressive rhetoric — combined with this week’s military moves on both sides — have heightened fears of a new war in Somalia, plagued by violence and without central rule since the 1991 ouster of a military dictator.

“The risk of full scale war increases by the day,” said John Prendergast, of the International Crisis Group think-tank.

Islamists took the capital Mogadishu from US-backed warlords last month and are threatening the authority of a transitional administration formed in Kenya in 2004 and intended to steer the nation from anarchy to peace.

Sheikh Mukhtar Robow, a senior Islamist in charge of defence, said around 20 military vehicles from Ethiopia had crossed into Somalia at Dollow on Wednes-day. That added to previous Islamist accusations Ethiopia was pouring in troops to support Somalia’s government against them.

Analysts believe Addis Ababa has sent up to 5,000 troops into Somalia, and is massing more on the border, to deter any more Islamist advances.

The regional power, Ethiopia backs the interim government of President Abdullahi Yusuf, which is based in the provincial town of Baidoa. “The Islamists’ agenda is to topple the legally constituted Federal Transitional Government of Somalia and destabilise Ethiopia,” said an information ministry spokesman Zemedhun Tekle.—Reuters