Ethiopian jets bomb Mogadishu airport, one wounded

MOGADISHU, Dec 25 (Reuters) Ethiopian warplanes bombed the main airport in Mogadishu today, wounding one person in Somalia's capital where Islamists have their stronghold, an airport official said.

It was not clear how many times the airport was hit, with one local resident reporting two air strikes.

''The airport has been hit. A MiG jet dropped something,'' Abdirahim Adan, managing director of Mogadishu international airport, said by telephone. ''We are still trying to assess the damage, but one person has been injured.'' Yesterday, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said he was waging war against the Islamists to protect his nation's sovereignty, intensifying a conflict that threatens to engulf the Horn of Africa.

Omar Mahamud, a baggage handler at the airport, said staff heard the roar of jets and then a loud blast.

''We were arranging bags when we heard a big explosion inside the airport. We all ran for our lives. I understand one woman cleaner was injured. We don't know exactly where at the airport the missile hit,'' he told Reuters by telephone.

''When we heard the sound of the MiG, initially we thought it was a plane that wanted to land. But then after we heard the big explosion we ran.'' Abdifatah Abdikadir, a resident who lives nearby, said the airport had been hit twice.

Meles' comments on Sunday were Ethiopia's first public admission of military involvement in Somalia, where it has vowed to protect the weak interim government which is encircled by Islamist fighters in its south-central provincial base Baidoa.

Yesterday, Ethiopian warplanes for the first time fired missiles and dropped bombs on Islamist positions near Baidoa and at several locations along the two countries' border.

Reuters DKA GC1340