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According to both AP and Reuters, Ethiopian troops and Somalian government troops have cleared the way for an assault on Mogadishu, the last holdout of Islamic Courts Council fighters.

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopian-backed government troops will lay siege to Somalia's capital Mogadishu until rival Islamist forces surrender, Somalia's envoy to Ethiopia said on Wednesday.

A joint force of Ethiopian soldiers and pro-government fighters had taken control of Balad, a town 30 km (18 miles) north of the capital, Ambassador Abdikarin Farah said.

"We are not going to fight for Mogadishu to avoid civilian casualties...Our troops will surround Mogadishu until they surrender," he told reporters in Addis Ababa.

The conflict is beginning to get coverage in US newspapers. From the ever reliable LA Times...

Somalia could be Ethiopia's quagmire

A more involved military offensive might pose the same problems the U.S. is facing in Iraq, observers say.
By Edmund Sanders, Times Staff Writer
December 26, 2006

NAIROBI, KENYA — Ethiopia's attacks against Islamic forces in Somalia may have delivered a short-term military victory, but analysts warned that a longer offensive could present the U.S. ally with some of the same challenges facing American forces in Iraq.

Airstrikes against the Somali capital, Mogadishu, and other towns Sunday and Monday demonstrated Ethiopia's military superiority over the Islamic forces that seized most of southern Somalia during the summer.

But Ethiopia would be hard-pressed to dispatch enough troops to capture and occupy Islamic-held areas of Somalia.

"I don't understand what Ethiopia's objective is," said David Shinn, a former U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia and now a political science professor at George Washington University. "I can't imagine their objective is to occupy and hold Somalia. It was a very limited victory."

Gosh, history repeats itself. Less than one week into both Afghanistan and Iraq the US military was said to be in a quagmire. Now the Ethiopians are following suit. Heh. And the LAT was able to find a "former Ambassador", now political science professor to question ground operations too. Maybe he will lead a commission with somebody like Jimmy Carter to bring peace to the region.

The most interesting, and most ignored, comment is from Ambassador Abdikarin Farah... "We are not going to fight for Mogadishu to avoid civilian casualties...

We should take notes...