MOGADISHU, Somalia - Kenya sent extra troops to its border with Somalia on Wednesday to keep Islamic militants from entering the country after Ethiopian helicopters attacked a Kenyan border post by mistake while pursuing suspected fighters.
Four Ethiopian helicopters apparently mistook a Kenyan border post at Harehare for the Somali town of Dhobley on Tuesday and fired rockets at several small buildings, a security officer said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. There were no reports of casualties, but Kenyan tanks were sent to the area early Wednesday, the officer added.
Residents in Dhobley said they witnessed the Ethiopian military aircraft bombing the area.
"Four military helicopters flew over our town several times and bombarded somewhere on the Kenyan side of the border,'' Mohamud Ilmi Osman said. Kenyan officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Somalia's government forces, backed by Ethiopian troops, have been pursuing the remnants of the Islamic militia that until two weeks ago controlled most of southern Somalia.
In the Kenyan port of Mombasa, Somalia's President Abdullahi Yusuf met with his Kenyan counterpart, Mwai Kibaki. Kibaki said Kenya would not be used as a refuge for people seeking to destabilize governments in the region _ clearly referring to foreign fighters for the Somali Council of Islamic Courts who may be sought for terrorism and other crimes.
He noted that Kenya had already strengthened patrols along the border with Somalia, a statement from the presidential press service said. It said Kibaki earlier Tuesday had chaired a national security committee meeting, but it did not give any other details.
Kenya deployed troops, armoured vehicles and trucks with light weapons along the 675 -kilometre border with Somalia. A U.S. counterterrorism task force has trained new coast guards and recently gave Kenya three patrol boats.
With attention shifting to suspected al-Qaida fighters believed to be sheltered by the hardline group, a Kenyan security official said 10 foreigners who had fought with the Islamic movement had been captured there and told interrogators that the militia was doomed by internal rifts.
The official, who cannot be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the journalists, said one of the foreigners arrested was identified as Bashir Ali Makhtar, a member of the Ethiopian rebel group, the Ogaden National Liberation Front. The official said that Makhtar holds a Canadian passport.
Four of the people arrested are Kenyan Somalis recruited into the Islamic militia and three of them Eritreans, including an army colonel, the official said in the northeastern town of Garissa. He did not give details about the other two foreigners arrested Saturday.
According to a UN report, Eritrea, Ethiopia's longtime rival, sent 2,000 troops to support the Islamic movement.
Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi said some of the militiamen offered to surrender Tuesday.
"We asked our troops to collect them and bring them back home,'' he said, refusing to provide any details about how many fighters were involved or where they were.
The rest of the "Islamists are scattered in the bush,'' he said. "Maybe small fights can take place, but we are trying to destroy them.''
In the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi told his parliament his troops were not peacekeepers and it would be too costly to keep them in Somalia for much longer, calling on the international community to act quickly to send in peacekeepers to avoid a vacuum.
Withdrawing would not mean abandoning "the Somali government and its people's ongoing effort to stabilize peace in the country,'' Meles said. "We will stay in Somalia for a few weeks, maybe for two weeks.''
The UN's humanitarian agency said that about 4,000 Somalis were reported to be in the Dhobley area along the border, not yet able to cross into Kenya. The statement released in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, gave no further details.
There is a fear of newly laid landmines in southern Somalia following the latest fighting, the agency added.
Diplomats from the region were working to arrange the speedy deployment of African peacekeepers to help the transitional government establish its authority in the country, which has known only anarchy for 15 years.
Somalia's transitional government and its Ethiopian allies have long accused Islamic militias of harbouring al-Qaida, and foreign Islamic radicals _ including Pakistanis, Arabs and Chechens _ are believed to have come to Somalia to fight on behalf of the Islamic movement in recent months.
In addition, al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and his top deputy Ayman al-Zawahri have issued statement making clear they see Somalia as a battleground in their global war on the West.
Three suspects wanted by the United States in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa are believed to be leaders of the Somali Islamic movement.
Islamic movement leaders deny having any links to al-Qaida.
Sea routes from southern Somalia were being patrolled by the U.S. Navy.
