MOGADISHU, Jan 22 (News Agencies) - Ethiopian troops opened fire on a group of people demonstrating in support of Somalia's new government in the southern town of Bulo-Hawo killing five and wounding several others, a local newspaper reported here Monday.
Ethiopian forces have occupied Bulo-Hawo, near the Kenyan border, and several other places in the Gedo region, since 1996, ostensibly to prevent exiled Ethiopian groups from launching cross border raids.
The Dalka newspaper said that demonstrators were marching on Sunday in support of a delegation from Somalia's interim government visiting Gedo.
The newspaper, a supporter of the government of Somalia's new President Abdulkassim Salat Hassan, said that Ethiopian troops also arrested more than 100 people in Bulo-Hawo and that many others fled the town.
Those killed included two women and two children, Dalka added.
Two Bulo-Hawo residents contacted by field radio on Monday confirmed the killing, but were unable to say who was responsible.
Somali Prime Minister Ali Khalif Galaydh alleged during a visit to Djibouti earlier this month that Ethiopia had twice attempted to infiltrate arms into Mogadishu and was equipping anti-government militias in preparation for armed attacks.
But Addis Ababa countered by saying that Somalia was seeking scapegoats for its internal problems.
Rival clan leaders and their militia armies carved up Somalia following the ouster of dictator Mohammed Siad Barre in 1991.
Warlords have rejected Salat's administration, which was formed last year after a major conference in Djibouti among politicians and civic leaders from Somalia.
The rift-ridden Somali National Front (SNF) faction of the Marehan clan controls Gedo.
The SNF is split between those supporting the new government and those opposed to it. Ethiopia is believed to back the group opposed to Salat's administration.
