Ethiopian fighter jets hit Somali airports

Ethiopian warplanes attacked two Islamist-held airfields in Somalia on Monday, witnesses said, wounding at least one person and further escalating a conflict that threatens to engulf the Horn of Africa in war. The attacks came the morning after Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi formally declared war on the Islamists, saying he was protecting his nation's sovereignty against a movement Addis Ababa accuses of being run by terrorists.A MiG fighter struck Mogadishu International Airport with machine-gun fire, injuring a cleaning lady, said the airport's MD, Abdirahim Adan. He said reports a bomb had fallen were wrong.Three MiGs later attacked Somalia's biggest military airfield, Baledogle, about 100km west of Mogadishu. "They are targeting the runway and I can see it being hit," said an Islamist fighter who asked not to be named.A week of fighting between Islamists and Somalia's Ethiopian-backed government has intensified long-running hostilities. Addis Ababa and the United States say the Islamists, who control most of southern Somalia after seizing Mogadishu in June, is a terrorist group backed by Ethiopia's enemy, Eritrea.Ethiopia has vowed to protect the Western-backed interim government, which is virtually encircled by Islamist fighters in its south-central provincial base of Baidoa.Fighting continued for the seventh day on Monday near Daynunay, outside Baidoa, between fighters loyal to the Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) and government troops backed by Ethiopian tanks, artillery and air strikes. In Baidoa, the virtually powerless interim government said it was closing all of Somalia's land, sea and air borders. Government spokesperson Abdirahman Dinari said the administration approved of Ethiopia's attack on the airport. "Anywhere terrorists use to bring in arms and ammunition deserves to be hit," he said.Ethiopians take townThe interim government's Prime Minister, Ali Mohamed Gedi, said 8Â 000 foreign fighters had poured into Somalia to back the Islamists. He concurred with a recent US accusation the Islamists' top echelon was being controlled by al-Qaeda