NAIROBI, July 26 (HANA)--Widespread fears has engulfed Somalia after a mystery cargo plane landed in the bullet-riddled capital Mogadishu on Wednesday, sparking accusations from the interim government that it carried deadly weapons.

  The weapons were said to have been transported via a cargo plane that landed in an Islamist-held airport in Somalia.

   The Ilyushin-76 is only the second aircraft to land at Mogadishu International Airport in more than a decade of anarchy in Somalia, indicating the Islamic militia’s total control of the capital.

  Sources said the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia confirmed that it has received weapons from an “undisclosed origin”.

   But the UN-backed transitional government has blamed Eritrean government of being behind importation of heavy military supplies aimed at supporting the Islamists.

    Somalia deputy minister of information Salad Ali Jelle told a news conference in the central town of Baidoa, 250 kilometers southwest of Mogadishu that his government is fully aware of what he claimed to be heavy military supplies Eritrea supported to the Islamists.

   'We know the plane is carrying weapons. We are very angry. We condemn the direct intervention of Eritrea in Somalia,” Jelle told reporters.

    'We know that Eritrea brought huge military supplies in Mogadishu this morning with Cargo plain' he added.

    Jelle also said that the supplies included explosive things, landmines, Anti Tank missiles and Anti Aircraft missiles.

   'We also know that soldiers from Eritrea stay in Mogadishu and Lower Shabelle Region and we call on Eritrea to stop the bloodshed in the country,” he said.

    Ethiopia backs the weak transitional government based in Baidoa while Addis Ababa accuses its neighbors, Eritrea of arming the Supreme Council of Islamic Courts (SCIC), which is running the capital and several parts of the south.

     There are fears that Somalia could end up a combat zone for a proxy war between Ethiopia and Eritrea - who fought a two-year border war.

    Analysts say neither Eritrea nor Ethiopia would want to see a regime in Somalia hostile to their interests.

    Both the Ethiopian government and the weak transitional government have refused to confirm the presence of Ethiopian troops on Somali soil.

    United Nations has an arms embargo on the Horn of Africa nation but it has been ignored for years.
   The controversy over the plane came as the Islamist leaders met to decide whether to return to talks with the government.
   Their closed-door meeting in Mogadishu came a day after U.N. special envoy to Somalia, Francois Lonseny Fall, met both sides to try to secure their commitment to attend a second round of negotiations in Sudan next week.

     The Islamist militia walked out of talks in Sudan's capital, Khartoum, last week before they got under way after the Ethiopians crossed the border in support of the government.

    President Abdullahi Yusuf's government has little influence outside its base in Baidoa, but has the diplomatic support of the UN and the African Union (AU) and the strong backing of neighboring Ethiopia.

    Fall said that the indication is that there are some Ethiopian troops around Baidoa and some in Wajid - another central town.

    According to the UN envoy, the Ethiopians are justifying their presence inside Somalia for their own security

   'They are saying that some Ethiopian dissidents are in the ranks of the Islamics and those are ready to fight Ethiopia,' Fall said by telephone from his Nairobi office.

by Ooko Daniel....