By Barry Moody ADDIS ABABA, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Several hundred "international jihadists", mostly from the Middle East, fought on the side of Islamists in the recent Somalia war, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said."They were people of Middle Eastern origin and east Asian, from the Indian subcontinent in particular, but mostly Middle Eastern ... international jihadists. Whether they are formally al Qaeda members or not I am not so sure," Meles told Reuters in an interview late on Saturday. "Some are dead, some are under detention, some have found their way out." The Islamists were routed by Ethiopian and government troops in a two-week war over Christmas and New Year. The United States accused the Islamists, who ruled southern Somalia for six months before their defeat, of sheltering radical groups and al Qaeda members, including a cell suspected of bombing U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 and an Israeli-owned hotel in Kenya in 2002. A U.S. air raid on Jan. 8 failed to kill members of the cell but Washington said eight al Qaeda affiliated militants died. Meles said the Islamists, who have fled to the southern tip of Somalia, had splintered into small groups and were totally defeated. "They are not a military challenge. There is a security and political challenge but not a military one at the moment." But he said the Islamists could regroup if a process of reconciliation among the Somali clans was not rapidly implemented. "If the politics are not right then they can in the future rebuild their capacity." Meles said up to 4,000 Islamists were killed and twice that number wounded in the fiercest phase of the war over the first four days when they were routed by Ethiopian armour and air power. He did not give total casualty figures. In comparison Ethiopian casualties were "insignificant" but "We wouldn't expect a picnic and we didn't get a picnic." Meles said Ethiopia's enemy Eritrea had sent several hundred soldiers and advisers to support the Islamists. They helped in deploying heavy equipment and providing combat command support but were not foot soldiers. Eritrea denies having sent troops. RECONCILIATION Meles said that the decisive issue in preventing a return of Somalia to the anarchy that has scarred it for more than 15 years would be whether the interim government was able to complete a process of clan reconciliation. Meles said the Islamist rise was less a religious movement and more a cover for the dissatisfaction of several clans. "The primary locus of politics in Somalia is not the mosque. It is the clans. There are clearly certain clans that are disaffected and do not feel as comfortable with the transitional government as most other clans do. "These need to be incorporated and made to feel more comfortable ... If they can get this right the Somalis think the rest will follow," he said Meles said Ethiopian and government victory in the war was more to do with political moves and care to avoid civilian casualties than military operations. "Most of the major clans were behind us, including through the participation of some of the militias in some of the battles," he said. He added that the fall of Mogadishu to his forces was facilitated by negotiations with traditional leaders to avoid the Islamists making a stand in the city, as had been feared. "Some people believe we took it from the outside. I prefer to believe we took it from the inside. It was the work of traditional leaders and clan leaders who felt that their city should not be a battleground," Meles said. Meles will host an African Union summit on Monday and Tuesday that will discuss deployment of nearly 8,000 peacekeepers in Somalia. He said a third of his forces were expected to leave Somalia by Sunday and he wanted the rest out in weeks, saying they had completed their mission and there was no reason the first AU troops could not be deployed by mid-February. Without a strong military force to replace the Ethiopians, many residents and analysts fear the Horn of Africa country will slide back into anarchy.
