From The LA Times
By Edmund Sanders and Abukar Albadri

Clashes between Islamic fighters and Ethiopian-backed government soldiers heightened fears Wednesday that Somalia is inching toward a civil war that could drag in the entire Horn of Africa.

As international negotiators worked furiously to resolve the dispute, armed battles around Somalia’s transitional capital of Baidoa killed at least one government soldier, according to Somali officials.

Islamic leaders, who seized control of Mogadishu, the traditional capital, and much of southern Somalia from warlords this summer, are calling for a “holy war” against Christian-dominated Ethiopia unless the neighboring nation withdraws its troops, which were sent across the border to prop up Somalia’s weak transitional government.

Both sides have been massing weapons and troops in strategic points around southern Somalia in recent weeks.

It remained unclear who started Wednesday’s fighting, but officials said skirmishes were ignited by a gunfight between two rival reconnaissance missions in the town of Idale, about 40 miles southwest of Baidoa, where Somalia’s transitional government is based. Fighting spread to two other areas.

Read more Somalia