War in Somalia (2006–2009)

{{Main|Ethiopian–Somali conflict}}

Disputes between Somalia and Ethiopia over the Ogaden (now the Somali Region) date to Ethiopian Emperor Menelik's expansions into Somali lands during the 1890s, initiating the process of incorporation into the Ethiopian Empire. Several decades of growing tension and conflict culminated in the 1977–1978 War where Somalia launched an invasion to assist the Western Somali Liberation Front in the hope of incorporating the Ogaden into a unitary 'Greater Somalia'. Major conflicts between Ethiopia and Somalia since the latter's independence in 1960 include:

• 1964 Border War
• 1977–1978 Ogaden War
• 1982 Border War
• 1996–2003 border incursions during the Somali Civil War.{{Cite web |date=2001-11-26 |title=The New Humanitarian {{!}} Puntland capital calm but "extremely tense" |url=https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news/2001/11/26/puntland-capital-calm-extremely-tense |access-date=2024-04-06 |website=The New Humanitarian |language=en}}{{Cite news |date=2003-07-12 |title=Somali leader lambasts Ethiopia |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3061449.stm |access-date=2024-05-11 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}} Ethiopian troops had been crossing into Somalia since 1996 to give arms to militias in Puntland and Gedo.{{Cite news |date=2002-05-15 |title=Ethiopian troops 'in Somalia' |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1989954.stm |access-date=2024-05-11 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}

In 2000, the first successful attempt to form a government since the collapse of Somalia's central authority in 1991 led to the creation of the Transitional National Government (TNG). Ethiopia opposed the TNG, fearing that Somali reunification would reignite claims on the Ogaden region. In response, Ethiopia supported groups in Somalia that resisted the TNG and actively sponsored the formation of opposition alliances to preserve its strategic interests.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1KBP7QbalX0C |title=Africa South of the Sahara 2003 |date=2002 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-85743-131-5 |editor-last=Katharine |editor-first=Murison |pages=945 |language=en |chapter=Somalia}} After the 9/11 attacks, the Ethiopian government labelled TNG leaders as Islamic extremists who were pro-Bin Laden.{{Cite journal |last1=Elmi |first1=Afyare Abdi |last2=Barise |first2=Dr Abdullahi |date=2006 |title=The Somali Conflict: Root causes, obstacles, and peace-building strategies |url=https://www.files.ethz.ch/isn/101782/FULL.pdf |journal=African Security Review |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=32–53 |doi=10.1080/10246029.2006.9627386}}

The TNG later failed and was instead replaced by the rise of Islamic Courts Union (ICU) in the years following, which occurred concurrently with the escalating insurgency in the Ogaden waged by the Ogaden National Liberation Front.{{Cite journal |last=Cocodia |first=Jude |date=2021-04-03 |title=Rejecting African Solutions to African Problems: The African Union and the Islamic Courts Union in Somalia |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19392206.2021.1922026 |journal=African Security |language=en |volume=14 |issue=2 |pages=110–131 |doi=10.1080/19392206.2021.1922026 |issn=1939-2206}} A strong Somali state not dependent on Addis Ababa was perceived as a security threat,{{Cite journal |last=Cocodia |first=Jude |date=2021-04-03 |title=Rejecting African Solutions to African Problems: The African Union and the Islamic Courts Union in Somalia |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19392206.2021.1922026 |journal=African Security |language=en |volume=14 |issue=2 |pages=110–131 |doi=10.1080/19392206.2021.1922026 |issn=1939-2206 |s2cid=236350899 |quote=Ethiopia considered a weak Somali state dependent on Ethiopian support as a lesser threat than a strong one. This propelled Ethiopia to undertake the forceful installment of the TFG.}} and consequently the Ethiopian government heavily backed the formation of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) in 2004 and the presidency of Abdullahi Yusuf on the grounds that he would give up Somalia's long standing claim to the Ogaden.{{Cite journal |last=Cocodia |first=Jude |date=2021-04-03 |title=Rejecting African Solutions to African Problems: The African Union and the Islamic Courts Union in Somalia |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19392206.2021.1922026 |journal=African Security |language=en |volume=14 |issue=2 |pages=110–131 |doi=10.1080/19392206.2021.1922026 |issn=1939-2206 |s2cid=236350899 |quote=The TFG had Ethiopia's approval on the basis that under Yusuf, Somalia will rest its claim to the Ogaden region}} Yusuf was previously a member of an Ethiopian-backed coalition of warlords that had undermined the TNG,{{Cite news |date=2008-12-29 |title=Profile: Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3732020.stm |access-date=2024-03-09 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}} and decades prior to that had led Somali rebels who assisted invading Ethiopian troops during the 1982 Ethiopian–Somali war.{{Cite book |last=Mukhtar |first=Mohamed Haji |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DPwOsOcNy5YC |title=Historical Dictionary of Somalia |date=2003|publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=978-0-8108-6604-1 |page=16 |language=en}} The Ogaden was at the heart of the dispute between the ICU and Ethiopian governments. Following their ascent to power, senior ICU officials accused Ethiopia of mistreating the Somalis under its rule and declared that the region could not be forgotten, as it was tied to them by blood.{{Cite news |date=2006-10-02 |title=Ogaden draws in tension once more |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5383012.stm |access-date=2024-10-24 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}

{{Main|Propaganda in the War in Somalia}}

Even before the beginning of the war, there have been significant assertions and accusations of the use of disinformation and propaganda tactics by various parties to shape the causes and course of the conflict. Eastern African countries and international observers had feared the Ethiopian offensive may lead to a regional war, involving Eritrea, which has a complex relationship with Ethiopia and who Ethiopia claimed to have been a supporter of the ICU.{{cite press release

|title = Somalia Conflict Risk Alert

|publisher = International Crisis Group

|date = November 27, 2006

|url = http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=4520&l=1&m=1

|access-date = 2007-01-05

|url-status = dead

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070109220648/http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=4520&l=1&m=1

|archive-date = January 9, 2007

}} The Eritrean government denied sending troops,[http://www.shabait.com/staging/publish/article_005931.html President Isaias reiterates that Eritrea did not send troops to Somalia] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070224023615/http://www.shabait.com/staging/publish/article_005931.html |date=2007-02-24 }} Eritrean Ministry of Information no evidence exists to support claims of Eritrean troops in Somalia. No Eritrean presence was discovered in the country during the war{{Cite journal |last=Khayre |first=Ahmed Ali M. |date=2014 |title=Self-defence, Intervention by Invitation, or Proxy War? The Legality of the 2006 Ethiopian Invasion of Somalia |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/ajicl.2014.0090 |journal=African Journal of International and Comparative Law |volume=22 |issue=2 |pages=208–233 |doi=10.3366/ajicl.2014.0090 |issn=0954-8890}} except for two journalists who were arrested and accused of being soldiers by the Ethiopians.{{Cite web |date=2007-04-19 |title=Two Eritrean journalists captured in Somalia are shown in video posted on pro-government website in Ethiopia {{!}} RSF |url=https://rsf.org/en/two-eritrean-journalists-captured-somalia-are-shown-video-posted-pro-government-website-ethiopia |access-date=2025-04-14 |website=Reporters Without Borders |language=en}} Ethiopia also denied deploying troops in Somalia despite being widely reported.{{Cite web |date=17 June 2006 |title=Ethiopia denies crossing into Somalia |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2006/6/17/ethiopia-denies-crossing-into-somalia |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231031181637/https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2006/6/17/ethiopia-denies-crossing-into-somalia |archive-date=31 October 2023 |access-date=2022-11-12 |website=Al Jazeera |language=en}} The TFG also denied the presence of Ethiopian forces in Somalia,{{Cite news |last=Gettleman |first=Jeffrey |date=2006-07-22 |title=Somali Says Ethiopian Presence Is Just the Uniforms |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/22/world/africa/somali-says-ethiopian-presence-is-just-the-uniforms.html |access-date=2023-06-21 |issn=0362-4331}} even after Ethiopia had admitted its troops were inside Somalia.{{Cite journal |last=Samatar |first=Abdi Ismail |date=2007 |title=Ethiopian Invasion of Somalia, US Warlordism & AU Shame |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20406369 |journal=Review of African Political Economy |volume=34 |issue=111 |pages=155–165 |jstor=20406369 |issn=0305-6244 |quote=The TFG denied that Ethiopian troops have invaded Somalia even long after the Ethiopian government admitted having its troops in Somalia. Such false denials of known facts have undermined what ever credibility the TFG had.}}

The majority of Somali society, including much of the newly formed Transitional Federal Government, deeply opposed any foreign military intervention.{{Cite news |last=Rice |first=Xan |last2= |first2= |date=11 Nov 2006 |title=Sending African troops into Somalia 'would trigger war' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/nov/27/3 |access-date=2024-07-27 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077 |quote=Most Somalis, including a significant chunk of the government, are deeply opposed to any foreign intervention.}}{{Cite journal |last=Samatar |first=Abdi Ismail |date=2006 |title=The Miracle of Mogadishu |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4007061 |journal=Review of African Political Economy |volume=33 |issue=109 |pages=581–587 |issn=0305-6244 |jstor=4007061}} With significant Ethiopian support, Abdullahi Yusuf was elected as the TFG president, and, under Ethiopian direction, he appointed a prime minister with connections to then-Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. These close connections to Addis Ababa were a driving force behind the invasion and provoked the ICU into later adopting a bellicose stance.{{Cite news |last=Lewis |first=I.M. |author-link=Ioan Lewis |date=16 April 2007 |title=Ethiopia's Invasion of Somalia |url=http://www.garoweonline.com/artman2/publish/Opinion_20/Ethiopia_s_Invasion_of_Somalia.shtml |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070820013812/http://www.garoweonline.com/artman2/publish/Opinion_20/Ethiopia_s_Invasion_of_Somalia.shtml |archive-date=20 August 2007 |work=Garowe Online |quote=}} During a 2004 visit to the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, when President Yusuf first requested 20,000 Ethiopian troops enter Somalia to back his government.{{Cite web |last=Cobb Jr. |first=Charles |date=22 January 2007 |title=Tentative hope and little else – Somalia |url=https://reliefweb.int/report/somalia/somalia-tentative-hope-and-little-else |access-date=2024-09-03 |website=AllAfrica |publisher=Reliefweb |language=en}} A 2005 African Union fact finding mission to Somalia found that the overwhelming majority of Somalis rejected troops from neighboring states entering the country. Despite significant opposition within the TFG parliament,{{Cite web |last=Maruf |first=Harun |author-link=Harun Maruf |date=2006-08-15 |title=Somalia for the Somalis: An idea in peril |url=https://reliefweb.int/report/somalia/somalia-somalis-idea-peril |access-date=2024-07-24 |website=Relief Web |language=en |quote=The UIC leaders say they will not discuss matters with the government as long as foreign troops remain on Somali soil; and the Somali Parliament (also based in Baidoa) is equally opposed to any Ethiopian presence. |agency=Mail & Guardian}} President Yusuf made the unpopular decision to invite Ethiopian troops to prop up his administration. As an institution, the TFG did not consent to or approve of the Ethiopian military intervention. No parliamentary approval was given for a decision openly opposed by a significant portion of the government.

During mid-2006, the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) decisively defeated a CIA backed alliance of Somali warlords and became the first organization since the collapse of the state to control Mogadishu, which propelled the ICU on the national stage for the first time.{{Cite book |last=Samatar |first=Abdi Ismail |url= |title=Framing Somalia |date=2022 |publisher=Red Sea Press |isbn=978-1-56902-789-9 |page=141 |language=en}} The ICU began recruiting thousands of young men from across Somali territories and in the Somali diaspora.{{Cite news |last=Hersi |first=Mahamad |date=2024-04-07 |title=In the Horn of Africa: Conflicts Are No Longer Historical |url=https://www.geeska.com/en/horn-africa-conflicts-are-no-longer-historical |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20241009165931/https://www.geeska.com/en/horn-africa-conflicts-are-no-longer-historical |archive-date=2024-10-09 |access-date=2025-03-07 |work=Geeska |language=en}} British television station Channel 4 acquired a leaked document detailing a confidential meeting between senior American and Ethiopian officials in Addis Ababa six months prior to the full-scale December 2006 invasion. Participants deliberated on various scenarios, with the 'worst-case scenario' being the potential takeover of Somalia by the Islamic Courts Union. The documents revealed that the US found the prospect unacceptable and would back Ethiopia in the event of an ICU takeover. Journalist Jon Snow reported that during the meeting 'the blueprint for a very American supported Ethiopian invasion of Somalia was hatched'. No Somali officials were involved in the discussions. According to Ted Dagne, an Africa specialist for the US Congressional Research Service, the Islamic Courts had committed no act or provocation to initiate the Ethiopian invasion. American historian William R. Polk observes that the invasion had been unprovoked.

The Ethiopian invasion began with the dispatch of several thousand Ethiopian National Defence Force (ENDF) troops around Baidoa city located in Bay region, far inside Somalia, in order to build a bridgehead for a future large scale military operation.{{Cite book |last=Samatar |first=Abdi Ismail |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EXYOzwEACAAJ |title=Framing Somalia |date=2022 |publisher=Red Sea Press |isbn=978-1-56902-789-9 |pages=144–146 |language=en}} On 16 June 2006, Shabeelle Media Network reported that sources in Ethiopia's Somali Region had witnessed a massing of ENDF 'heavy armoured vehicles' along many of the towns on the Ethiopian–Somali border{{Cite web |last= |date=17 June 2006 |title=Ethiopian troops massed on Somali border |url=https://sudantribune.com/article16745/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240902020515/https://sudantribune.com/article16745/ |archive-date=2 September 2024 |access-date=2023-12-13 |website=Sudan Tribune |language=en-US}} and on the following day the first Ethiopian troops moved into Somali territory. Local Somali officials and residents in Gedo region reported about 50 ENDF armored vehicles had passed through the border town of Dolow and pushed 50 km inland near the town of Luuq.{{Cite web |date=18 June 2006 |title=Ethiopian troops cross border into Somalia |url=https://timesofmalta.com/articles/view/ethiopian-troops-cross-border-into-somalia.50424 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240903055640/https://timesofmalta.com/article/ethiopian-troops-cross-border-into-somalia.50424 |archive-date=3 September 2024 |access-date=2022-11-13 |website=Times of Malta |language=en-gb |quote=Local officials there said about 50 armoured vehicles with Ethiopian soldiers had passed Dollow and 50 km further in at Luuq. |agency=Reuters}}{{Cite web |date=June 18, 2006 |title=Border war feared as Somali Islamists vow holy war against Ethiopia |url=https://reliefweb.int/report/somalia/border-war-feared-somali-islamists-vow-holy-war-against-ethiopia |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221113010110/https://reliefweb.int/report/somalia/border-war-feared-somali-islamists-vow-holy-war-against-ethiopia |archive-date=13 November 2022 |access-date=2022-11-13 |website=ReliefWeb |language=en |quote=Local Somali residents of Dolo and Lugh Ganane, towns at the border with Ethiopia told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that they saw Ethiopian troops with 50 armoured vehicles cross into Somalia. |agency=Deutsche Presse Agentur}} ICU head Sheik Sharif Ahmed claimed that 300 ENDF had entered the country through the border town of Dolow in Gedo region and that Ethiopian forces had also been probing Somali border towns. He went on to threaten to fight Ethiopian troops if they continued intervening and further stated, "We want the whole world to know what's going on. The United States is encouraging Ethiopia to take over the area. Ethiopia has crossed our borders and are heading for us."{{Cite news |title=Ethiopian troops enter Somalia – Islamic leader |url=https://sudantribune.com/article16755/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240903060001/https://sudantribune.com/article16755/ |archive-date=3 September 2024 |work=Sudan Tribune}} The Ethiopian government denied the deployment of its forces in Somalia and countered that the ICU was marching towards its borders.{{Cite news |date=17 June 2006 |title=Ethiopia troops crossing into Somalia-top Islamist |url=https://www.oneindia.com/2006/06/17/ethiopia-troops-crossing-into-somalia-top-islamist-1150547823.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221113010110/https://www.oneindia.com/2006/06/17/ethiopia-troops-crossing-into-somalia-top-islamist-1150547823.html |archive-date=13 November 2022 |work=One India}} The TFG vehemently denied accusations of an Ethiopian military deployment and claimed that the ICU was fabricating a pretext to assault its capital in Baidoa. Additionally, the TFG arrested several reporters from Shabelle Media Network and imposed restrictions on their radio station after they reported on the ENDF incursion.{{Cite web |last=Cawthorne |first=Andrew |date=18 June 2006 |title=Somalia gov't says Islamists plan to attack base |url=https://reliefweb.int/report/somalia/somalia-govt-says-islamists-plan-attack-base |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221113010108/https://reliefweb.int/report/somalia/somalia-govt-says-islamists-plan-attack-base |archive-date=13 November 2022 |access-date=2022-11-13 |website=ReliefWeb |language=en |agency=Reuters}}{{Cite web |date=2006-06-18 |title=Somali govt restricts Shabelle radio over Ethiopia claims |url=https://sudantribune.com/article16766/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231107035138/https://sudantribune.com/article16766/ |archive-date=7 November 2023 |access-date=2023-11-07 |website=Sudan Tribune |language=en-US}} On 19 June 2006 the ICU called for the international community to pressure Ethiopian forces to withdraw from Somalia.{{Cite web |date=2006-06-19 |title=Somali Islamists urge pressure on Ethiopia to withdraw troops |url=https://sudantribune.com/article16785/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240903060532/https://sudantribune.com/article16785/ |archive-date=3 September 2024 |access-date=2024-01-11 |website=Sudan Tribune |language=en-US}}

During July, approximately 20,000 Ethiopian troops had built up along the border.{{Cite web |date=2006-07-22 |title=Facts about tense Somalia-Ethiopia history |url=https://reliefweb.int/report/ethiopia/facts-about-tense-somalia-ethiopia-history |access-date=2025-04-14 |website=ReliefWeb |language=en |agency=Reuters}} Another major deployment of the ENDF into Somalia occurred on July 20, 2006. Local witnesses reported dozens of armored vehicles enter the country, though the Ethiopian government denied the presence of its troops inside Somalia. Reuters estimated that roughly 5,000 ENDF troops had built up inside Somalia by this point.

{{cite news

| title =Ethiopian Troops Enter Somalia to Resist Islamic Militia

| publisher =PBS

| date =July 20, 2006

| url =https://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/africa/july-dec06/somalia_07-20.html

| access-date =2007-01-05

| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20140119011529/http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/africa/july-dec06/somalia_07-20.html

| archive-date =January 19, 2014

| url-status =live

}}

On 23 July 2006, the Ogaden National Liberation Front announced that they had shot down an Ethiopian military helicopter heading for Somalia and publicly warned that military movements in the Ogaden pointed towards an imminent large-scale operation directed at southern Somalia.{{Cite web |last= |date=2006-07-24 |title=ONLF shoots down Ethiopian military helicopter |url=https://sudantribune.com/article17285/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231213104816/https://sudantribune.com/article17285/ |archive-date=13 December 2023 |access-date=2023-12-15 |website=Sudan Tribune |language=en-US}} That same day, another ENDF contingent crossed into Somalia, leading to the collapse of the Khartoum talks between the ICU and TFG. The ICU walked out of talks with the TFG after hundreds of ENDF troops seized Wajid, taking control of the airport and landing two helicopters. Abdirahman Janaqow, the deputy leader of the ICU executive council, announced soon after that, "The Somali government has violated the accord and allowed Ethiopian troops to enter Somali soil." The TFG claimed that no Ethiopians were in Somalia and that only their troops were in Wajid.{{Cite web |last=Hassan |first=Mohamed Olad |date=23 July 2006 |title=Ethiopian troops enter second Somali town |url=https://www.ocala.com/story/news/2006/07/23/ethiopian-troops-enter-second-somali-town/64279021007/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231213111402/https://www.ocala.com/story/news/2006/07/23/ethiopian-troops-enter-second-somali-town/64279021007/ |archive-date=13 December 2023 |access-date=2023-12-13 |website=The Star Banner |language=en-US |agency=Associated Press}} BBC News confirmed reports of Ethiopian troops in Wajid during interviews with local residents and aid workers. Following the towns seizure, the ICU pledged to wage a holy war to drive out the ENDF from Somalia.{{Cite news |date=2006-07-22 |title=Ethiopians enter new Somali town |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5205634.stm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061205064440/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/5205634.stm |archive-date=5 December 2006 |access-date=2023-12-13 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}

The escalation of Ethiopian troop deployments into Somalia during July 2006 began raising fears of a possible 'all-out war' in the Horn of Africa,{{Cite news |last=Reagan |first=Tom |date=21 July 2006 |title=Fears of war in Somalia grow |url=http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0721/dailyUpdate.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061017054414/http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0721/dailyUpdate.html |archive-date=17 Oct 2006 |work=Christian Science Monitor}} though the 2006 Lebanon War overshadowed news reports of several thousand troops entering Somalia.{{Cite web |last=Silverstein |first=Ken |author-link=Ken Silverstein |date=2 August 2006 |title=Ethiopian Generals and Somali Warlords |url=https://sudantribune.com/article17421/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240825034324/https://sudantribune.com/article17421/ |archive-date=25 August 2024 |access-date=2024-08-25 |website=Sudan Tribune |agency=Harper's Magazine}} During late July 2006, over a dozen TFG parliamentarians resigned in protest of the Ethiopian invasion.{{Cite web |date=2006-07-28 |title=Somali ministers resigns to protest Ethiopian troop deployment |url=https://sudantribune.com/article17333/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240309091327/https://sudantribune.com/article17333/ |archive-date=9 March 2024 |access-date=2024-03-09 |website=Sudan Tribune |language=en-US}} By August 2006 the TFG was mired in a severe internal crisis and at risk of collapse.{{Cite web |last=Crilly |first=Rob |date=2006-08-04 |title=Somalia's transitional government on the verge of collapse |url=https://reliefweb.int/report/somalia/somalias-transitional-government-verge-collapse |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240903061235/https://reliefweb.int/report/somalia/somalias-transitional-government-verge-collapse |archive-date=3 September 2024 |access-date=2023-12-13 |website=ReliefWeb |language=en |agency=Christian Science Monitor}} In late July, Eritrea called for the withdrawal of the ENDF in Somalia to prevent a regional war and the following month accused Ethiopia of plotting a US supported invasion with the aim of destroying the "realization of a unified Somalia"{{Cite web |date=21 August 2006 |title=Ethiopia prepares to attack Somali Islamists – Eritrea |url=https://sudantribune.com/article17688/ |website=Sudan Tribune}}

By September, at least 7,000 Ethiopian troops were in Somalia and had begun arming warlords defeated by the ICU.{{Cite journal |last=Samatar |first=Abdi Ismail |date=2006 |title=The Miracle of Mogadishu |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4007061 |journal=Review of African Political Economy |volume=33 |issue=109 |pages=581–587 |jstor=4007061 |issn=0305-6244}} ENDF forces built up troops inside the Hiran and Gedo regions.{{Cite web |last=Shafat |first=Abdifatah |last2=Khalif |first2=Abdulkadir |date=October 2006 |title=Ethiopia and Eritrea Gearing up for their Old War in Somalia |url=https://www.hiiraan.com/op2/2006/oct/ethiopia_and_eritrea_gearing_up_for_their_old_war_in_somalia.aspx |access-date=2025-04-14 |website=Hiiraan Online |publisher=Afrikanews.org}} The first clash between ICU and ENDF occurred on 9 October 2006. TFG forces, backed by the Ethiopian troops, attacked the ICU positions at the town of Burhakaba, forcing the courts to retreat.{{Cite web |last=Yusuf |first=Aweys Osman |date=9 October 2006 |title=Ethiopian Troops Capture Burhakaba 180 Km Away From the Capital |url=https://allafrica.com/stories/200610090116.html |url-status=deviated |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061011005635/https://allafrica.com/stories/200610090116.html |archive-date=11 October 2006 |website=AllAfrica |agency=Shabelle Media Network}} AFP reported that residents in Baidoa had witnessed a large column of at least 72 armed ENDF vehicles and troops transports depart from city before the incident.{{Cite news |date=9 October 2006 |title=Somali incursion provokes war fear |work=Agence France-Presse }} Meles Zenawis government denied that the ENDF was in Somalia, or that they had participated in the incident, but local residents confirmed the presence of large numbers of ENDF in Burhakaba. The Economist reported that the military incursion had set off a fierce reaction even among the most moderate of the ICU, and a recruitment mobilization began in order to raise a force to take back area.{{Cite news |date=12 October 2006 |title=Islamists half-ready for holy war |url=https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2006/10/12/islamists-half-ready-for-holy-war |url-access=subscription |access-date=2023-10-25 |newspaper=The Economist |issn=0013-0613}} The ICU claimed that the ENDF had also sent another large deployment across the Somali border. Following the battle, Sharif Ahmed announced "This is clear aggression...Our forces will face them soon if they do not retreat from Somali territories" and declared Jihad against Ethiopian military forces.{{Cite web |date=10 October 2006 |title=Ethiopia 'helps seize Somali town' |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2006/10/10/ethiopia-helps-seize-somali-town |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201029111529/https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2006/10/10/ethiopia-helps-seize-somali-town/ |archive-date=29 October 2020 |access-date=2023-10-25 |website=Al Jazeera |language=en}}

File:Islamic Courts Union soldiers.png

In November 2006, the situation significantly escalated with the extensive mobilization and strategic positioning of ENDF, TFG and ICU forces in southern Somalia. Local residents reported large numbers of ICU forces deploying to Burhakaba. The distance between the opposing forces on the front line was now less than 20 km apart. On 26 and 28 November the courts claimed to have ambushed two ENDF convoys near Baidoa.{{Cite web |date=25 November 2006 |title=Somalia war fears soar as Islamists reinforce, Ethiopia says ready to fight |url=https://www.hiiraan.com/news2/2006/nov/somalia_war_fears_soar_as_islamists_reinforce,_ethiopia_says_ready_to_fight.aspx |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240204065741/https://www.hiiraan.com/comments2-news-2006-nov-somalia_war_fears_soar_as_islamists_reinforce,_ethiopia_says_ready_to_fight.aspx |archive-date=4 February 2024 |access-date=2023-12-13 |website=Hiiraan Online |agency=Agence France-Presse}} On 29 November, the courts claimed Ethiopian forces had shelled Bandiradley. The next day ICU forces ambushed an ENDF convoy outside of Baidoa.{{Cite news |date=2006-11-30 |title=Islamists 'ambush' Ethiopia truck |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6159059.stm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081219112507/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6159059.stm |archive-date=19 December 2008 |access-date=2023-10-25 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}

That month, the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) declared that it would not allow the Ogaden region to be used as a launching pad to invade Somalia and warned that it would resist any attempts to do so.{{Cite web |date=28 November 2006 |title=Ogaden rebels to resist Ethiopian army if it attacks Somali-statement |url=https://sudantribune.com/article19409/ |access-date=2023-12-14 |website=Sudan Tribune |publisher=Ogaden National Liberation Front |language=en-US|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231216164347/https://sudantribune.com/article19409/|archive-date=16 December 2023|url-status=live}} The Ethiopian military campaign against the ONLF, along with widespread atrocities committed against civilians associated with it, drove hundreds of men (thousands according to some estimates) from the Ogaden to Mogadishu in order to answer the ICU's call to arms against the invasion.{{Cite web |last=Pflanz |first=Mike Pflanz |date=2006-11-24 |title=Rebels answer Mogadishu's call to arms |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1535092/Rebels-answer-Mogadishus-call-to-arms.html |access-date=2024-09-09 |website=The Telegraph |place=Gode |language=en}} Several hundred men from Somaliland also joined the Courts militia, including high-ranking military officers, while ICU supporters in Puntland primarily provided financial and logistical aid.{{Cite report |url=https://sciencespo.hal.science/hal-01044642 |title=The Puntland State of Somalia. A Tentative Social Analysis |last=Marchal |first=Roland |date=2010 |page=23 |language=en |author-link=Roland Marchal}}{{Cite web |date=5 Dec 2006 |title=Somaliland: Defected Officers Join Islamic Courts in Mogadishu |url=https://unpo.org/article/5958 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100902233615/https://unpo.org/article/5958 |archive-date=2 September 2010 |access-date=2024-07-12 |website=unpo.org}} ICU officials reported around 100 fighters from Puntland had defected to join their ranks during mid-November.{{Cite news |last=Yusuf |first=Aweys Osman |date=15 November 2006 |title=Puntland Islamist Fighters Join the Union of Islamic Courts in Central Somalia |url=https://allafrica.com/stories/200611150284.html |work=Shabelle Media Network}}

TFG speaker of parliament Sharif Hassan Adan announced on 3 December 2006 that Ethiopia had deployed a "massive military force" of 15,000 troops. Adan sought to reconcile with the ICU and stated that the blame for any war in Somalia lay on the Ethiopian government of Meles Zenawi.{{Cite web |last=Wallis |first=Daniel |date=2006-12-03 |title=Somali speaker says Ethiopian troops must leave |url=https://reliefweb.int/report/somalia/somali-speaker-says-ethiopian-troops-must-leave |access-date=2024-12-16 |website=ReliefWeb |language=en |agency=Reuters}} The most significant event to immediately prelude the war was the passing of United Nations Security Council 1725 on 6 December 2006.{{Cite journal |last=Samatar |first=Abdi Ismail |date=2007 |title=Ethiopian Invasion of Somalia, US Warlordism & AU Shame |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20406369 |journal=Review of African Political Economy |volume=34 |issue=111 |pages=155–165 |issn=0305-6244 |jstor=20406369}}{{Cite book |last=Yuusuf |first=Muuse |title=The Genesis of the civil war in Somalia: the impact of foreign military intervention on the conflict |date=2021 |publisher=I.B. Tauris |isbn=978-0-7556-2712-7 |edition=1st |location=London |pages=144}} The resolution called for the deployment of foreign troops and the lifting of the arms embargo. The Islamic Courts and Muslim Somali leaders had in the months prior to the resolution firmly rejected the deployment of any international military forces in Somalia as an act of war. Top leaders of the TFG had previously requested that 20,000 foreign troops, including Ethiopian forces be deployed to Somalia, though the move was opposed by many parliamentarians. While the resolution explicitly dictated no neighbouring states would be permitted to participate, Ethiopia had already breached a prior UN resolution by deploying thousands of troops into Somalia. The resolution was widely viewed by the Courts as the UN Security Council unjustly legitimizing an Ethiopian invasion, considering the UNSCR had refused to make any commentary or statement on the troops already deployed inside of Somalia.

Several weeks before the resolution was passed, a UN report had alleged that the ICU had fought in the Lebanon War and given Iran access the uranium deposits within Somalia. Observers drew parallels these allegations and the accusations made by the United States during the lead up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.{{Cite journal |last=McGregor |first=Andrew |date=21 November 2006 |title=Accuracy of New UN Report on Somalia Doubtful |url=https://jamestown.org/program/accuracy-of-new-un-report-on-somalia-doubtful/ |journal=Terrorism Focus |publisher=Jamestown Foundation |volume=3 |issue=45}} Herman Cohen, the US Assistant Secretary for African Affairs, noted the US decision to back resolution had been influenced by false Ethiopian intelligence. The ICU viewed the passing of UNSCR 1725 as effectively a declaration of war, a UN endorsement of the Ethiopian invasion and as evidence of an international conspiracy against the union. Al-Shabaab, one of the militia within the military wing of the ICU, increasingly radicalized in response to the Ethiopian incursion.{{Cite book |last=Celso |first=Anthony |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=13ehCgAAQBAJ |title=Al-Qaeda's Post-9/11 Devolution: The Failed Jihadist Struggle Against the Near and Far Enemy |date=2015-08-27 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA |isbn=978-1-5013-1244-1 |pages=133 |language=en}} The United States Assistant Secretary of State issued a statement openly accusing the ICU leadership of being members of al-Qaeda.{{Cite journal |last=Collins |first=Greg |date=23 August 2007 |title=Incorporating Africa's Conflicts into the War on Terror |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10402650701524998 |journal=Peace Review |language=en |volume=19 |issue=3 |pages=397–406 |doi=10.1080/10402650701524998 |s2cid=144596992 |issn=1040-2659}} On 8 December 2006, two days after UNSCR 1725 was passed, the ICU reported being ambushed by Ethiopian troops, sparking an artillery duel which escalated into a two day battle between ENDF/TFG and ICU forces.{{Cite web |last=Abdinur |first=Mustafa Haji |date=9 December 2006 |title=President joins Somali clashes |url=https://www.hiiraan.com/news2_rss/2006/Dec/president_joins_somali_clashes.aspx |access-date=2024-09-10 |website=Hiiraan Online |agency=Agence France-Presse}}

Forces involved are difficult to calculate because of many factors, including lack of formal organization or record-keeping, and claims marred by disinformation. For months leading up to the war, Ethiopia maintained it had only a few hundred advisors in the country, yet independent reports indicated far more troops.

Approximately 50,000 to 60,000 Ethiopian National Defence Force (ENDF) troops backed by tanks, helicopter gunships and jets had been involved in the offensive against the Islamic Courts Union during December 2006.{{Cite magazine |last=Axe |first=David |date=2 December 2010 |title=WikiLeaked Cable Confirms U.S.' Secret Somalia Op |url=https://www.wired.com/2010/12/wikileaked-cable-confirms-u-s-secret-somalia-op/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150329233234/http://www.wired.com/2010/12/wikileaked-cable-confirms-u-s-secret-somalia-op/ |archive-date=29 March 2015 |magazine=Wired}}{{Cite news |date=23 November 2007 |title=Ethiopian army pays tribute to its soldiers that died in Somalia |url=http://www.garoweonline.com/artman2/publish/Somalia_27/Ethiopian_army_pays_tribute_to_its_soldiers_that_died_in_Somalia.shtml |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071126124642/http://www.garoweonline.com:80/artman2/publish/Somalia_27/Ethiopian_army_pays_tribute_to_its_soldiers_that_died_in_Somalia.shtml |archive-date=26 November 2007 |work=Garowe Online |quote=There have been no official numbers of the Ethiopian troop presence in Somalia. But military sources suggest that the initial Ethiopian offensive in December 2006 used as many as 60,000 troops}}{{Cite book |last=Scahill |first=Jeremy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FEcZCAAAQBAJ |title=Dirty Wars: The World Is a Battlefield |date=2013 |publisher=PublicAffairs |isbn=978-1-56858-727-1 |page=208 |language=en}} At the outbreak of the war, the strength of the ENDF, the largest military in sub-Saharan Africa with one of the continent's strongest air forces, contrasted sharply with the ICU, which lacked conventional forces. Colonel Gabre Heard, a senior ENDF officer and Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF) official, was commander-in-chief of Ethiopian troops during the invasion.{{Cite web |date=2020-06-30 |title=Ethiopia issues arrest warrant for Colonel who led deadly Somalia invasion |url=https://www.garoweonline.com/en/world/africa/ethiopia-issues-arrest-warrant-for-general-who-led-deadly-somalia-invasion |access-date=2024-07-06 |website=Garowe Online |language=en}} The TFG claimed only 12,000 to 15,000 Ethiopian troops had been deployed to Somalia,{{cite news |date=January 4, 2007 |title=Remnants of Somalia Islamists still pose a threat – official |agency=Associated Press |url=http://www.dehai.org/archives/dehai_news_archive/0090.html |url-status=dead |access-date=2007-01-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070203183303/http://dehai.org/archives/dehai_news_archive/0090.html |archive-date=February 3, 2007}} while the Ethiopian government claimed it had only 4,000. During 2007 military experts estimated 50,000 Ethiopian troops were occupying parts of Somalia.{{Cite web |last=Heinlein |first=Peter |date=19 October 2007 |title=Somali Prime Minister Conciliatory After Talks About His Future |url=http://www.hiiraan.com/news4/2007/Oct/4654/somali_prime_minister_conciliatory_after_talks_about_his_future.aspx |access-date=2024-01-11 |website=Hiiraan Online |language=en-US |agency=Voice of America}}{{Cite web |last=Heinlein |first=Peter |date=13 November 2007 |title=Somali Capital Empties as Residents Flee Renewed Violence |url=https://www.voanews.com/a/a-13-2007-11-11-voa20/347096.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071114150747/http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-11-11-voa20.cfm |archive-date=14 November 2007 |access-date=2024-01-11 |website=Voice of America |language=en}} Other estimates placed the figure at 40,000.{{Cite news |last=Baldauf |first=Scott |date=2 September 2010 |title=In Somalia, foreign intervention won't resolve Al Shabab threat |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Africa/2010/0902/In-Somalia-foreign-intervention-won-t-resolve-Al-Shabab-threat |access-date=2024-01-11 |work=Christian Science Monitor |issn=0882-7729}}{{Cite journal |date=30 March 2007 |title=FAST Update Somalia: Trends in conflict and cooperation Feb–Mar 2007 |journal=Swisspeace |volume=1 |pages=2}} The Ethiopian backed TFG possessed approximately 6,000 soldiers.{{Cite web |date=2006-12-18 |title=Tense Standoff In Somalia |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tense-standoff-in-somalia/ |access-date=2024-01-11 |website=CBS |language=en-US}} During the invasion phase of the war, US Special Forces, CIA paramilitary units, and Marine units, supported by American AC-130s and helicopter gunships, directly intervened in support of the ENDF.{{Cite journal |last=Hollar |first=Jullie |date=March–April 2008 |title=Rediscovering Somalia |journal=Extra! |publisher=Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting |pages=13–15}} The US Bush administration doubted Ethiopia's ability to effectively use the new equipment it had provided for the invasion. As a result, it decided to involve US Special Forces and CIA agents in the campaign.{{Cite book |last=Polk |first=William R. |author-link=William R. Polk |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/982652240 |title=Crusade and jihad: the thousand-year war between the Muslim world and the global north |date=2018 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-22290-6 |series=The Henry L. Stimson lectures |location=New Haven ; London |page=459 |oclc=982652240 |quote=Since the Bush administration doubted that the Ethiopians would use the new equipment effectively, it decided to participate in the campaign with American Special Forces and agents of the CIA. It was an offer Ethiopia could not refuse: money, arms, and the creation of an American shield to protect the regime. It began its unprovoked and ultimately unsuccessful invasion...}}

Reuters reported 3,000 to 4,000 troops fought under the ICU at its height.{{Cite news |last=Nguyen |first=Katie |date=5 January 2007 |title=Somali Islamists weakened but not defeated |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL04133589/ |work=Reuters|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240310070442/https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL04133589/|archive-date=10 March 2024|url-status=live}} The insurgency that followed the collapse of the ICU was composed of numerous different groups and factions, making it difficult to determine who was responsibility for a variety of attacks and incidents, though al-Shabaab ultimately became the most powerful and active element.{{Cite journal |last=Albin-Lackey |first=Christopher |date=8 December 2008 |title=So Much to Fear: War Crimes and the Devastation of Somalia |url=https://www.hrw.org/report/2008/12/08/so-much-fear/war-crimes-and-devastation-somalia |journal=Human Rights Watch |language=en}} The TFGs prime minister Ali Gedi claimed that 8,000 foreign fighters were fighting for the ICU during the invasion,{{Cite web |last=Cawthorne |first=Andrew |date=2006-12-25 |title=Somali PM says 8,000 foreign fighters with Islamists |url=https://reliefweb.int/report/somalia/interview-somali-pm-says-8000-foreign-fighters-islamists |access-date=2024-05-12 |website=ReliefWeb |language=en |agency=Reuters}} although the African Union reported Somalia had only attracted 'several hundred' foreign fighters since the formation of the ICU to mid-2007.{{Cite book |url=https://au.int/sites/default/files/documents/39195-doc-150._second_international_conference_on_drr_in_africa_kinshasa_drc._combatants_on_foreign_soil.pdf |title=Combatants on Foreign Soil |date=June 2007 |publisher=African Union |pages=7}} In 2008 there were reportedly around 100 foreign fighters in Somalia.{{Cite web |date=27 March 2009 |title=Lawless Somalia draws influx of foreign fighters |url=https://www.hiiraan.com/news2/2009/mar/lawless_somalia_draws_influx_of_foreign_fighters.aspx |access-date=2024-05-12 |website=Hiiraan Online |agency=Agence France-Presse}}

Prior to the invasion significant military intelligence and logistics support was offered by the United States military to the ENDF. The Pentagon provided access to aerial reconnaissance and satellite surveillance of ICU military positions across Somalia. The Americans also played a substantial role in sponsoring the invasion, even covering expenses such as fuel and spare parts for Ethiopian troops. Pentagon officials and intelligence analysts reported that the invasion had been planned during the summer of 2006 and that US special forces were on the ground before the Ethiopians had intervened.{{Cite news |last1=Rice |first1=Xan |last2=Goldenberg |first2=Suzanne |date=2007-01-13 |title=How US forged an alliance with Ethiopia over invasion |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/jan/13/alqaida.usa |access-date=2024-06-20 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}} Reuters reported American and British Special Forces, along with US-hired mercenaries, had been laying the ground work for the invasion within and outside Somalia since late 2005.

Before the full-scale invasion began, more than 10,000 ENDF troops had been built up in and around Baidoa over the months since the first incursion in June 2006. Much of Bay and Bakool region had already been occupied by Ethiopian troops. Flooding that had taken place across Somalia since August 2006 delayed troop movements. By December, the land around strategic towns had largely dried.{{cite news |last=Pflanz |first=Mike |date=December 26, 2006 |title=Ethiopia intervenes in Somali civil war |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1226/p06s01-woaf.html |publisher=The Christian Science Monitor}} On 13 December, the ICU claimed 30,000 Ethiopian troops were deployed inside of Somalia.

{{cite news |last=Yare |first=Hassan |date=December 13, 2006 |title=Troops dig in as Somalia war fears grow |url=http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/VBOL-6WFHXW?OpenDocument&RSS20=02-P |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927194413/http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/VBOL-6WFHXW?OpenDocument&RSS20=02-P |archive-date=September 27, 2007 |access-date=2007-01-05 |publisher=Relief Web, Reuters}}

The following day, local residents and ICU officials in the Hiran region reported a large scale deployment of ENDF troops across the border over a 48-hour period in the regions environs.{{Cite web |last=Dini |first=Abdirahman |date=14 December 2006 |title=Ciidamo Itoobiyaan ah oo la sheegay in ay ku soo siqayaan goobaha ay fadhiyaan Ciidamada Maxkamadda Islaamka Gobolka Hiiraan |url=http://www.hiiraan.com/news/2006/dec/wararka_maanta14-398.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231105025840/https://www.hiiraan.com/news/2006/dec/wararka_maanta14-398.htm |archive-date=5 November 2023 |access-date=2023-12-13 |website=Hiiraan Online |language=so}}

As tensions escalated, different members within the ICU made unilateral statements regarding the response to the Ethiopian invasion without consulting the ICU leadership.{{Cite journal |last1=Barnes |first1=Cedric |last2=Hassan |first2=Harun |date=2007 |title=The Rise and Fall of Mogadishu's Islamic Courts |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17531050701452382 |journal=Journal of Eastern African Studies |language=en |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=151–160 |doi=10.1080/17531050701452382 |issn=1753-1055}} On 13 December 2006, two high-ranking officials in the ICU's military wing, Yusuf Indhacade and his deputy Mukthar Robow, gave Ethiopian troops deployed in Somalia a seven-day ultimatum to withdraw from the country or face expulsion. The Courts were divided over whether or not to forcibly eject invading Ethiopian troops, and the European Union began last minute diplomatic efforts to halt the outbreak of war, resulting in contradictory statements from various ICU leaders. Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and Hassan Dahir Aweys, both adopted conciliatory stances as a result, but the sharp rise in tensions had empowered the Courts 'Hawks' who viewed the growing Ethiopian military forces and the passing of UNSCR 1725 as proof of an international conspiracy against the ICU. Statements from the international actors were contradictory as the African Union had at first endorsed the Ethiopian invasion, only to quickly retract the statement two days later.

{{Further|Timeline of the War in Somalia: 2006}}The first battle of the full-scale invasion began soon after the withdrawal ultimatum expired on 19 December 2006. Fighting broke out that evening when two reconnaissance teams clashed at around the settlement of Idaale, 60 kilometres south of Baidoa. Both sides blamed each other for initiating the fighting.{{Cite news |date=2006-12-20 |title=Heavy fighting erupts in Somalia |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6195863.stm |access-date=2024-03-09 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}} ICU fighters, many of whom were university students, attacked Ethiopian positions in Daynunay, 20 kilometres east of Baidoa as heavy fighting and artillery shelling broke out on several different front lines.{{Cite news |date=20 December 2006 |title=Somali Government, Islamists Reportedly in 'Heavy Fighting' on 'Several' Fronts |work=Agence France-Presse |publisher=World News Connection}}{{Cite web |date=20 December 2006 |title=Somali govt, Islamists to resume talks amid clashes |url=http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L20540919.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080117171644/http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L20540919.htm |archive-date=17 January 2008 |website=AlertNet |agency=Reuters}} Some of the most intense fighting of the war took place between the ICU and ENDF/TFG around the towns of Daynuunay and Idaale. Heavy weaponry was utilized in a large scale face-to-face confrontation primarily between the Islamic Courts and Ethiopian forces.{{Cite news |date=21 December 2006 |title=Somalia fighting enters second day, Islamists reportedly advancing |work=HornAfrik Media Inc |publisher=World News Connection}} Though BBC journalists in the country at the time reported huge ENDF armor columns around Baidoa, the Ethiopian government denied its troops were in Somalia. Accounts from opposing camps noted heavy casualties from the fighting, with many bodies littering the battlefields, along with a massive influx of reinforcements.[http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L20484024.htm Fighting erupts on Somali front near govt stronghold] Reuters {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081013004828/http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L20484024.htm|date=October 13, 2008}} From the start of the operation American special forces were covertly present.{{Cite book |last=Palmer |first=Andrew |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rBGMDwAAQBAJ |title=The New Pirates: Modern Global Piracy from Somalia to the South China Sea |date=2014 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-0-85772-527-1 |page=39 |language=en}} Between 19 and 21 December, the ICU and Ethiopian troops had faced off in open battle in three encounters. Despite the material and numerical odds against the Islamic Courts, they had prevailed in the three battles. These early victories led western intelligence officials and analysts to fear that the ICU would overrun Baidoa.{{Cite web |last=Gartenstein-Ross |first=Daveed |date=22 December 2006 |title=Afghanistan Again |url=http://www.pajamasmedia.com/2006/12/afghanistan_again_somalia_fall.php |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080704171530/http://www.pajamasmedia.com/2006/12/afghanistan_again_somalia_fall.php |archive-date=July 4, 2008 |access-date=2023-12-13 |website=PJ Media}} US intelligence sources reported that in the initial days of the conflict, the ICU effectively utilized tactics against ENDF tanks that mirrored those employed by Hezbollah against the IDF months prior during the Lebanon War.{{Cite web |last=Roggio |first=Bill |date=24 December 2006 |title=The Battle of Somalia |url=http://billroggio.com/archives/2006/12/the_battle_of_somali.php |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081006212955/http://billroggio.com/archives/2006/12/the_battle_of_somali.php |archive-date=October 6, 2008 |access-date=2024-01-07 |url-status=usurped |website=The Long War Journal}} ICU forces managed to advance only eight kilometres away from Baidoa, but lacking effective counters to Ethiopian artillery and armor superiority, the lightly armed fighters who charged the Ethiopian front line suffered high casualty rates.{{cite book |last1=Maruf |first1=Harun |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MWhyDwAAQBAJ |title=Inside Al-Shabaab The Secret History of Al-Qaeda's Most Powerful Ally |date=October 2018 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=9780253037503 |pages=27–45}} 50,000 Ethiopian troops took part in the invasion.{{Cite magazine |last=Axe |first=David |title=WikiLeaked Cable Confirms U.S.' Secret Somalia Op |url=https://www.wired.com/2010/12/wikileaked-cable-confirms-u-s-secret-somalia-op/ |access-date=2023-06-21 |magazine=Wired |language=en-US |issn=1059-1028}}

File:Ethiopian T-55 tank captured by Islamic Courts Union at Idaale.jpg tank captured by ICU fighters at the Idaale front (Dec 2006)]]

American gunships, including helicopters and the AC-130, flew out of Dire Dawa and Diego Garcia to provide air support for Ethiopian troops.{{Cite journal |last=Otieno |first=Orwa Michael |date=2010-05-20 |title=The U.S.–Africa Command and Pan-African Resistance |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10402651003751362 |journal=Peace Review |language=en |volume=22 |issue=2 |pages=136–143 |doi=10.1080/10402651003751362 |issn=1040-2659 |s2cid=146737860 |quote=Such was the case in 2006 when Ethiopia, backed by U.S. technical support and firepower from U.S. gunships based in Diego Garcia, invaded Somalia to rout the Union of Islamic Courts}}{{Cite book |last=Scahill |first=Jeremy |title=Dirty Wars: The World Is A Battlefield |date=2013 |publisher=Nation Books |isbn=978-1-56858-671-7 |location=New York, NY |pages=219}} The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower carrier battlegroup was dispatched to the Somali coast to provide further air support and aerial surveillance.{{Cite book |last=Ripley |first=Tim |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-WPNDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT526 |title=Middle East Airpower in the 21st Century |year=2010 |publisher=Casemate Publishers |isbn=978-1-78346-111-0 |language=en}} US Special forces and CIA paramilitary units also participated.{{Cite book |last=Scahill |first=Jeremy |title=Dirty Wars: The World Is a Battlefield |year=2013 |publisher=PublicAffairs |isbn=978-1-56858-727-1 |pages=208 |language=en}} The participation of the US ground and air forces provided the ENDF with massive military superiority over the ICU. Ali Gedi, then prime minister of the TFG and a participant in planning for the invasion noted that, "The Ethiopians were not able to come in without the support of the US Government...American air forces were supporting us."{{Cite book |last=Scahill |first=Jeremy |title=Dirty Wars: The World Is a Battlefield |date=2013 |publisher=Nation Books |isbn=978-1-56858-671-7 |location=New York, NY |pages=208}} US operations during the invasion took place in a media vacuum, with no images or footage appearing of American forces. American planes and helicopters that struck ICU targets during December 2006 had their markings obscured. In an interview with al-Jazeera, head of the Islamic Courts Sharif Sheikh Ahmed later reported that after achieving a string of battlefield victories, ICU troops had come under unexpected bombardment from US aircraft.{{Cite web |date=6 April 2007 |title='Somali Islamic Courts' Withdrawal Tactical' |url=http://www.hiiraan.com/news4/2007/Apr/2686/_somali_islamic_courts_withdrawal_tactical.aspx |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231214015006/https://www.hiiraan.com/news4/2007/Apr/2686/_somali_islamic_courts_withdrawal_tactical.aspx |archive-date=14 December 2023 |access-date=2023-12-14 |website=Hiiraan Online |language=en-US}}

As the ENDF advanced towards Mogadishu, they encountered fierce resistance in Bay region. Large battles took place around the settlements of Diinsoor and Daynuunay, where the Courts pushed back the Ethiopian army and overran a military camp. One of the most notable battles occurred at Idaale, where the ICU inflicted heavy losses on the invading forces.{{Cite book |last=Suldaan Ibraahim |first=Dr. Suldaan Maxamed |url=https://search.worldcat.org/title/1325678883 |title=Hormuud Habaabay: Milicsiga Kacdoonkii Maxaakiimta Islaamiga Ahaa (2006–2009kii) |publisher=Hill Press |pages=34–36}} The ICU's al-Shabaab youth militia were also present for the battle. The ENDF were drawn out of their positions into battle when fighters attacked an Ethiopian position and then feinted a retreat. The Ethiopians pursued with a large contingent of troops and were soon ambushed by hundreds of fighters, initiating a massive battle between the ENDF and ICU that would last several days. After two days of large scale clashes, Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys announced Somalia was in a state of war;{{cite news |last=Apunyu |first=Bonny |date=December 22, 2006 |title=Carnage as Somalia 'in state of war' |work=CNN|url=http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/africa/12/21/somalia.fighting.ap/index.html?eref=rss_world |access-date=2007-01-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070106201559/http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/africa/12/21/somalia.fighting.ap/index.html?eref=rss_world |archive-date=January 6, 2007}} but clarified that the ICU considered itself at war with Ethiopia and not the TFG.{{Cite web |date=22 December 2006 |title=Somalia fighting resumes |url=http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/38374DE5-A79A-4731-9D90-B69706C5FD90.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070103102312/http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/38374DE5-A79A-4731-9D90-B69706C5FD90.htm |archive-date=January 3, 2007 |access-date=2023-12-13 |website=Al Jazeera |url-status=live }} By the end of 22 December, both sides claimed to have killed hundreds of each other's troops. The Battle of Bandiradley began on December 23, 2006, when Ethiopian and Puntland forces, along with Abdi Qeybdid of the Somali Warlord Alliance, fought ICU militias defending Bandiradley.{{cite web |title=Somalia: Islamist fighters and Ethiopian backed militias clash in Bandiradley |url=http://www.shabelle.net/news/ne1825.htm |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927200541/http://www.shabelle.net/news/ne1825.htm |archive-date=27 September 2007 |access-date=12 January 2022 |website=www.shabelle.net}} With the defensive capabilities of the Courts overextended and overwhelmed, the tide turned against them on the fourth day of the war as the Ethiopian army continued deploying their superior military hardware. The ICU positions at Bandiradley in central Somalia was the first to fracture, leaving a significant gap in the front line. No ICU reserves were available to deploy in the exposed northern flank, enabling the Ethiopian military to begin a blitzkrieg.

As ENDF convoys drove through the Ogaden region to reach the front line, the ONLF began attacking those attempting to join the war. The ONLF announced that on 23 December, in-line with their policy of resisting attacks on Somalia, they had attacked a convoy consisting of twenty armored vehicles and several trucks driving through Korahe Zone. The ONLF reported that after inflicting casualties and destroying four vehicles, the convoy had to retreat and abandon its planned operations in Somalia.{{Cite web |date=2006-12-24 |title=Ogaden rebels destroy Ethiopian military convoy en route to Somalia |url=https://sudantribune.com/article19865/ |access-date=2023-12-14 |website=Sudan Tribune |publisher=Ogaden National Liberation Front |language=en-US}}

On 24 December, the ICU reported to be around 10 km away from Baidoa. The Courts reported destroying several ENDF tanks during a battle at Daynuunay.{{Cite web |last=Yusuf |first=Aweys Osman |date=24 December 2006 |title=Islamists claim they seized Gasarte quite closer to Baidoa |url=http://www.shabelle.net/news/ne1935.htm |website=Shabelle Media Network|url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930165052/http://www.shabelle.net/news/ne1935.htm |archive-date=September 30, 2007 }} The Ethiopian Air Force began carrying out airstrikes on the city of Beledweyne and other towns in central Somalia.{{Cite web |date=24 Dec 2006 |title=Ethiopia launches attack on Somalia |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2006/12/24/ethiopia-launches-attack-on-somalia |access-date=2024-07-28 |website=Al Jazeera |language=en}}{{Cite news |date=24 December 2006 |title=غارات جوية وإثيوبيا تعلن رسميا الحرب على محاكم الصومال |url=https://www.aljazeera.net/news/2006/12/24/%D8%BA%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%AC%D9%88%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D9%88%D8%A5%D8%AB%D9%8A%D9%88%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%A7-%D8%AA%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%86-%D8%B1%D8%B3%D9%85%D9%8A%D8%A7-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AD%D8%B1%D8%A8 |work=Al Jazeera |language=Arabic |trans-quote=Airstrikes and Ethiopia officially declares war on Somali courts}} After Beledweyne had become the target of airstrikes, the Courts decided to withdraw from the city. The Ethiopian Air Force bombed Mogadishu airport, killing several people in an airstrike.{{Cite news |last=Yusuf |first=Aweys Osman |date=25 December 2006 |title=Ethiopian Warplane Air Bombs Mogadishu's Main Airport |url=http://allafrica.com/stories/200612250114.html |url-status=deviated |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061226030259/http://allafrica.com/stories/200612250114.html |archive-date=26 December 2006 |work=AllAfrica |agency=Shabelle Media Network}} That same day Ethiopia admitted its troops were fighting the ICU for the first time, after stating earlier in the week it had only sent several hundred military advisors to Baidoa.{{Cite news |date=2006-12-24 |title=Ethiopia admits Somalia offensive |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6207427.stm |access-date=2024-01-07 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}} Ethiopian PM Meles Zenawi claimed in a televised address that day that he had been compelled to go to war in order to protect national sovereignty. After Ethiopia admitted its troops were inside Somalia, the TFG continued to publicly deny the presence of ENDF troops, further undermining its credibility. Heavy fighting, including reports of airstrikes and shelling, erupted in the border areas, with the ICU claiming to have shot down an ENDF helicopter gunship.{{Cite news |last=Yusuf |first=Aweys Osman |date=25 December 2006 |title=Ethiopian Gunship Helicopter Shot Down in Bandiradley |url=http://allafrica.com/stories/200612250115.html |url-status=deviated |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061226030056/http://allafrica.com/stories/200612250115.html |archive-date=26 December 2006 |work=AllAfrica |agency=Shabelle Media Network}}

File:Somali-war-12252006-1952.svg

The ICU forces, composed primarily of lightly armed youth were heavily outnumbered, outgunned and exhausted. In the ensuing blitzkrieg, the most inexperienced Islamist fighters were badly mauled. The majority of ICU losses did not include professional fighters, but the many untrained ICU volunteers from various Somali clans. Fighting against forces with complete armor and air supremacy the ICU front line began to collapse in the face of conventional warfare. Defending Islamist forces withdrew from Beledweyne concurrent to Ethiopian airstrikes against the Mogadishu and Baledogle airports.{{Cite web |date=2006-12-26 |title=Ethiopian planes bomb Islamist-held airports in Somalia |url=https://sudantribune.com/article19882/ |access-date=2024-01-12 |website=Sudan Tribune |language=en-US}}

After fighting for nine days in open battle with the Ethiopian army, the courts began to pull back from the front line around Baidoa, Idaale, Dinsoor, Daynuunay and Burhakaba. Their forces withdrew and gathered around the town of Jowhar, 90 km north of Mogadishu. Analysts reported that the withdrawal had occurred simultaneously across the ICU's entire front, indicating a deliberate coordinated change in strategy rather than a chaotic rout. According to David Shinn, US ambassador to Ethiopia, the ICU had recognized their vulnerability to sustained attacks from Ethiopian air and armor superiority in conventional warfare and had opted for a transition to insurgent tactics. Following the withdrawal, ICU head Sharif Ahmed declared that the conflict had entered 'a new phase.'{{Cite web |date=2006-12-27 |title=Ethiopians closing in on capital of Somalia |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna16361093 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230321121932/https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna16361093 |archive-date=March 21, 2023 |access-date=2023-12-13 |website=NBC News |language=en}} On 27 December, the leaders of the Islamic Courts Union, including Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and Sheikh Abdirahman Janaqow resigned, and the Courts government effectively dissolved,{{cite web |title=Islamic Courts Union |url=https://cisac.fsi.stanford.edu/mappingmilitants/profiles/islamic-courts-union#_ftnref11 |publisher=Stanford University}} though Sharif declared that the Courts forces were still united.{{Cite news |date=28 December 2006 |title=القوات الإثيوبية تدخل مقديشو بعد انسحاب المحاكم |trans-title=Courts withdraw from Mogadishu and Ethiopian troops in it within hours |url=https://www.aljazeera.net/news/2006/12/28/%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%AD%D8%A7%D9%83%D9%85-%D8%AA%D9%86%D8%B3%D8%AD%D8%A8-%D9%85%D9%86-%D9%85%D9%82%D8%AF%D9%8A%D8%B4%D9%88-%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A5%D8%AB%D9%8A%D9%88%D8%A8%D9%8A%D9%88%D9%86 |work=Al Jazeera |language=Arabic}} The ICU had evacuated many towns without fighting as ENDF/TFG forces advanced on Mogadishu{{Cite news |date=27 December 2007 |title=Ethiopians nearing Somali capital |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6211573.stm |access-date=2024-09-03 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}} That same day the African Union, supported by the Arab League and the IGAD, called for Ethiopia to withdraw from Somalia immediately.{{Cite news |date=2006-12-27 |title=Ethiopia urged to leave Somalia |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/6212807.stm |access-date=2023-11-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080503123811/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6212807.stm |archive-date=3 May 2008}}

{{Main|Fall of Mogadishu}}File:Lower-juba-12292006-1627.svgAs Ethiopian troops advanced on Mogadishu, they were accompanied by the warlords who the ICU had defeated in mid-2006. The Ethiopians allowed the warlords to regain control over the fiefdoms they had previously lost to the courts. The ICU declared it was withdrawing from the capital to prevent a bloodbath, and on 28 December, Ethiopian and government forces marched into the city of Mogadishu unopposed. After the Fall of Mogadishu to the Ethiopian and TFG forces on December 28, the Islamists retreated from the Juba River valley. Heavy artillery fire was reported on December 31 in the Battle of Jilib and the ICU withdrew by midnight, leaving Kismayo, without a fight and retreating towards the Kenyan border. The ICU declared it would not surrender to the Ethiopians and vowed it would continue it's armed struggle.{{Cite news |date=29 December 2006 |title=المحاكم ترفض الاستسلام ومقديشو تتظاهر ضد الإثيوبيين |trans-title=Courts refuse to surrender, Mogadishu demonstrates against Ethiopians |url=https://www.aljazeera.net/news/2006/12/29/%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%AD%D8%A7%D9%83%D9%85-%D8%AA%D8%B1%D9%81%D8%B6-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%B3%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%85-%D9%88%D9%85%D9%82%D8%AF%D9%8A%D8%B4%D9%88 |work=Al Jazeera |language=Arabic}} Demoralized, many fighters returned to their homes.{{cite book |last1=Hansen |first1=Stig Jarle |title=Al-Shabaab in Somalia: The History and Ideology of a Militant Islamist Group, 2005–2012 |date=2013 |publisher=2013 |pages=46–47}} Despite their desperate position, the Courts remained defiant declaring in a statement, "If the world thinks we are dead, they should know we are alive and will continue the jihad"{{Cite web |last=McGregor |first=Andrew |date=21 February 2007 |title=Expelling the Infidel: Historical Look at Somali Resistance to Ethiopia |url=https://jamestown.org/program/expelling-the-infidel-historical-look-at-somali-resistance-to-ethiopia/ |access-date=2024-09-03 |website=Jamestown Foundation |language=en-US}}

{{Main|Timeline of the War in Somalia: 2007}}Military events in January 2007 focused on the southern section of Somalia, primarily the withdrawal of the ICU from Kismayo following the Battle of Jilib, and their pursuit using Ethiopian and American airstrikes until a final stand during the Battle of Ras Kamboni. US AC-130 gunships covertly flying out of Ethiopia pounded retreating ICU convoys,{{Cite news |last=Whitlock |first=Craig |date=2011-10-11 |title=U.S. drone base in Ethiopia is operational |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-drone-base-in-ethiopia-is-operational/2011/10/27/gIQAznKwMM_story.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131107231557/http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2011-10-27/world/35276956_1_drone-flights-drone-operations-reaper-drones |archive-date=2013-11-07 |access-date=2024-05-04 |newspaper=Washington Post |language=en-US |issn=0190-8286}} and Kenyan troops assisted in capturing retreating ICU forces.{{Cite web |date=8 March 2009 |title=Somalia insurgents accuse Kenya over border security |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL8527540/ |website=Reuters}} Local residents in southern Somalia reported Kenyan Defence Forces (KDF) convoys driving over the border, and residents in the Afmadow district of southern Somalia reported witnessing AC-130's pursuing and killing ICU troops.{{Cite web |last=Albadri |first=Abukar |date=2007-01-11 |title="A big white plane" spreads fear in Somali villages |url=https://reliefweb.int/report/somalia/big-white-plane-spreads-fear-somali-villages |access-date=2024-03-09 |website=ReliefWeb |language=en |agency=Deutsche Presse Agentur}} American airstrikes focused on decapitating the ICU leadership, in one instance killing Sheikh Abdullahi Nahar, a popular leader of the movement.{{Cite journal |last=Ingiriis |first=Mohamed Haji |date=2018-11-02 |title=From Al-Itihaad to Al-Shabaab: how the Ethiopian intervention and the 'War on Terror' exacerbated the conflict in Somalia |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01436597.2018.1479186 |journal=Third World Quarterly |language=en |volume=39 |issue=11 |pages=2033–2052 |doi=10.1080/01436597.2018.1479186 |s2cid=158246584 |issn=0143-6597}} Cruise missiles were fired at ICU positions on 8 January 2007.{{Cite web |date=2024-01-07 |title=Did U.S. action create Somali pirate haven? |url=https://www.deseret.com/2008/12/4/20289512/did-u-s-action-create-somali-pirate-haven/ |access-date=2024-03-13 |website=Deseret News |language=en}} American forces reportedly killed hundreds of Somali fighters and civilians in a 'killing zone' between the Kenyan border, the Indian Ocean and advancing US backed Ethiopian troops.{{Cite book |last=Francis |first=David J. |title=US Strategy in Africa: AFRICOM, Terrorism and Security Challenges |date=2010 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-99662-7 |page=121 |language=en}} American air power was used against villages in southern Somalia, resulting in significant civilian casualties and displacement. In one attack seventy-three nomadic herders and their livestock were killed in a US air strike. Somali elders and residents in the town of Dhobley estimated 100 civilians had been killed in US/ENDF airstrikes.{{Cite news |date=2007-01-11 |title=Somali elders say about 100 killed in US, Ethiopian air strikes |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2007-01-12/somali-elders-say-about-100-killed-in-us-ethiopian/2170532 |access-date=2024-10-25 |work=ABC News (Australia) |language=en-AU}} In another, US aircraft bombed a wedding ceremony.{{Cite news |date=2007-01-10 |title=Somali herders hit by air attacks |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/6248669.stm |access-date=2024-03-09 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}} After American involvement in the invasion became public knowledge, the Ethiopian government halted US AC-130 attacks from its military bases.

The United States admitted to conducting a strike against targets that they claimed were suspected al-Qaeda operatives. An admission to a second air attack was made later in January.{{cite news |date=January 24, 2007 |title=Military Official Reports Second US Air Strike in Somalia |publisher=Voice of America |url=http://voanews.com/english/2007-01-24-voa67.cfm |access-date=2007-02-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070215044053/http://voanews.com/english/2007-01-24-voa67.cfm |archive-date=February 15, 2007}} Initially, the US claimed that it had successfully targeted al-Qaeda operatives responsible for the 1998 embassy bombings, but later retroactively downgraded those killed to being 'associates with terrorists'. Al-Shabaab militia suffered several losses in this period, resulting in a temporary loss of command and control over the organization.{{cite book |last1=Hansen |first1=Stig Jarle |title=Al-Shabaab in Somalia: The History and Ideology of a Militant Islamist Group, 2005–2012 |date=2013 |publisher=2013 |page=47}} The Pentagon's announcement of air attacks in Somalia during the Ethiopian offensive confirmed the belief of many analysts that the US was involved in the invasion.{{Cite web |last=Samatar |first=Abdi Ismail |date=2007-02-14 |title=Somalia: Warlordism, Ethiopian Invasion, Dictatorship and US's Role |url=https://sudantribune.com/article20646/ |access-date=2023-12-14 |website=Sudan Tribune |language=en-US}} United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon publicly expressed concern that the American attacks would escalate the conflict.

At the start of January, the Ethiopian government claimed it would withdraw "within a few weeks"{{cite news |last=Rice |first=Xan |date=January 3, 2007 |title=Ethiopian troops to leave Somalia 'within weeks' |work=The Guardian |location=London |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/jan/03/mainsection.international14 |url-status=live |access-date=2010-05-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170116200438/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/jan/03/mainsection.international14 |archive-date=January 16, 2017}} The TFG announced that the rivaling Islamic forces had been defeated and that no further major fighting was expected to take place.{{Cite web |date=2007-01-02 |title=Islamic fighters defeated, Somali leader says |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna16437197 |access-date=2024-03-14 |website=NBC News |language=en |agency=Associated Press}} After the Fall of Mogadishu, the security situation began to rapidly deteriorate and warlords who had been removed by the Islamic Courts began to reassert themselves.{{Cite news |date=11 January 2007 |title=Fears stalk Somalia's capital once again |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6252359.stm |access-date=2024-03-18 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}{{Cite news |last=Rice |first=Xan |date=29 December 2006 |title=Return of warlords as Somali capital is captured |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/dec/29/topstories3.mainsection |access-date=2024-03-18 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}} On 7 January, anti-Ethiopian protests broke out in Mogadishu, with hundreds of residents hurling stones and shouting threats towards ENDF troops. Ethiopian troops opened fire on the crowd after stones struck their patrol car, resulting in the death of two, including a 13-year boy. That same night a former ICU official was also assassinated in the city by gunmen.{{Cite web |date=7 January 2007 |title=Former member of Islamic movement killed in Mogadishu |url=https://www.hiiraan.com/news2/2007/jan/former_member_of_islamic_movement_killed_in_mogadishu.aspx |access-date=2023-12-02 |website=Hiiraan Online |agency=Agence France-Presse}}{{Cite news |last=McCrummen |first=Stephanie |date=7 January 2007 |title=Somalis Rail at Ethiopian Forces Two Killed as Protesters Smash Cars, Throw Stones in Mogadishu |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2007/01/07/somalis-rail-at-ethiopian-forces-span-classbankheadtwo-killed-as-protesters-smash-cars-throw-stones-in-mogadishuspan/327b407e-224a-47c7-a8c2-4f813e69aea3/ |newspaper=Washington Post}} On 13 January, the TFG imposed martial law. The directives, which included a ban on public meetings, attempts to organize political campaigns and major media outlets, was enforced by Ethiopian troops. Warlord militia checkpoints began reappearing on Mogadishu roads and insecurity started once again returning to the city. On 9 January 2007, TFG president Abdullahi Yusuf landed at Mogadishu airport and was escorted by Ethiopian troops to the presidential palace, Villa Somalia.{{Cite news |date=9 January 2007 |title=Il presidente Yusuf toma a Mogadiscio |url=https://archive.org/details/unita_2007-01-09/ |work=l'Unità |pages=10}}

The TFG proved to be incapable of controlling Mogadishu,{{Cite web |last=Menkhaus |first=Ken |date=13 February 2007 |title=Somalia: The Back-up Plan |url=https://www.hiiraan.com/op4/2007/feb/2123/somalia_the_back-up_plan.aspx |access-date=2024-09-03 |website=Hiiraan Online |language=en-US}} or of surviving on its own without Ethiopian troops. Most of the population of the city opposed the TFG and perceived it to be a puppet government. The military occupation was marked by indiscriminate violence towards civilians by the Ethiopian army and TFG. Homes were raided in search of ICU loyalists, with lootings, beatings and executions of suspected collaborators commonplace.{{Cite book |last=Kundnani |first=Arun |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0GvnDwAAQBAJ |title=The Muslims Are Coming!: Islamophobia, Extremism, and the Domestic War on Terror |publisher=Verso Books |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-78168-521-1 |language=en}} Several high-ranking figures of the TFG, including ex-speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden, were fired for calling for a compromise with the ICU.{{Cite journal |date=12 December 2008 |title=A sheikh returns to the fray |journal=Africa Confidential |volume=49 |issue=25}} Members of the TFG present in Nairobi were threatened with expulsion by Kenyan foreign minister Raphael Tuju after they publicly called for the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops.{{Cite news |date=7 January 2007 |title=Kenya to expel Somali leaders |url=http://www.eastandard.net/hm_news/news.php?articleid=1143963416 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070108010030/http://www.eastandard.net/hm_news/news.php?articleid=1143963416 |archive-date=January 8, 2007 |work=The Standard (Kenya)}}

On 19 January, insurgents in Mogadishu launched an assault on the ENDF/TFG held Villa Somalia. The ICU claimed responsibility for the attack, declaring it as part of a "new uprising".{{Cite web |date=20 January 2007 |title=Ethiopian troops in Somalia ambush |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2007/1/20/ethiopian-troops-in-somalia-ambush |access-date=2023-12-02 |website=Al Jazeera |language=en}}{{Cite web |date=7 January 2007 |title=Gunmen attack Ethiopian troops in Mogadishu |url=http://www.hiiraan.com/news4/2007/Jan/936/gunmen_attack_ethiopian_troops_in_mogadishu.aspx |access-date=2023-12-02 |website=Hiiraan Online |language=en-US |agency=Reuters}} The following day an ENDF convoy in the city came under ambush. Residents reported that the Ethiopian troops had responded by firing into crowds indiscriminately.{{Cite news |date=21 January 2007 |title=المحاكم تتبنى هجمات مقديشو وتتوعد بالمزيد |trans-title=Courts claim responsibility for Mogadishu attacks, vow more |url=https://www.aljazeera.net/news/2007/1/21/%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%AD%D8%A7%D9%83%D9%85-%D8%AA%D8%AA%D8%A8%D9%86%D9%89-%D9%87%D8%AC%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D9%85%D9%82%D8%AF%D9%8A%D8%B4%D9%88-%D9%88%D8%AA%D8%AA%D9%88%D8%B9%D8%AF |work=Al Jazeera |language=Arabic}} The incidents began sparking concern of an upstart Islamist insurgency.{{Cite news |date=20 January 2007 |title=Major Warlord Surrenders Arms to Somali Government |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2007/01/21/major-warlord-surrenders-arms-to-somali-government/768ca94d-4173-47e5-86f3-758607b3a689/ |newspaper=Washington Post}} Mogadishu was divided into two segments, one controlled by the ENDF/TFG and the other by emerging resistance movements. By the end of the month, a new ICU field commander was selected for the Banaadir region (Mogadishu and its environs) and many of the organization's fighters regrouped. At the same time guerrilla warfare was being waged in the southern regions of the country, with heavy losses being inflicted on ENDF/TFG forces.{{Cite web |last= |date=2007-01-26 |title=Somali Islamists deny Ethiopian troops withdrawal |url=https://sudantribune.com/article20336/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250307184022/https://sudantribune.com/article20336/?__cf_chl_rt_tk=uACCaw.w4J6TwvwaZStN1A3YP68RQy9bvWdbDmCtqUg-1741372822-1.0.1.1-PTJzPakd1DyMgX.QQeC2YV3sJSIpj0jL_k.GuxPrMoI |archive-date=7 March 2025 |access-date=2025-03-07 |website=Sudan Tribune |language=en-US}}

{{Main|African Union Mission to Somalia}}

The African Union's involvement in the war came at the insistence of both Ethiopia and the United States for the organization to take over the role of 'regime changer'. In effect, the newly planned AU military operation in Somalia was an attempt to legitimize the Ethiopian invasion and TFG. According to Cocodia, "AMISOM was more a tool for regime change than it was a peace operation."{{Cite journal |last=Cocodia |first=Jude |date=2021-04-03 |title=Rejecting African Solutions to African Problems: The African Union and the Islamic Courts Union in Somalia |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19392206.2021.1922026 |journal=African Security |language=en |volume=14 |issue=2 |pages=110–131 |doi=10.1080/19392206.2021.1922026 |issn=1939-2206 |quote=The AU's involvement was an attempt to legitimize the Ethiopian invasion and the TFG. The dominant narrative of the AUs peace operation has masked the intervention for what it truly was. AMISOM was more a tool for regime change than it was a peace operation.}} Within the African Union there was significant skepticism about the legitimacy of the Ethiopian military occupation.{{Cite book |last=Cocodia |first=Jude |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=reUeEQAAQBAJ |title=Complex Solutions to Local Problems: Constructed Narratives and External Intervention in Somalia's Crisis |year=2024|publisher=Anthem Press |isbn=978-1-83998-821-9 |language=en}} On 20 February 2007, the United Nations granted authorization for the deployment of a peacekeeping mission by the African Union, known as the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM). The mission's stated primary objective was to provide support for a national reconciliation congress in Somalia.{{cite web |title=AMISOM background |url=https://amisom-au.org/amisom-background/ |publisher=AMISOM}} AMISOM's deployment served as an exit strategy for Ethiopian troops, as their presence was inflaming an insurgency.{{Cite book |last=Cocodia |first=Jude |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LHE3DwAAQBAJ&dq=%22ethiopian+occupation%22+mogadishu&pg=PT82 |title=Peacekeeping and the African Union: Building Negative Peace |date=2017 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-351-59757-9 |language=en}}

From 2007 to 2009, AMISOM was predominantly composed of troops from Uganda, Burundi, and a few Kenyans. During 2007, the operation relied heavily on Ugandan Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF), as Uganda played a crucial role in offering support to the initiation of the mission. By the end of the year, Burundian troops also joined the effort. AMISOM's initial mandate did not permit the use of offensive force, resulting in limited involvement in the conflict between Ethiopian forces and the insurgency. This dynamic led to growing tensions between AMISOM and the ENDF, exacerbated by a lack of transparency from Ethiopia regarding its objectives within Somalia.{{Cite journal |last1=Albrecht |first1=Peter |last2=Haenlein |first2=Cathy |date=2016-01-02 |title=Fragmented Peacekeeping: The African Union in Somalia |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03071847.2016.1152121 |journal=The RUSI Journal |language=en |volume=161 |issue=1 |pages=50–61 |doi=10.1080/03071847.2016.1152121 |s2cid=155893368 |issn=0307-1847}} The European Union was reportedly 'exceptionally unhappy' about the heavy US support for the December invasion, and held back funds for the newly created AMISOM mission for several months.

Days before AMISOM deployed in Somalia, violence in Mogadishu began rapidly escalating.{{Cite web |date=19 Feb 2007 |title=Violence out of control, say Mogadishu residents |url=https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/report/70253/somalia-violence-out-control-say-mogadishu-residents |access-date=2024-03-10 |website=The New Humanitarian |language=en}} On 6 March 2007, the first African Union troops landed at Mogadishu airport alongside three military vehicles.{{Cite web |last=Abdulle |first=Sahal |date=2007-03-06 |title=First AU peacekeepers arrive in Mogadishu |url=https://reliefweb.int/report/somalia/somalia-first-au-peacekeepers-arrive-mogadishu |access-date=2024-07-21 |website=Relief Web |language=en |agency=Reuters}}

Early 2007 saw Somalis rally behind what was referred to as the muqawama (resistance) or kacdoon (uprising). In late February and early March 2007, insurgent attacks on ENDF/TFG forces in Mogadishu became a daily occurrence, growing in both complexity and sophistication.{{Cite news |last=Tomilson |first=Chris |date=15 March 2007 |title=Insurgency and intrigue could return Somalia to chaos |url=https://sudantribune.com/article21131/ |work=Sudan Tribune |pages= |agency=Associated Press}} During March, the resistance began in earnest with units of Somali guerillas engaging in hit-and-run attacks on Ethiopian military positions in Mogadishu. The Ethiopian military response was characterized by large scale and indiscriminate artillery and aerial bombardments of civilian areas.{{Citation |last=Samatar |first=Abdi Ismail |title=The Production of Somali Conflict and the Role of Internal and External Actors |date=2013 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt183p650.14 |work=The Horn of Africa |pages=156–177 |editor-last=Bereketeab |editor-first=Redie |access-date=2024-01-11 |series=Intra-State and Inter-State Conflicts and Security |publisher=Pluto Press |doi=10.2307/j.ctt183p650.14 |jstor=j.ctt183p650.14 |isbn=978-0-7453-3311-3}} That month Ethiopian and TFG troops began suffering mounting casualties to the insurgency. On 15 March 2007, TFG President Abdullahi Yusuf accused ICU rebels in Mogadishu of being responsible for shelling Villa Somalia with mortars moments after he arrived. In a telephone interview with al-Sharq al-Awsat, President Yusuf declared that no ICU leadership would be allowed to partake in the national reconciliation process.{{Cite news |date=16 March 2007 |title=Somali leader rules out Islamists participation in reconciliation conference |work=Al-Sharq al-Awsat |publisher=BBC Monitoring Africa}} In the ensuing days, insurgent activities intensified further. Between 16 and 18 March 2007, there was a rapid escalation in attacks, accompanied by an increase in mortar fire volume. A large ENDF convoy was ambushed, leading to a major battle near Mogadishu port, and a high-ranking TFG regional police commander was assassinated in Kismayo.{{Cite news |last=Abdinur |first=Mustafa Haji |date=18 March 2007 |title=Somali insurgents step up attacks in Mogadishu |publisher=LexisNexis |agency=Agence France-Presse}} The TFG soon began to run into increasing opposition from remnants of the Islamic Courts Union, and despite moving much of the government in January to Mogadishu, many ministers chose to remain in Baidoa.{{Cite web |date=6 May 2008 |title=Somalia: Routinely Targeted: Attacks on Civilians in Somalia |url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/afr52/006/2008/en/ |website=Amnesty International}}

File:A Somali insurgent opposing Ethiopian forces.jpg opposing the Ethiopian military occupation during 2007]]

During 2007, members of the Islamic Courts led the resistance to the occupation, attracting significant support from Somalis in the Banaadir region and from Somalis across the world.{{Cite book |last=Samatar |first=Abdi Ismail |url=http://www.sirclund.se/Conference%20report%202007.pdf#page=177 |title=Post-Conflict Peace-Building in the Horn of Africa |date=2008 |chapter=Ethiopian Occupation and American Terror in Somalia}} Al-Shabaab did not heavily participate in the insurgency or large scale fighting for much of 2007, opting instead to carry out bombings and assassinations while further establishing itself.{{Cite journal |last1=Hansen |first1=Stig Jarle |last2=Gaas |first2=Mohamed Husein |date=2011 |title=Kapitel 12 Harakat al-Shabaab, and Somalia's current state of affairs |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24916969 |journal=Jahrbuch Terrorismus |volume=5 |pages=279–294 |jstor=24916969 |issn=2512-6040}}

By the end of March, the fighting intensified in Mogadishu and more than a thousand people, mostly civilians, were killed. ICU insurgents, Hawiye clan militia, volunteers and other Islamist groups engaged in fierce rounds of fighting in dense urban eras for several weeks during March and April against ENDF/TFG forces. In a bid to crush the insurgency, Ethiopian/TFG forces besieged entire neighborhoods and initiated a campaign of mass arrests. Ethiopian troops launched major offensives in the city, utilizing large scale bombardments with rockets and artillery on Mogadishu neighborhoods deemed to be insurgent strongholds. On several occasions the ENDF also occupied and looted the city's hospitals. Ethiopian troops were primarily responsible for the large scale bombardment and significant civilian losses that occurred in the city during March and April 2007.{{Cite web |date=31 Jan 2008 |title=World Report 2008 – Somalia |url=https://www.refworld.org/reference/annualreport/hrw/2008/en/54691 |access-date=2024-02-24 |website=Refworld |language=en |agency=Human Rights Watch}} The Ethiopians were surprised by the intensity of the resistance and began unleashing their firepower on the city in response. Human Rights Watch reported that the Ethiopian army extensively utilized BM-21 Grad rocket shelling to bombard densely populated Mogadishu neighborhoods, which the organization described as a violation of international humanitarian law.File:Mogadishu residents flee from Ethiopian army artillery.webp bombardments by the ENDF (21 April 2007)]]During the fierce fighting, the Ethiopian army reportedly engaged in the carpet bombing of neighborhoods. TFG President Abdullahi Yusuf announced in a radio address that "any place from which a bullet is fired, we will bombard it, regardless of whoever is there."{{Cite news |last=Gettleman |first=Jeffrey |author-link=Jeffrey Gettleman |date=2007-04-06 |title=Somali Battles Bring Charges of War Crimes |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/06/world/africa/06somalia.html |access-date=2024-08-30 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} The presence of Ethiopian troops reinforced the authoritarian behavior of the TFG. Time magazine reported that the battles raging in the Mogadishu at the time were 'some of the most savage fighting' the capital had ever experienced.{{Cite magazine |last=Perry |first=Alex |date=2007-04-25 |title=Mogadishu Slides Toward Chaos |url=https://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1614711,00.html |access-date=2024-05-04 |magazine=Time |language=en-US |issn=0040-781X}} An Ilyushin Il-76 military transport plane was struck by insurgent RPG fire on 9 March,{{Cite web |date=9 March 2007 |title=Crash of an Ilyushin II-76TD in Mogadishu |url=https://www.baaa-acro.com/crash/crash-ilyushin-ii-76td-mogadishu |access-date=2024-12-11 |website=Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives}} and another Il-76 was shot down on 23 March while it was taking off from Mogadishu airport.{{Cite web |date=2007-03-23 |title=An Ilyushin IL-76TD operated by Transaviaexport Airlines is shot down - Mogadishu, Somalia |url=https://www.1001crash.com/index-page-description-accident-Transavia_IL76-lg-2-crash-193-transaviaexport-airlines-ilyushin-il-76td-somalia.html |access-date=2024-12-11 |website=1001crash.com |language=en}} The bodies of ENDF troops were dragged through the streets during the fighting for the city and an Ethiopian helicopter gunship was shot down by Somali fighters using portable surface-to-air missiles.{{Cite news |last=Gettleman |first=Jefferey |author-link=Jeffrey Gettleman |date=30 March 2007 |title=Ethiopian Helicopter Shot Down in Somali Capital |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/30/world/africa/30cnd-somalia.html |url-access=limited |work=New York Times}}{{Cite news |date=2007-03-30 |title=Helicopter shot down in Somalia |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6509729.stm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070808172812/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6509729.stm |archive-date=8 August 2007 |access-date=2024-09-05 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}

By April, a third of Mogadishu's buildings were in ruins along with much of the city's modest economic infrastructure. According to Kenyan journalist Salim Lone, ENDF and TFG forces deliberately blockaded the delivery of urgently needed humanitarian supplies and food in an attempt to 'terrify and intimidate' civilians associated with those challenging the military occupation.{{Cite web |last=Lone |first=Salim |author-link=Salim Lone |date=28 April 2007 |title=Inside Africa's Guantánamo |url=http://www.hiiraan.com/op4/2007/apr/2968/inside_africa_s_guant%EF%BF%BDnamo.aspx |access-date=2024-07-21 |website=Hiiraan Online |language=en-US |agency=The Guardian}} The Ethiopians characterized the violence in this period as being part of a 'final push' against the rebels,{{Cite web |date=26 April 2007 |title=SOMALIA: Resistance to TFG deepens and diversifies |url=https://dailybrief.oxan.com/Analysis/DB133962 |url-access=subscription |access-date=2024-08-29 |website=Oxford Analytica Daily Brief |publisher=Oxford Analytica |language=en}} but the fierce fighting in Mogadishu during March and April 2007 failed to quell the growing insurgency.

The Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) issued a statement declaring its solidarity with the insurgency,{{Cite web |date=2007-04-11 |title=Ogaden rebels denounce Ethiopian war crimes in Somalia |url=https://sudantribune.com/article21622/ |access-date=2024-07-09 |website=Sudan Tribune |language=en-US |agency=Ogaden National Liberation Front}} and along with other armed groups in Ethiopia - escalated the insurgency in the Ogaden in response to the invasion.{{Cite journal |last=McGregor |first=Andrew |date=5 June 2007 |title=Ethiopia Faces Ethnic Fallout from Somalia Intervention |url=https://jamestown.org/program/ethiopia-faces-ethnic-fallout-from-somalia-intervention/ |journal=Terrorism Focus |publisher=Jamestown Foundation |volume=4 |issue=17}} The Ethiopian government accused ICU fighters of fighting alongside the ONLF during the April 2007 Abole raid.{{Cite book |last=Garyare |first=Suldaan Maxamed Suldaan Ibraahim |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-yq2nQAACAAJ |title=Hormuud Habaabay: Milicsiga Kacdoonkii Maxaakiimta Islaamiga Ahaa (2006–2009 kii) |date=2015 |publisher=Hill Press |pages=64 |language=so}}

In mid-2007, as Ethiopian troops were getting mired in the insurgency, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi publicly stated that the Ethiopian government had "made a wrong political calculation" by invading Somalia. Many Mogadishu businessman and civil leaders reported that they had been unjustly labelled as being al-Qaeda, following which they were ransacked by ENDF/TFG forces.{{Cite web |last=McCrummen |first=Stephanie |date=2007-06-30 |title=Ethiopian PM admits errors on Somalia |url=https://sudantribune.com/article22877/ |access-date=2023-11-08 |website=Sudan Tribune |language=en-US |agency=Washington Post}} On 3 June 2007, a truck bomb attempted to assassinate TFG prime minister Ali Mohamed Ghedi.{{cite news |date=June 3, 2007 |title=Bomb attack on Somali PM's house |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6716995.stm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070817033758/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6716995.stm |archive-date=August 17, 2007 |access-date=2010-05-27 |work=BBC News}} In July 2007, the insurgency had into spread to the greater Banaadir region, Middle Shabelle, Lower Shabelle and the Jubba Valley. After a short lull in the fighting during August 2007 that saw Meles Zenawi claim the fighting to be over,{{Cite magazine |last=Perry |first=Alex |date=2007-11-12 |title=Somalia's War Flares Up Again |url=https://time.com/archive/6941817/somalias-war-flares-up-again/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250307181237/https://time.com/archive/6941817/somalias-war-flares-up-again/ |archive-date=7 March 2025 |access-date=2025-03-07 |magazine=Time |language=en}} violence in Mogadishu escalated sharply that same month. Ethiopian troops utilized tanks and heavy artillery to bombard insurgent strongholds in the capital, resulting in the worst mass exodus in the city's history. The ENDF utilized white phosphorus munitions in residential areas of the city, resulting in civilian fatalities. The escalating insurgency resulted in the deployment of an additional 10,000 Ethiopian troops in Mogadishu and its environs. During September 2007, the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS) was formed. Al-Shabaab spokesman Mukhtar Robow stated that the group did not recognize and had no relationship with the ARS.{{Cite news |date=29 October 2007 |title=Somali militant group vows to continue with attacks in Mogadishu |work=Radio Banaadir |publisher=World News Connection}}

As fighting in Mogadishu escalated, ICU insurgents in southern Somalia found a window of opportunity and peacefully captured the town of Dhobley near the Kenyan border in mid-October.{{Cite web |date=2007-10-19 |title=Somalia: Situation Report – OCHA |url=https://www.unocha.org/publications/report/somalia/somalia-situation-report-19-oct-2007 |access-date=2023-12-29 |website=www.unocha.org |language=en}} At the end of October 2007, some of the heaviest fighting in months broke out between the ENDF and ICU insurgents in the capital when Ethiopian troops launched an offensive on ICU positions.{{Cite news |date=2007-10-27 |title=Heavy fighting in Somali capital |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7065515.stm |access-date=2024-07-29 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}} From 8–16 November, another large scale multi-day battle occurred in Mogadishu; during which the bodies of Ethiopian troops were dragged through the city streets.{{Cite web |date=8 November 2007 |title=Crowd drags Ethiopian corpse, echoing 1993 brutality |url=http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/africa/11/08/somalia.fighting/index.html |access-date=2023-12-27 |website=CNN}} By November, small pockets of Islamic Courts Union control were appearing in various places across the country.{{Cite news |last=Thompkins |first=Gwen |date=20 November 2007 |title=Familiar Scenes of Violence Arise in Mogadishu |url=https://www.npr.org/2007/11/20/16415793/familiar-scenes-of-violence-arise-in-mogadishu |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231223190051/https://www.npr.org/2007/11/20/16415793/familiar-scenes-of-violence-arise-in-mogadishu |archive-date=23 December 2023 |work=National Public Radio}} In December 2007, the ENDF withdrew from the strategic town of Guriel, which was then taken quickly over by insurgents.{{cite news| title =Ethiopia leaves key Somali town| publisher =BBC| date =December 28, 2007| url =http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7162957.stm| access-date =2007-12-28| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20071231062524/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7162957.stm| archive-date =December 31, 2007| url-status =live}}

At the end of the year, the UNHCR estimated 1,000,000 people had been displaced by the war.{{Cite web |last=Mutuli |first=Millicent |date=20 November 2007 |title=Number of displaced in Somalia tops 1 million mark |url=https://www.unhcr.org/news/stories/number-displaced-somalia-tops-1-million-mark |access-date=2024-03-18 |website=United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees |language=en}} Thousands of Somalis had been killed by the Ethiopian army.{{Cite magazine |last=Perry |first=Alex |date=12 November 2007 |title=Somalia's War Flares Up Again |url=https://time.com/archive/6941817/somalias-war-flares-up-again/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250307181237/https://time.com/archive/6941817/somalias-war-flares-up-again/ |archive-date=7 March 2025 |magazine=Time |quote=The Ethiopian army, which invaded last December, had killed thousands of Somalis and lost thousands of its own in some of the fiercest fighting that the capital, Mogadishu, had seen in 16 years of civil war.}} The United Nations reported the crisis as being the worst ever humanitarian crises in Africa. The TFG announced that most of the country was not under its control and claimed that the ICU was regrouping, which the Ethiopian government denied. Al-Jazeera reported that fighting between the ENDF/TFG and Islamic Courts forces in 2007 had resulted in several thousand civilian deaths in Mogadishu.{{cite web|url=http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/70C40F0B-95D1-43F4-A5F6-963241DA7C89.htm|title=Al Jazeera English – News – Somalia Says Rebels Regrouping|access-date=February 18, 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080310114007/http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/70C40F0B-95D1-43F4-A5F6-963241DA7C89.htm|archive-date=March 10, 2008}}

The Ethiopians and Transitional Federal Government had little public support, and Ethiopian troops rarely conducted patrols due to frequent losses to Somali insurgents.{{Cite web |date=2007-10-15 |title=Tensions Among Troops, Insurgents Fuel Further Violence in Somalia |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/tensions-among-troops-insurgents-fuel-further-violence-in-somalia |access-date=2024-09-24 |website=PBS News |language=en-us |quote=Ethiopian troops have little public support. The Ethiopians rarely patrol, and when they do, they lose not only their life, but their boots and anything else the insurgents can make use of.}} ENDF military losses had reached unsustainable levels by the end of 2007 and an excess of 50,000 ENDF troops were deployed in Somalia. Thousands of Ethiopian troops had been killed during the fighting for Mogadishu in 2007. Oxford Analytica observed at the end of 2007 that the Ethiopian army aimed to win a war of attrition against the insurgency,{{Cite web |date=2007-12-27 |title=Prospects 2008: Worsening crises wrack Horn of Africa - Ethiopia |url=https://reliefweb.int/report/ethiopia/prospects-2008-worsening-crises-wrack-horn-africa-06-dec-2007 |access-date=2024-05-04 |website=ReliefWeb |publisher=Oxford Analytica |language=en}} but Ethiopia was effectively bogged down and facing a multi front war, with no prospect of victory.{{Cite news |last=Plaut |first=Martin |date=2007-12-28 |title=Ethiopia in Somalia: One year on |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7155868.stm |access-date=2024-08-25 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}} Throughout the year the ENDF had repeatedly claimed it was drawing down its forces in Somalia, though none occurred.{{Cite journal |last=Smith |first=Lahra |date=2008-01-07 |title=U.S. Engagement in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa |url=https://www.csis.org/analysis/us-engagement-ethiopia-and-horn-africa |journal=Center for Strategic and International Studies |language=en}} According to Professor Abdi Ismail Samatar, as the insurgency grew in strength, it became clear to the Americans that the Ethiopian military occupation was doomed to fail, prompting them to focus on engineering a split within the Islamic resistance movement.

The invasion resulted in the deaths of many Islamic Courts Union affiliates, leaving a vacuum for the small group of several hundred youth that served as the ICU's Shabaab militia to gain prominence.{{Cite journal |last=Mueller |first=Jason C. |date=2019-07-03 |title=Political, Economic, and Ideological Warfare in Somalia |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10402659.2019.1735174 |journal=Peace Review |language=en |volume=31 |issue=3 |pages=372–380 |doi=10.1080/10402659.2019.1735174 |s2cid=219267475 |issn=1040-2659 |quote=This invasion chased out or killed many affiliates of the UIC, leaving behind a battle-hardened small contingent of youth who made up a marginal faction of the UIC prior to the Ethiopian invasion. This group goes by the name of al-Shabaab.}}{{Cite news |last=Plaut |first=Martin Plaut |author-link=Martin Plaut |date=2009-01-01 |title=US fails to break Somali Islamists |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7807291.stm |access-date=2024-03-09 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}} The group was not a monolithic entity at the time, and effectively represented an alliance of insurgent groups.{{Cite journal |last=Bader |first=Laetitia |date=2012-02-20 |title=No Place for Children |url=https://www.hrw.org/report/2012/02/20/no-place-children/child-recruitment-forced-marriage-and-attacks-schools-somalia |journal=Human Rights Watch |language=en}} During the military occupation, al-Shabaab garnered substantial support from the Somali population, cutting across clan lines. The Ethiopian invasion was the group's primary catalyst for mobilization among the population. Despite its strict ideology, the group was widely perceived as a genuine resistance force against Ethiopian occupation by many Somalis, and while not universally popular, it was widely acknowledged for its effective training and formidable capabilities in pushing out Ethiopian troops. Heavy handed tactics and blatant disregard for civilian life by Ethiopian troops rallied many Somalis to support the al-Shabaab as it successfully branded itself as the most determined and uncompromising resistance faction.{{Cite journal |last=Hassan |first=Abdulahi |date=March 2009 |title=Inside Look at the Fighting Between Al-Shabab and Ahlu-Sunna wal-Jama |url=https://ctc.westpoint.edu/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Vol2Iss3-Art2.pdf |journal=CTC Sentinel |volume=2 |issue=3}}

Al-Shabaab forces carried out the first suicide attack of the insurgency on 27 March 2007, against an ENDF checkpoint in Tarbuunka, Mogadishu, using a car bomb. The explosion killed 63 Ethiopian soldiers and wounded another 50. The operation was reported to have been made in retribution for the torture and rape of Suuban Maalin Ali Hassan, a Somali woman, at gunpoint by Ethiopian troops.{{Cite web |date=2007-03-14 |title=Ethiopian soldiers beat, rape Somali woman |url=https://sudantribune.com/article21112/ |access-date=2024-07-09 |website=Sudan Tribune |language=en-US}} Adam Salad Adam, was later announced as the bomber responsible for the operation. It was the first recorded suicide attack in Somalia, and a Shabaab propaganda film was released two days after it occurred.{{Cite web |title=AP Exclusive: Somali Islamists produce martyr video, the latest tactic aligning them with global extremist groups |url=https://www.hiiraan.com/news2/2007/may/ap_exclusive_somali_islamists_produce_martyr_video_the_latest_tactic_aligning_them_with_global_extremist_groups.aspx |access-date=2024-03-31 |website=www.hiiraan.com}}{{Cite journal |last=Hansen |first=Stig Jarle |date=2010-07-22 |title=Revenge or reward? The case of Somalia's suicide bombers |journal=Journal of Terrorism Research |volume=1 |url=https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/handle/10023/5595 |language=en |doi=10.15664/jtr.165 |doi-broken-date=November 1, 2024 |issn=2049-7040|hdl=10023/5595 |hdl-access=free }}{{Citation |last=Rabasa |first=Angel |title=The Growth of Radical Islam |date=2009 |work=Radical Islam in East Africa |pages=39–70 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7249/mg782af.12 |access-date=2024-03-31 |edition=1 |publisher=RAND Corporation |jstor=10.7249/mg782af.12 |isbn=978-0-8330-4519-5}}

{{Main|2008 timeline of the War in Somalia}}By the beginning of 2008, insurgent pressure had mounted on the Ethiopian and TFG troops in the south-central regions of Somalia. The Shabeelle, the Jubba Valley along with the Bay and Bakool regions in particular became hot spots. Islamist fighters gained strength and were able to move from different towns with little resistance as they had accrued significant public support. What had at first seemed to be a series of probes soon morphed into a significant insurgent offensive against Ethiopian and TFG forces.{{Cite book |url=https://icg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/147-somalia-to-move-beyond-the-failed-state.pdf |title=Somalia: To Move Beyond the Failed State |publisher=International Crisis Group |publication-date=23 December 2008}} In early January 2008, Seyum Mesfin, the Ethiopian Foreign Minister claimed that Mogadishu and Somalia had significantly improved since the invasion and that there were no longer any 'no go zones' in the country.{{Cite web |title=The Impacts of Ethiopia's Invasion of Somalia |url=https://www.hiiraan.com/op2/2008/jan/the_impacts_of_ethiopia_s_invasion_of_somalia.aspx |access-date=2023-12-14 |website=www.hiiraan.com}} More than 60% of Mogadishu's population had fled the city by the start of the year.{{Cite news |date=2008-01-29 |title=Somali insurgents in deadly fight |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7214846.stm |access-date=2024-03-09 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}} Philippe Lazzarini, the United Nations' top humanitarian official, declared Somalia to be the worst humanitarian crisis in Africa and nearly the worst in the world.{{Cite web |date=12 March 2008 |title=Somalia heads for crisis |url=http://www.hiiraan.com/news4/2008/Mar/6026/mediawatch_somalia_heads_for_crisis.aspx |access-date=2024-06-19 |website=Hiiraan Online |language=en-US |agency=Reuters}}

The TFG parliament was purged of opposition figures and represented a narrow coalition of Somali society. The government was besieged and dysfunctional, with virtually no progress being made for political transition. The government was plagued with charges of corruption and abuse, including the obstruction of relief aid deliveries. The TFG's police and military forces were notoriously undisciplined, committing numerous acts of murder and sexual violence against civilians. The security forces effectively operated as uniformed clan militia who were loyal to their individual commanders and only nominally under the control of the government. In many instances they were hostile to one another and internal splits even resulted in shootouts between units as they fought over control of revenue from illegal checkpoints.{{Cite book |last=Bryden |first=Matt |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PX_yAwAAQBAJ |title=Somalia Redux?: Assessing the New Somali Federal Government |date=2013 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-4422-2526-8 |pages=9–10 |language=en}} During 2008, TFG President Abdullahi Yusuf began undermining the new Prime Minister, Nur Hassan Hussein. PM Nur had replaced PM Ali Gedi in November 2007, who was widely viewed as corrupt and an impediment to the reconciliation process. In an attempt to undermine an emerging alliance between opposition groups and PM Nur, President Yusuf had TFG forces engage in widespread looting at the Bakaara Market in order to impede Nur's effort. Much of the criminality in south Somalia during 2008 was linked to TFG security forces. In April 2008, Oxford Analytica observed that the TFG was 'little more' than a collection of armed rival groups.{{Cite web |date=2008-04-07 |title=Fractured TFG undermines security prospects - Somalia |url=https://reliefweb.int/report/somalia/somalia-fractured-tfg-undermines-security-prospects-07-apr-2008 |access-date=2024-05-04 |website=ReliefWeb |publisher=Oxford Analytica |language=en}}

In early 2008, a UN report alleged that ENDF, TFG, and AMISOM forces were profiting millions from arms trafficking in Somalia. The Swiss newspaper Le Temps reported that the large volume of Ethiopian military arms and ammunition being sold suggested high-level involvement within the ENDF as commanders often resold weapons seized from insurgents for profit. While the Ethiopian Defense Ministry was seemingly unaware, it was observed that such large-scale trafficking would have been impossible without complicity from top ENDF figures.{{Cite news |last=Lallemand |first=Alain |date=2008-05-03 |title=L'armée éthiopienne compromise dans les trafics d'armes en Somalie |trans-title=Ethiopian army implicated in arms trafficking in Somalia |url=https://www.letemps.ch/monde/larmee-ethiopienne-compromise-trafics-darmes-somalie |access-date=2025-02-11 |work=Le Temps |language=fr |issn=1423-3967}}

Islamist insurgents began adopting sophisticated strategies to win greater public support and legitimacy. To fill in the void left by the Transitional Federal Government, insurgents began to deploy mobile Sharia courts to administer justice while apprehending criminals. They also began clan conflict mediation and distributing aid to the impoverished. Attacks on highway bandits and militia checkpoints became frequent. The insurgency waged an increasingly complex war against the ENDF and TFG. A targeted assassination campaign was initiated against the TFG, primarily aimed at the National Security Agency (NSA), resulting in many NSA agents and informants being assassinated in 2008. Insurgent attacks further increased in complexity and sophistication, with attacks killing scores of Ethiopian and TFG troops weekly. In February 2008, Al Shabaab captured the town of Dinsoor after probing it several times. This marked a change in their strategy which previously focused mainly on the capital Mogadishu.{{cite web |url=http://www.somalinet.com/news/world/Somalia/14166 |title=Latest News |publisher=SomaliNet |access-date=2011-07-09 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719073814/http://www.somalinet.com/news/world/Somalia/14166 |archive-date=July 19, 2011}}[http://www.garoweonline.com/artman2/publish/Somalia_27/Somalia_al-Shabaab_reenter_Dinsor_threaten_to_attack_Baidoa.shtml al-Shabaab reenter Dinsor, threaten to attack Baidoa] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080305004702/http://www.garoweonline.com/artman2/publish/Somalia_27/Somalia_al-Shabaab_reenter_Dinsor_threaten_to_attack_Baidoa.shtml |date=March 5, 2008}} on Garoweonline accessed at March 19, 2008{{cite news | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7262415.stm | work=BBC News | title=Somali town overrun by Islamists | date=February 25, 2008 | access-date=2010-05-27 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080229004730/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7262415.stm | archive-date=February 29, 2008 | url-status=live}} Al-Shabaab began governing territory for the first time in 2008 as it started taking control of significant tracts of southern Somalia.{{Cite journal |last=Hassan |first=Abdulahi |date=March 2008 |title=Inside Look at the Fighting Between Al-Shabab and Ahlu-Sunna wal-Jama |url=https://ctc.westpoint.edu/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Vol2Iss3-Art2.pdf |journal=CTC Sentinel |volume=2 |issue=3}} In March, the ICU seized the city of Buloburde and freed many prisoners.{{Cite web |date=31 March 2008 |title=ICU seizes central Somali town |url=https://www.hiiraan.com/news2/2008/mar/icu_seizes_central_somali_town.aspx |access-date=2024-05-08 |website=Hiiraan Online}} At the end of March 2008 a battle erupted in Mogadishu after TFG forces began robbing a marketplace, resulting Islamist insurgents inflicting heavy losses on the TFG forces after they came to defend the merchants.{{Cite news |last=Gettleman |first=Jeffrey |date=2008-03-29 |title=Somalia's Government Teeters on Collapse |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/29/world/africa/29somalia.html |access-date=2024-07-26 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}

During the April 2008 Battle of Mogadishu, the al-Hidaya Mosque massacre was carried out by Ethiopian troops, inflaming the insurgency.{{Cite web |last=Ryu |first=Alisha |date=2008-04-22 |title=Mogadishu residents express outrage after Ethiopian troops attack mosque |url=https://reliefweb.int/report/somalia/somalia-mogadishu-residents-express-outrage-after-ethiopian-troops-attack-mosque |access-date=2024-04-20 |website=reliefweb.int |language=en |agency=Voice of America}} Tigrayan ENDF troops repeatedly looted Mogadishu's Bakaara market and Somali telecom companies such as Hormuud became a target for looting and vandalism by the Ethiopian army.{{Cite web |last=Mire |first=Amina |date=25 July 2007 |title=Bush/Neocon, Zinawi's Tigre Christian Crusade Against Somalia |url=https://www.africaspeaks.com/somalia/250707.html#17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080720104345/http://www.africaspeaks.com/somalia/250707.html#17 |archive-date=20 July 2008 |access-date=2024-08-29 |website=Africaspeaks}} Voice of America reported that month that the insurgency was effectively being waged by two distinct groups, the nationalist leaning ICU insurgents and the increasingly international jihadist oriented al-Shabaab. Residents reported that Islamic Courts insurgents had far more popular support than al-Shabaab and receiving significant funds from both the local business communities and the Somali diaspora.{{Cite web |last=Ryu |first=Alisha |date=3 April 2008 |title=Divide Widens Between Insurgent Groups in Somalia |url=https://www.voanews.com/a/a-13-2008-04-03-voa52-66747162/562471.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080410024500/http://voanews.com/english/2008-04-03-voa52.cfm?renderforprint=1&textonly=1&&CFID=38218167&CFTOKEN=46159616 |archive-date=10 April 2008 |access-date=2024-07-29 |website=Voice of America |language=en}} The boldest insurgent expansion occurred in April 2008, when Islamist fighters seized control of Jowhar, only 90 km away from the capital Mogadishu.{{Cite news |date=26 March 2008 |title=قوات التحالف الصومالي تسيطر على مدينتي جوهر ومهداي |trans-title=Somali coalition forces take control of Jowhar and Mahaday cities |url=https://www.aljazeera.net/news/2008/3/26/%D9%82%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AA%D8%AD%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%81-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B5%D9%88%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%8A-%D8%AA%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%B7%D8%B1-%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%89 |work=Al Jazeera |language=Arabic}} In late May, Jilib and Harardhere fell under the control of insurgents, who then began advancing on the strategic southern port city of Kismayo.{{Cite web |url=http://allafrica.com/stories/200805190036.html |title=allAfrica.com: Somalia: Somali Rebels Seize Two More Towns (Page 1 of 1) |access-date=June 11, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080520092415/http://allafrica.com/stories/200805190036.html |archive-date=May 20, 2008 |url-status=live}} Representatives of both the Islamic Courts and al-Shabaab entered into a secretive agreement to allow the clan militia in power to remain,{{Cite web |url=http://allafrica.com/stories/200805230035.html |title=allAfrica.com: Somalia: Islamist Rebels in Secret Deal With Kismayo Port Militia (Page 1 of 1) |access-date=June 11, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080526142950/http://allafrica.com/stories/200805230035.html |archive-date=May 26, 2008 |url-status=live}} though al-Shabaab overran the city later in August.{{Cite web |date=14 December 2008 |title=Islamists close in on Somali capital |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE4BD0QA/ |website=Reuters}}

On 3 March 2008, the United States launched cruise missiles on the town of Dhobley where insurgent leader Hassan Turki was reported to have been present. According to AP, US officials claimed the town was held by Islamic extremists but gave few details to the press.[http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gKQ6Hm0yuq8jNqzJY4rRkn0qzwhQD8V60COG1 US Launches Airstrike in Somalia] Associated Press, March 3, 2008 {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080309200145/http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gKQ6Hm0yuq8jNqzJY4rRkn0qzwhQD8V60COG1 |date=March 9, 2008}} Dhobley was the last town the ICU held a year prior and it had been bombed by US aircraft in that period.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7274462.stm US bombs Islamist town in Somalia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080305024223/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7274462.stm |date=March 5, 2008 }}, BBC, March 3, 2008 A month later on 1 May 2008, US Tomahawk missiles bombarded Dhusamareb resulting in the assassination of al-Shabaab leader Aden Hashi Eyrow along with another senior commander and several civilians. The attack did nothing to slow down the groups participation in the insurgency.{{cite news | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7376760.stm | work=BBC News | title=Air raid kills Somali militants | date=May 1, 2008 | access-date=2010-05-27 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080504030822/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7376760.stm | archive-date=May 4, 2008 | url-status=live}} The assassination of Ayro during early 2008 resulted in a sharp radicalization of al-Shabaab.{{Cite web |last=Lobe |first=Jim |date=4 September 2008 |title=US' Somalia Policy Likely to Bring Blowback |url=http://www.hiiraan.com/news4/2008/Sept/7841/us_somalia_policy_likely_to_bring_blowback.aspx |access-date=2024-06-19 |website=Hiiraan Online |language=en-US |agency=Inter Press Service}} The killing of Ayro led to foreign fighters integrating within the ranks of the organization and resulted in the accession of Ahmed Godane as Emir. This change in leadership was facilitated by American intervention and had significant effect on Shabaab's future decision making regarding the usage of tactics such as suicide bombing.{{Cite journal |last=Ibrahim |first=Mohamed |date=2010 |title=Somalia and global terrorism: A growing connection? |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02589001.2010.497350 |journal=Journal of Contemporary African Studies |language=en |volume=28 |issue=3 |pages=283–295 |doi=10.1080/02589001.2010.497350 |s2cid=153548813 |issn=0258-9001}}

On 18 March 2008, the US designated al-Shabaab a terrorist organization. According to the Institute for Security Studies, the designation of al-Shabaab as a terrorist organization was an obstacle to the ongoing peace process, as by mid-2008 the popularity of the insurgency had indicated there was a, "thin line if any, between the UIC, Al Shabab and the Somali people"{{Cite web |last=Guyo |first=Mohammed |date=7 May 2008 |title=Somalia – Can the UN Succeed where IGAD Failed? |url=https://issafrica.org/iss-today/somalia-can-the-un-succeed-where-igad-failed |access-date=2024-10-01 |website=Institute for Security Studies Africa |language=en}} The terror designation proved to be damaging as it isolated moderate voices among the Islamist resistance movement and gave al-Shabaab further reason to push against peace talks.

By mid-2008, al-Shabaab, Islamic Courts Union loyalists and supporters of the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia (ARS) were the primary insurgent forces operating in Somalia.{{Cite book |url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/afr520092008eng.pdf |title=Routinely Targeted: Attacks on civilians in Somalia |date=May 2008 |publisher=Amnesty International |pages=3}} The Mogadishu-Afgooye-Baidoa highway became a focal point for ICU and al-Shabaab insurgents, while attacks also began escalating in and around Baidoa. By July, ICU forces controlled the cities of Beledweyne and Wajid.{{Cite book |url=https://www.securitycouncilreport.org/atf/cf/%7B65BFCF9B-6D27-4E9C-8CD3-CF6E4FF96FF9%7D/SOMALIA%20S2008466.pdf |title=Report of the Secretary-General on the situation in Somalia |date=16 July 2008 |publisher=United Nations Security Council}}{{Cite news |date=29 June 2008 |title=الصومال المحاكم الإسلامية تعلن سيطرتها على ثلاث مدن مهمة بالصومال |trans-title=Islamic Courts announce control over three important cities in Somalia |url=https://www.aljazeera.net/news/2008/6/29/%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%AD%D8%A7%D9%83%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A5%D8%B3%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%85%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%AA%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%86-%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%B7%D8%B1%D8%AA%D9%87%D8%A7-%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%89-2 |work=Al Jazeera |language=Arabic}} That month forces loyal to the ICU forces fought the ENDF over Hiiraan region{{Cite news |date=7 July 2008 |title=لمحاكم-تعلن-مقتل-مائة-إثيوبي-في |trans-title=Courts announce the killing of 100 Ethiopians in clashes in central Somalia |url=https://www.aljazeera.net/news/2008/7/5/%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%AD%D8%A7%D9%83%D9%85-%D8%AA%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%86-%D9%85%D9%82%D8%AA%D9%84-%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%A6%D8%A9-%D8%A5%D8%AB%D9%8A%D9%88%D8%A8%D9%8A-%D9%81%D9%8A |work=Al Jazeera |language=Arabic}}{{Cite web |date=2008-07-25 |title=Somalia: Situation Report No. 29 – 25 Jul 2008 {{!}} OCHA |url=https://www.unocha.org/publications/report/somalia/somalia-situation-report-no-29-25-jul-2008 |access-date=2024-01-09 |website=www.unocha.org |language=en}} and fighting continued in the capital.{{Cite news |date=17 July 2008 |title=المحاكم الإسلامية تؤكد مقتل مائة جندي صومالي وإثيوبي |trans-title=Islamic Courts confirm killing of 100 Somali and Ethiopian soldiers |url=https://www.aljazeera.net/news/2008/7/17/%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%AD%D8%A7%D9%83%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A5%D8%B3%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%85%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%AA%D8%A4%D9%83%D8%AF-%D9%85%D9%82%D8%AA%D9%84-%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%A6%D8%A9-%D8%AC%D9%86%D8%AF%D9%8A |work=Al Jazeera |language=Arabic}} The ENDF shelled the western part of Beledweyne with rocket and mortar fire, resulting in an exodus of civilians{{Cite web |last=Xasan |first=Salaad Iidow |date=24 July 2008 |title=Ethiopian Troops Attack Beledweyne |url=http://www.hiiraan.com/news4/2008/July/7391/ethiopian_troops_attack_beledweyne.aspx |access-date=2024-06-19 |website=Hiiraan Online |language=en-US}} and the city saw fierce fighting between Courts fighters and the Ethiopian army in the following weeks.{{Cite news |date=17 August 2008 |title=مواجهات دامية بين المحاكم الإسلامية والقوات الإثيوبية |trans-title=Bloody clashes between Islamic courts and Ethiopian forces |url=https://www.aljazeera.net/news/2008/8/17/%D9%85%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%AC%D9%87%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%85%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%A8%D9%8A%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%AD%D8%A7%D9%83%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A5%D8%B3%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%85%D9%8A%D8%A9 |work=Al Jazeera |language=Arabic}}

File:Somali resistance fighters patrolling in Mogadishu.jpg

During June a faction of the ARS and the TFG signed a ceasefire agreement after months of talks in Djibouti. The agreement was met with resistance from elements within the TFG, chiefly President Abdullahi Yusuf.{{Cite web |date=2008-11-17 |title=TFG on brink of collapse |url=https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/report/81499/somalia-%E2%80%9Ctfg-brink-collapse%E2%80%9D |access-date=2024-05-06 |website=The New Humanitarian |language=en}} The Djibouti Peace Process called for the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops from Somalia. During June 2008 the ICU publicly declared it would continue its attacks on ENDF/TFG bases{{Cite web |date=15 June 2008 |title=ICU Spokesman: We Will Continue Attacks on Ethiopian and Somali Military Bases |url=http://www.hiiraan.com/news4/2008/Jun/7019/icu_spokesman_we_will_continue_attacks_on_ethiopian_and_somali_military_bases.aspx |access-date=2024-06-19 |website=Hiiraan Online |language=en-US}} and a new Islamic court was opened in Jowhar.{{Cite web |title=allAfrica.com: Somalia: Islamic Court Opened Near Mogadishu (Page 1 of 1) |url=http://allafrica.com/stories/200806020030.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121004051233/http://allafrica.com/stories/200806020030.html |archive-date=October 4, 2012 |access-date=June 11, 2008}} At the time the TFG was crippled by infighting and largely under the control of warlords as insurgent attacks worsened by the day.{{Cite web |last1=Albadri |first1=Abukar |last2=Sanders |first2=Edmund |date=2008-06-01 |title=Somalia teeters on brink of breakdown |url=https://www.inquirer.com/philly/news/nation_world/20080601_Somalia_teeters_on_brink_of_breakdown.html |access-date=2024-07-26 |website=The Philadelphia Inquirer |language=en}}

By mid-2008, President Yusuf had lost all the support he had accumulated in the international community. His primary backer, Ethiopia, had also become tired of the TFG president only offering military answers to serious political issues.{{Cite book |last=Hoehn |first=Markus Virgil |url=https://riftvalley.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Between-Somaliland-and-Puntland-by-Markus-Hoehne-RVI-Contested-Borderlands-2015.pdf |title=Between Somaliland and Puntland: Marginalization, militarization and conflicting political visions |publisher=Rift Valley Institute |year=2018 |pages=75–76 |quote=By mid-2008, Cabdulaahi Yuusuf had also lost any support he had accumulated in the international community. Ethiopia, too, was fed up with a Somali president who only came up with military solutions for political problems. The Puntland troops supporting the president had suffered heavy casualties in Mogadishu.}} Many members of the ICU and other resistance factions such as Al-Shabaab were alienated by Sharif Sheikh Ahmed’s conduct during the Djibouti negotiations, particularly after he signed the peace deal without consulting field commanders-despite the continued presence of Ethiopian troops. ICU personnel in Mogadishu during this period viewed Sharif's behavior as unprincipled.{{Cite book |last=Samatar |first=Abdi Ismail |url=https://books.google.ca/books/about/Framing_Somalia.html?id=EXYOzwEACAAJ&source=kp_book_description&redir_esc=y |title=Framing Somalia |date=2022 |publisher=Red Sea Press |isbn=978-1-56902-789-9 |pages=146, 157 |language=en}}

As the insurgency gained most of the territory that had been lost by the Islamic Courts Union during December 2006 and January 2007, fractures began appearing between the different insurgent factions over the Djibouti Agreement. In Beledweyne and Jalalaqsi, the insurgents in power distanced themselves from both al-Shabaab and the ARS. Al-Shabaab was estimated to be 2,000 strong by the AU during 2008,{{Cite web |last=Williams |first=Paul D. |date=2024-04-30 |title=The Somali National Army Versus al-Shabaab: A Net Assessment |url=https://ctc.westpoint.edu/the-somali-national-army-versus-al-shabaab-a-net-assessment/ |access-date=2024-05-04 |website=Combating Terrorism Center at West Point |language=en-US}} an increase from several hundred at the end of 2006.

During Autumn of 2008, the insurgency controlled more than 80% of the territory that had been previously lost in the invasion. As the situation rapidly deteriorated for the military occupation in mid-2008, Ethiopian troops started experiencing desertions. The ENDF began to draw down its forces deployed in Mogadishu and across towns in Somalia. The occupation had a 'corrosive effect' on the ENDF and the Somalia deployment was viewed as a hardship post.{{Cite news |last=Middleton |first=Roger |date=2008-12-02 |title=Ethiopia's Somalia dilemma |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7760271.stm |access-date=2024-05-29 |work=Chatham House |language=en-GB |agency=BBC News}} Ethiopian troops sustained heavy casualties in the war before the Djibouti Peace Process called for their withdrawal. More than 80% of TFG military and security forces, nearly 15,000 personnel, deserted the government by the end of 2008.{{Cite news |date=2008-12-12 |title='Thousands' desert Somalia forces |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7779525.stm |access-date=2024-05-06 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}} The remaining TFG forces suffered from low morale and also experienced desertions, with many troops continually selling their weapons at local arms markets; only for the weapons to come into the hands of insurgents. During September 2008 fierce battles raged between the insurgency and ENDF in the capital.{{Cite news |date=2008-09-22 |title=Carnage in Somali market shelling |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7628794.stm |access-date=2024-03-09 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}

By October 2008, virtually all opposition groups in the Ethiopian parliament had come to the consensus that the ENDF should be withdrawn from Somalia.{{Cite web |date=2008-10-27 |title=Unified Ethiopian Opposition Seeks Troop Withdrawal From Somalia |url=https://www.voanews.com/a/a-13-2008-10-02-voa39-66601417/556058.html |access-date=2023-11-12 |website=Voice of America |language=en}} On 26 October, a ceasefire agreement was signed between the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia and the TFG. It was to go into effect on 5 November.{{Cite web |last1=Mohamed Guled |first1=Abdinasir |last2=Amiin |first2=Mohammed |last3=Ahmed |first3=Amir |date=23 November 2008 |title=Ethiopian troops remain in Somali capital |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/11/23/ethiopia.somalia.troops/index.html?iref=newssearch |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110129092541/https://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/11/23/ethiopia.somalia.troops/index.html?iref=newssearch |archive-date=29 Jan 2011 |access-date=2024-09-03 |website=CNN}}

File:Ethiopian officer and TFG soldiers surrendering to Islamic Courts insurgents in Mogadishu.webm officer and TFG soldiers defecting to ICU fighters in Mogadishu (7 Sep 2008){{Cite news |date=7 September 2008 |title=7 Somali soldiers, Ethiopian officer defect to insurgency |url=http://www.garoweonline.com:80/artman2/publish/Somalia_27/7_Somalia_soldiers_Ethiopia_officer_defect_to_insurgency.shtml |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080913145358/http://www.garoweonline.com:80/artman2/publish/Somalia_27/7_Somalia_soldiers_Ethiopia_officer_defect_to_insurgency.shtml |archive-date=13 Sep 2008 |work=Garowe Online}}]]

By November 2008, insurgency had effectively won. The majority of south and central Somalia, along with the capital was now under the control of Islamist factions. Ethiopia had redeployed much of its army out of Somalia by the end of the year. The success of the insurgents largely represented ordinary Somalis desire to see an end to the anarchy and occupation, as the TFG was dysfunctional. That same month, ICU insurgents controlled the cities of Jowhar and Beledweyne.{{Cite news |last=Gettleman |first=Jeffrey |date=2008-11-13 |title=Islamists Continue Advance Through Somalia |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/14/world/africa/14somalia.html |access-date=2024-05-29 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331 |quote=...other parts of Somalia such as Beledweyne on the Ethiopian border, and Giohar, north of Mogadishu are now falling under the control of a more moderate insurgent group, the Islamic Courts Union. This group receives strong support...}} The TFG lost control of the vital port city Merca when the city fell to the insurgency. Al-Shabaab was consolidating a string of military successes and soon began threatening Mogadishu. On 14 November Shabaab forces pushed only 15 km from Mogadishu near ENDF troops positions. Other insurgent factions, such as the Islamic Courts captured towns such as Elas, only 16 km away from the capital.{{Cite web |date=2008-11-15 |title=Somali Islamists emboldened, eyes on capital |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna27724093 |access-date=2024-01-09 |website=NBC News |language=en}} Despite the Ethiopian presence in Mogadishu, by November 2008 insurgents openly walked on the streets.

By the end of 2008, al-Shabaab had emerged as one Somalia's most dominant insurgent factions, eclipsing the influence of the Islamic Courts. Some foreign diplomats feared that al-Shabaab would wage an all out war against other insurgents following the Ethiopian withdrawal.{{Cite web |last=Fletcher |first=Martin |author-link=Martin Fletcher (TV reporter) |date=18 Nov 2008 |title=How the War on Terror pushed Somalia into the arms of al-Qaeda |url=https://www.hiiraan.com/op2/2008/nov/how_the_war_on_terror_pushed_somalia_into_the_arms_of_al_qaeda.aspx |access-date=2024-08-05 |website=Hiiraan Online |agency=The Times}} In October 2008, fighters loyal to the Islamic Courts Union and al-Shabaab fought each other in Balad. By the end of 2008, while al-Shabaab had gained substantial popularity for its fight against the Ethiopians, much of the Somali public that once supported the group had grown disillusioned due to its increasingly heavy-handed tactics.File:Ethiopian military truck destroyed by Somali insurgents in Mogadishu.webp in Mogadishu destroyed in an ambush while resupplying besieged troops (22 Nov 2008)]]

Mired by infighting, the TFG was once again on the brink of collapse. President Abdullahi Yusuf admitted that the country was slipping to the insurgency and "raised the prospect his government could completely collapse." Ethiopia announced it would withdraw its troops from Somalia by the end of 2008 on 28 November.

After long talks in Djibouti over a ceasefire between the TFG and the Alliance for the Reliberation of Somalia, agreement was reached in late November that parliament be doubled in size to include 200 representatives of the ARS along with 75 representatives of the civil society.{{cite news |date=November 26, 2008 |title=Somali parliament to be doubled |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7751090.stm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081208233957/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7751090.stm |archive-date=December 8, 2008 |access-date=2010-05-27 |work=BBC News}} A new president and prime minister would be elected by the new parliament, and a commission to look into crimes of war would be established.{{cite web |date=November 26, 2008 |title=Somali gov't, opposition sign power-sharing deal – People's Daily Online |url=http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90855/6541282.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091102042623/http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90855/6541282.html |archive-date=November 2, 2009 |access-date=2011-07-09 |publisher=English.people.com.cn}} A new constitution was also agreed to be drafted.{{cite web |title=Daily Nation – Somali MPs accept terms |url=http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/485996/-/tlij7p/-/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723135344/http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/485996/-/tlij7p/-/ |archive-date=July 23, 2011 |access-date=2011-07-09 |publisher=Nation.co.ke}} The International Crisis Group issued a statement declaring that, despite the international community's reluctance to engage with the Islamist opposition, the only viable path to stabilizing the security situation was to reach out and engage directly with its leaders.{{Cite web |last= |date=24 December 2008 |title=Think-tank calls to involve Somali Islamists in political process |url=https://sudantribune.com/article29555/ |access-date=2024-09-03 |website=Sudan Tribune |language=en-US}}

In December 2008, the TFG parliament moved to impeach President Abdullahi Yusuf, accusing him of being a dictator and an obstacle to peace.{{Cite news |date=2008-12-29 |title=Profile: Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3732020.stm |access-date=2024-05-04 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}} After TFG prime minister Nur Hassan had blamed Yusuf for the TFG's failures, Yusuf had fired him without the required approval of parliament.{{Cite web |date=14 December 2008 |title=Somali president sacks government |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2008/12/14/somali-president-sacks-government |access-date=2024-09-03 |website=Al Jazeera |language=en}} The TFG once again found itself based largely out of Baidoa and the African Union released a statement declaring the insurgency controlled most the country.{{Cite web |date=23 December 2008 |title=Ethiopia set for Somalia pull out |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2008/12/23/ethiopia-set-for-somalia-pull-out |access-date=2024-09-03 |website=Al Jazeera |language=en}} That month President Yusuf resigned after stating that he had lost control of the country to Islamist insurgents. African Union troops began discussing withdrawing from Somalia and requested the Ethiopians help them quit Mogadishu as well.{{Cite news |last=Tadesse |first=Tsegaye |date=11 December 2008 |title=Ethiopia says AU peacekeepers to quit Somalia too |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE4BA3C520081211/?sp=true |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090110145422/https://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE4BA3C520081211/?sp=true |archive-date=10 January 2009 |work=Reuters}} Ethiopian president Meles Zenawi declared the mission had been a success, but the operation had had proved to be effectively futile as the transitional government Ethiopia had backed during the war found itself completely powerless in the lead up to the ENDF withdrawal.{{Cite web |last=Dickinson |first=Elizabeth |date=12 December 2008 |title=Somalia's coming anarchy |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2008/12/11/somalias-coming-anarchy/ |url-access=subscription |access-date=2024-09-03 |website=Foreign Policy |language=en-US |quote=Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has declared Ethiopia's peace-producing mission accomplished. Mission futile would be more accurate.}}

{{Main|2009 timeline of the War in Somalia}}

The TFG failed to make any meaningful impact on the ground during is tenure and presided over one of the bloodiest periods in modern Somali history.{{Cite news |last=Rice |first=Xan |date=2008-12-29 |title=Somali president resigns amid power struggle |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/dec/29/somali-president-resigns |access-date=2024-09-23 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}} During January 2009, the first Transitional Federal Government collapsed and al-Shabaab overran the seat of the government in Baidoa.{{Cite web |last=Thompkins |first=Gwen |date=29 January 2009 |title=Somali Government In Exile; Islamists Take Over |url=https://www.npr.org/2009/01/29/99995400/somali-government-in-exile-islamists-take-over |website=National Public Radio |quote=this week, the transitional government collapsed completely. A group of radical Islamist fighters overran the seat of government in the town of Baidoa}} ENDF troops withdrew out of Somalia that month, ending the Ethiopian military occupation, and former Islamic Courts Union leader Sharif Sheikh Ahmed was elected as the 7th president of Somalia at the end of January.

Early during December 2008, Ethiopia announced it would withdraw its troops from Somalia shortly, and but later stated that it would first help secure the withdrawal of the AMISOM peacekeepers from Burundi and Uganda before withdrawing. The quick withdrawal of the AMISOM peacekeepers was seen as putting additional pressure on the United Nations to provide peacekeeping.{{cite web |date=December 24, 2008 |title=Ethiopia to pullout Somalia after guarantying safe departure of AU troops – PM |url=http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article29559 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131004221844/http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article29559 |archive-date=October 4, 2013 |access-date=2011-07-09 |publisher=SudanTribune article}}

On 12 January 2009, the last ENDF troops departed from Mogadishu, ending the two year long occupation of the capital. Thousands of residents came to Mogadishu Stadium to cheer the withdrawal, and for a period of time the city remained quiet as rivaling insurgent factions cooperated.{{Cite news |date=2009-01-16 |title=Thousands cheer Ethiopia pull-out |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7833250.stm |access-date=2024-03-09 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}} The Ethiopian occupation mostly failed. By the time of the withdrawal, the TFG possessed control over only a few streets and buildings in Mogadishu with the rest of the city coming under control of Islamist factions, particularly Shabaab. The withdrawal of Ethiopian troops sapped al-Shabaab of the widespread support it had enjoyed from civilians and across clan lines during the occupation. The groups significant support from the Somali diaspora dwindled in response to the usage of terror tactics.{{Cite web |last=Hummel |first=Kristina |date=2024-04-30 |title=The Somali National Army Versus al-Shabaab: A Net Assessment |url=https://ctc.westpoint.edu/the-somali-national-army-versus-al-shabaab-a-net-assessment/ |access-date=2024-06-30 |website=Combating Terrorism Center at West Point |language=en-US}} However, the withdrawal came too late to have a substantial impact on the al-Shabaab's transformation into a formidable oppositional force.{{Cite journal |last=Mueller |first=Jason C. |date=2018-01-02 |title=The Evolution of Political Violence: The Case of Somalia's Al-Shabaab |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09546553.2016.1165213 |url-status=live |journal=Terrorism and Political Violence |language=en |volume=30 |issue=1 |pages=116–141 |doi=10.1080/09546553.2016.1165213 |issn=0954-6553 |s2cid=148494845 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240105203629/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09546553.2016.1165213 |archive-date=January 5, 2024 |access-date=December 28, 2023}}File:Political situation in Somalia following the Ethiopian withdrawal.png

After the parliament took in 200 officials from the 'moderate' Islamist opposition, ARS leader Sharif Sheikh Ahmed was elected TFG President on January 31, 2009.{{cite news |date=January 31, 2009 |title=Moderate Islamist picked as Somali president |url=http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/01/31/somalia.election.president/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090202115625/http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/01/31/somalia.election.president/ |archive-date=February 2, 2009 |access-date=2011-07-09 |publisher=CNN}} Al Shabaab rejected any peace deal and continued to take territories, including Baidoa. Another Islamist group, Ahlu Sunna Waljama'a, which is allied to the TFG and supported by Ethiopia, continued to attack al-Shabaab.{{cite web |date=January 29, 2009 |title=Moderate Islamists seize town from Somali insurgents |url=http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/africa/news/article_1456455.php/Moderate_Islamists_seize_town_from_Somali_insurgents_ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100731075516/http://monstersandcritics.com/news/africa/news/article_1456455.php/Moderate_Islamists_seize_town_from_Somali_insurgents_ |archive-date=July 31, 2010 |access-date=2011-07-09 |publisher=Monstersandcritics.com}}{{cite web |title=Ahlu Suna Wal Jamea supported by Ethiopian government |url=http://ethioforum.org/wp/archives/759 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090213185644/http://ethioforum.org/wp/archives/759 |archive-date=February 13, 2009 |access-date=2011-07-09 |publisher=Ethioforum.org}}{{cite web |title=Moderate Islamic group claims victory over rival hardline group |url=http://www.mareeg.com/fidsan.php?sid=10277&tirsan=3 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120903230631/http://www.mareeg.com/fidsan.php?sid=10277&tirsan=3 |archive-date=September 3, 2012 |access-date=2011-07-09 |publisher=Mareeg.com}} Al-Shabaab accused the new TFG President of accepting the secular transitional government and have continued the civil war since he arrived in Mogadishu at the presidential palace.{{cite news |last=Sheikh |first=Abdi |date=February 7, 2009 |title=Rebels target new president |url=http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-37897920090207 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090414190852/http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-37897920090207 |archive-date=April 14, 2009 |access-date=2011-07-09 |publisher=In.reuters.com}}

Islamist insurgents, ENDF troops, TFG forces, AMISOM forces, and other involved parties in the conflict sustained considerable casualties. The true extent of these losses remains uncertain, primarily due to a lack of transparency from the involved parties and a dearth of reporting on casualties.

Ethiopian forces in Somalia sustained heavy casualties{{Cite journal |last1=Albrecht |first1=Peter |last2=Haenlein |first2=Cathy |date=2016-01-02 |title=Fragmented Peacekeeping: The African Union in Somalia |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03071847.2016.1152121 |journal=The RUSI Journal |language=en |volume=161 |issue=1 |pages=50–61 |doi=10.1080/03071847.2016.1152121 |s2cid=155893368 |issn=0307-1847 |quote=Ethiopian troops engaged continually in direct conflict, taking heavy losses before the 2008 Djibouti Peace Process called for their withdrawal}}{{Cite news |date=2012-01-06 |title=Somalia: Ethiopian troops 'to hand over to AU force' |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-16441240 |access-date=2023-10-27}} but the extent and figure of losses remain uncertain, primarily due to censorship on the war enforced by the Ethiopian government from 2006 to 2009. In early 2007, NBC News reported that in Addis Ababa, a blackout of information regarding the war prevailed. Opposition groups in the Ethiopian Parliament to the ruling TPLF were never informed on the number of soldiers who had been killed in Somalia, a policy which the TPLF continued until and after the withdrawal.{{Cite web |last=McCrummen |first=Stephanie |date=27 April 2007 |title=Ethiopia finds itself ensnared in Somalia |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna18341745 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221005003737/https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna18341745 |url-status=dead |archive-date=October 5, 2022 |access-date=2023-10-27 |website=NBC News |language=en}} Urban warfare in Mogadishu proved to be especially difficult for the Ethiopian army and caused heavy losses.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qeu9DwAAQBAJ |title=African Standby Force |date=2017 |publisher=African Sun Media |isbn=978-1-928357-57-5 |editor-last=Vrey |editor-first=Francois |page=56 |language=en |editor-last2=Mandrup |editor-first2=Thomas}} Thousands of Ethiopian troops had been killed during fierce fighting for Mogadishu during 2007. A January 2009 report by an independent regional security agency estimated at least 3,773 Ethiopian troops had died in Somalia since late 2006.{{Cite web |last=Mohamed |first=Abdullahi |date=8 Feb 2009 |title=Ethiopia readying southern Somalia surge against Al-shabab |url=http://www.geeskaafrika.com/ethiopia_08feb09.htm |website=Geeska Afrika|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090414072218/http://www.geeskaafrika.com/ethiopia_08feb09.htm |archive-date=April 14, 2009 }} Al-Shabaab operations between 2007 and 2009 had inflicted over a thousand fatalities on Ethiopian troops.{{Cite book |last=Celso |first=Anthony |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4yDBAgAAQBAJ |title=Al-Qaeda's Post-9/11 Devolution: The Failed Jihadist Struggle Against the Near and Far Enemy |year=2014 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA |isbn=978-1-4411-8042-1 |page=133 |language=en |quote=Al-Shabaabs insurgency and martyrdom operations inflicted considerable casualties on the Ethiopian army with over a thousand of its personnel killed between 2007 and 2009.}} By the end of 2007, ENDF casualties had reached an 'unsustainable level'. Somali witness accounts in Mogadishu estimated a rate of approximately 200 Ethiopian casualties weekly.{{Cite book |last1=Williams |first1=Paul D. |url=http://www.dehai.org/archives/dehai_news_archive/2015/apr/att-0161/Counterinsurgency_in_Somalia-Lessons_Learned_from_the_African_Union_Mission_in_Somalia__2007-2013.pdf |title=Counterinsurgency in Somalia: Lessons Learned from the African Union Mission in Somalia, 2007–2013 |last2=E. Bruton |first2=Bronwyn |publisher=Joint Special Operations University |year=2014 |pages=11, 94}} Independent experts claimed the ENDF casualty rate was around 100 troops a week by the end of the occupation. Estimates of losses are further complicated by the practice of ENDF troops in Somalia routinely disguising themselves in Somali TFG uniforms to conceal their presence.{{Cite book |last1=Bruton |first1=Bronwyn |url=https://cdn.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/issues/2011/09/pdf/somalia.pdf |title=Twenty Years of Collapse and Counting The Cost of Failure in Somalia |last2=Norris |first2=John |publisher=Center for American Progress |year=2011 |page=29}} Shortly after the January 2009 withdrawal, Meles Zenawi publicly declined to disclose the number of ENDF casualties incurred during the occupation, stating on national television:

''...regarding the details on those killed or wounded in Somalia, I think the House does not need to know about how many were killed or wounded...I also think that I do not have an obligation to present such report."{{Cite news |date=19 March 2009 |title=Ethiopia premier says army went to Somalia to foil Eritrean 'conspiracy' |work=Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation |agency=BBC Worldwide}}

Ethiopian troops and Transitional Federal Government forces committed serious human rights abuses and war crimes, including murder, rape, assault, and looting. In the December 2008 report 'So much to Fear' Human Rights Watch warned that since the ENDF had invaded Somalia was facing a humanitarian catastrophe on a scale not witnessed since the early 1990s. They went on to accuse the TFG of terrorizing the citizens of Mogadishu and the ENDF for increasing violent criminality.{{cite journal |last1=Albin-Lackey |first1=Christopher |date=12 August 2008 |title=So Much to Fear: War Crimes and Devastation in Somalia |url=https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/somalia1208webwcover.pdf |journal=Human Rights Watch}} Amnesty International stated testimony it had received during the conflict suggested all parties had committed war crimes, but that Ethiopian troops were the worst violators.{{Cite news |date=2008-05-06 |title=Ethiopian soldiers accused of war crimes in Somalia |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/06/world/africa/06iht-somalia.1.12610349.html |access-date=2025-01-05 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} The ENDF and allied militia in Somalia were accused of crimes against humanity as the conflict became one of the worst humanitarian crises in the Africa. Ethiopian forces utilized white phosphorus munitions in residential areas of Mogadishu, resulting in civilian fatalities. By November 2007, the figure of displaced from the war topped one million. Around 600,000 people had fled from Mogadishu alone, accounting for 60% percent of the capital's population.

Under the command of Colonel Gabre Heard, nicknamed 'Butcher of Mogadishu', soldiers from the Tigrayan Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF) participating in the occupation routinely bombed civilian areas and killed thousands.{{Cite web |last=Osman |first=Jamal |date=2021-05-27 |title=TPLF loyalists should understand that selective justice is injustice |url=https://www.fanabc.com/english/tplf-loyalists-should-understand-that-selective-justice-is-injustice/ |access-date=2024-08-19 |website=Fana Broadcasting Corporate |language=en-US |quote=In Somalia, nicknamed as the butcher of Mogadishu, General Gebre and his TPLF soldiers killed tens of thousands of civilians.}} Reports of atrocities by forces under his command have made him infamous in Somalia. Ethiopian troops engaged in extensive wartime sexual violence, acts of looting and murder. American reporters touring rural Somalia reported that in village after village, locals had described a reign of terror by the Ethiopian army.{{Cite book |last=Polk |first=William R. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/982652240 |title=Crusade and jihad: the thousand-year war between the Muslim world and the global north |date=2018 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-22290-6 |series=The Henry L. Stimson lectures |location=New Haven ; London |pages=458–461 |oclc=982652240}} Amnesty International accused the Ethiopian National Defence Force of increasingly engaging in throat-slitting executions of Somalis during early 2008,{{Cite web |date=6 May 2008 |title=Ethiopian troops cut throats in Somalia: Amnesty |url=http://www.hiiraan.com/news4/2008/May/6572/ethiopian_troops_cut_throats_in_somalia_amnesty.aspx |access-date=2024-06-19 |website=Hiiraan Online |language=en-US |agency=Agence France-Presse}} including on children in front of their parents. One of the most notorious incidents was on April 19, 2008, when Ethiopian soldiers committed the al-Hidaya Mosque massacre.{{Cite news |date=2008-04-21 |title=Clerics killed in Somali mosque |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7358198.stm |access-date=2022-03-23 |language=en-GB}} After attacks on civilian areas in Mogadishu during 2007, European lawyers considered whether funding for Ethiopia and TFG made the EU complicit in war crimes, the deliberations of which were never made public.{{Cite news |last=Rice |first=Xan |date=2007-04-07 |title=EU given war crime warning over Somalia aid |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/apr/07/eu.warcrimes |access-date=2024-06-20 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}{{Cite web |last=Bloomfield |first=Steve |title=Call for inquiry into US role in Somalia |url=http://www.hiiraan.com/news4/2008/May/6579/call_for_inquiry_into_us_role_in_somalia.aspx |access-date=2024-06-20 |website=Hiiraan Online |language=en-US |agency=The Independent}} Ethiopian PM Meles Zenawi publicly dismissed reports of war crimes from the international media and human rights groups as a 'smear campaign' against the ENDF in Somalia.{{Cite web |last=Heinlein |first=Peter |title=Ethiopia PM Charges 'Smear Campaign' Against Troops in Somalia |url=http://www.hiiraan.com/news4/2008/May/6747/ethiopia_pm_charges_smear_campaign_against_troops_in_somalia.aspx |access-date=2024-06-19 |website=Hiiraan Online |language=en-US |agency=Voice of America}}

In December 2008, the Elman Peace and Human Rights Organisation said it had verified that 16,210 civilians had been killed and 29,000 wounded since the start of the war in December 2006.{{cite news |date=December 11, 2008 |title=Sharif back in Mogadishu as death toll hits 16,210 |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE4B943G20081211?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews |work=Reuters}} In 2024 the Somali governments Foreign Minister accused the Ethiopian army of killing 20,000 civilians.{{Cite news |last=Maalim |first=Mohamed |date=22 August 2024 |title=Somali FM accuses Ethiopia of killing over 20,000 civilians during 2007-2008 invasion |url=https://somalisignal.com/somali-fm-accuses-ethiopia-of-killing-over-20000-civilians-during-2007-2008-invasion/#:~:text=News-,Somali%20FM%20accuses%20Ethiopia%20of%20killing,civilians%20during%202007-2008%20invasion&text=Somalia's%20Foreign%20Minister%2C%20Ahmed%20Moalim,of%20Somalia%20in%202007-2008. |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240824043201/https://somalisignal.com/somali-fm-accuses-ethiopia-of-killing-over-20000-civilians-during-2007-2008-invasion/#:~:text=News-,Somali%20FM%20accuses%20Ethiopia%20of%20killing,civilians%20during%202007%2D2008%20invasion&text=Somalia's%20Foreign%20Minister%2C%20Ahmed%20Moalim,of%20Somalia%20in%202007%2D2008. |archive-date=24 August 2024 |work=Somali Signal}}{{Cite web |date=2020-06-30 |title=Ethiopian troops unwelcome to Somalia, they killed 20,000 citizens – FM |url=https://www.garoweonline.com/en/news/somalia/ethiopian-troops-unwelcome-to-somalia-they-killed-20-000-citizens-fm |access-date=2024-08-29 |website=Garowe Online |language=en}} The Ogaden National Liberation Front accused the ENDF of hunting down Somalis from the Ogaden clan and Oromos residing in Somalia for arbitrary detention and executions during the military occupation.

By the end of the occupation, the majority of the territory seized from the Islamic Courts Union during the December 2006 and January 2007 invasion had fallen under the control of various Islamist and nationalist resistance groups. The invasion failed to empower the Transitional Federal Government, which only controlled parts of Mogadishu and its original 2006 capital of Baidoa by the last weeks of the military occupation. The Ethiopian army withdrew from Somalia with significant casualties and little to show for their efforts.{{Cite news |date=11 January 2012 |title=Ethiopia Invades Somalia In Fight Against Al-Shabab |url=https://www.npr.org/2012/01/11/145046988/ethiopia-invades-somalia-in-fight-against-al-shabab |work=NPR}} The insurgency had achieved its primary goal of removing the Ethiopian military presence from most of Somalia by November 2008 and was successful in achieving several of its most important demands.{{Cite book |last1=Besenyő |first1=János |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lOpv0AEACAAJ |title=Terrorism and Political Contention: New Perspectives on North Africa and the Sahel Region |last2=Issaev |first2=Leonid |last3=Korotayev |first3=Andrey |date=2024-04-03 |publisher=Springer Nature Switzerland |isbn=978-3-031-53428-7 |page=376 |language=en |chapter=Revolutionary and Quasi-Revolutionary Events in Somalia (1960–2023) |quote=...the revolutionary insurgency of the Islamic Courts Union finally turned out to be more or less successful, as its members finally managed to get a considerable degree of power in the country and to implement some of their most important demands.}}

During 2007 and 2008, Somalia plunged into severe levels of armed conflict, marked by frequent assassinations, political meltdown, radicalization, and the growth of an intense anti-American sentiment. The situation in the country exceeded the worst-case scenarios envisioned by many regional analysts when they first considered the potential impact of an Ethiopian military occupation. A Royal Institute of International Affairs report observed that Ethiopian/American support for the TFG instead of the more popular Islamic Courts administration presented an obstacle, not contribution, to the reconstruction of Somalia.{{Cite news |last=McGreal |first=Chris |last2= |first2= |date=2007-04-27 |title=Thousands flee as shelling by Ethiopian tanks kills hundreds of civilians in Somali capital |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/apr/27/warcrimes |access-date=2024-08-09 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}} For the Americans the invasion had resulted in nearly the complete opposite of what had been expected, as it had failed to isolate the Islamic movement while solidifying Somali anger to both the United States and Ethiopia. The result of the invasion had been the defeat of Somali Islamists considered to be 'moderate' while strengthening the movements most radical elements. In 2010, US ambassador to Ethiopia Donald Yamamoto stated that the Ethiopian invasion had been a mistake and "not a really good idea".{{Cite web |last=Sahra |first=Mohamud |date=2010-03-12 |title=Ethiopian Invasion of Somalia, a Debacle U.S. Official says |url=https://mshale.com/2010/03/12/ethiopian-invasion-of-somalia-a-debacle-u-s-official-says/ |access-date=2024-08-25 |website=Mshale |language=en-US}} By the US military's own metrics, the war in Somalia was never effectively prosecuted. A 2007 study commissioned by United States Department of Defense warned that American participation in the war was, "...plagued by a failure to define the parameters of the conflict or its aims; an overemphasis on military measures without a clear definition of the optimal military strategy;"{{Cite web |last=Turse |first=Nick |date=2024-03-07 |title=Who Could Have Predicted the U.S. War in Somalia Would Fail? The Pentagon. |url=https://theintercept.com/2024/03/07/pentagon-somalia-africa-terrorism-failure/ |access-date=2024-07-27 |website=The Intercept |language=en-US}} According to the Conciliation Resources report titled 'Endless War':{{cite web |last1=Bradbury |first1=Mark |last2=Healy |first2=Sally |date=February 2010 |title=Endless War |url=https://www.c-r.org/accord/somalia/endless-war-brief-history-somali-conflict |website=Conciliation Resources |publisher=Accord}}

Military occupation, a violent insurgency, rising jihadism, and massive population displacement has reversed the incremental political and economic progress achieved by the late 1990s in south-central Somalia. With 1.3 million people displaced by fighting since 2006, 3.6 million people in need of emergency food aid, and 60,000 Somalis a year fleeing the country, the people of south-central Somalia face the worst humanitarian crisis since the early 1990s.

As the ENDF withdrew from Somalia, tensions between the differing resistance factions exacerbated. By the end of 2008, most elements of the pre-invasion Islamic Courts had merged into one of the two wings of the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia or had joined al-Shabaab. Some Islamic factions continued operating under the ICU banner into 2009 and tended to support the new TFG government led by Sharif Ahmed, which described the ICU groups as the governments 'paramilitary'.{{Cite book |last=McGregor |first=Andrew |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TZ0_RQAACAAJ |title=Who's who in the Somali Insurgency: A Reference Guide |date=2009 |publisher=Jamestown Foundation |isbn=978-0-615-33338-0 |page=22 |language=en}}

Al-Shabaab was particularly empowered by the occupation, as it established itself as an independent resistance faction in early 2007. The group became battle hardened over the next two years and notably began governing territory for the first time in 2008. In effect the invasion had morphed al-Shabaab from a fringe movement to a dominant insurgent political force.{{Cite news |last=Bruton |first=Bronwyn |date=2009-11-01 |title=In the Quicksands of Somalia |url=https://www.foreignaffairs.com/somalia/quicksands-somalia |access-date=2024-07-25 |work=Foreign Affairs |language=en-US |volume=88 |issue=6 |issn=0015-7120 |quote=Al Qaeda is now a more sophisticated and dangerous creature, but its current foothold in Somalia appears to be largely the product of the West's latest interference. In fact, the terrorist threat posed by Somalia has grown in proportion to the intrusiveness of international policies toward the country. Al Shabab metamorphosed from a fringe movement opposed to the foreign-backed TFG into a full-blown political insurgency only after the U.S.-supported Ethiopian invasion.}} Instead of eliminating 'Jihadist' activity in Somalia, the Ethiopian invasion had the effect of creating more 'Jihadis' than had existed in the country before. By the time of the ENDF withdrawal, al-Shabaab's forces had grown significantly in numbers, swelling from just six hundred to several thousand fighters strong since the invasion began. After the killing of the group's leader Aden Hashi Ayro in 2008, al-Shabaab began publicly courting Osama bin Laden in a bid to become part of al-Qaeda, but was rebuffed by bin Laden. Several months after the ENDF withdrawal, Foreign Affairs noted that al-Qaeda's foothold in Somalia post-occupation was in significant part the result of the invasion. Following the killing of Osama bin Laden in 2011, al-Shabaab pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda in 2012.

A sharp increase in radical recruitment in Somali diaspora in Europe and the United States since 2007 has been linked with the overthrow of the ICU and the Ethiopian military occupation.{{Cite book |last1=Rabasa |first1=Angel |title=Eurojihad |last2=Benard |first2=Cheryl |date=2015 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-07893-2 |page=83 |language=en}} This resulted in the first ever American suicide bomber carrying out an attack in Somalia in October 2008.{{Cite news |last=Bruton |first=Bronwyn |date=2009-11-01 |title=In the Quicksands of Somalia |url=https://www.foreignaffairs.com/somalia/quicksands-somalia |access-date=2024-07-25 |work=Foreign Affairs |language=en-US |volume=88 |issue=6 |issn=0015-7120}} During 2008 there were an estimated 100 foreign fighters in Somalia, a figure which increased to 450 the next year as al-Shabaab gained strength. In 2024, Somalia's Minister of Justice Hassan Mo'allin Mohamoud publicly stated the wave of terrorism the country is experiencing was the 'direct result' of the 2006 invasion.{{Cite web |last=Al-Khatib |first=Anwar |date=16 March 2024 |title=وزير العدل الصومالي: السياسة الإثيوبية تجاه الصومال ستشعل المنطقة |url=https://www.alaraby.co.uk/politics/%D9%88%D8%B2%D9%8A%D8%B1-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%AF%D9%84-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B5%D9%88%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%8A-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A5%D8%AB%D9%8A%D9%88%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%AA%D8%AC%D8%A7%D9%87-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B5%D9%88%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%84-%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%B4%D8%B9%D9%84-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D9%86%D8%B7%D9%82%D8%A9 |access-date= |website=The New Arab |language=ar}}

{{Main|Piracy off the coast of Somalia}}

Attacks off the Somali coast were suppressed by anti-piracy operations carried out by the Islamic Courts Union's coast guard during 2006. Following the ICUs overthrow, incidents of pirate attack rapidly proliferated during 2007 and 2008.{{Cite web |last=Maliti |first=Tom |date=17 October 2007 |title=Piracy Off Somalia's Coast Increases |url=http://www.hiiraan.com/comments2-news-2007-oct-piracy_off_somalia_s_coast_increases.aspx |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101207075424/http://www.hiiraan.com/comments2-news-2007-oct-piracy_off_somalia_s_coast_increases.aspx |archive-date=7 December 2010 |website=Hiiraan Online |agency=Associated Press}} Top personnel in the Seafarers' Assistance Programme reported that elements of the TFG and Puntland governments were involved in piracy due to lucrative profits. As the Ethiopian army was being driven from southern and central Somalia by the insurgency, ENDF military bases provided safe havens for Somali pirates who had secured large ransoms; in return for cash payments from the pirates.{{Cite book |last=Mentan |first=Tatah |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ALaX22MxDSEC |title=The New World Order Ideology and Africa: Understanding and Appreciating Ambiguity, Deceit and Recapture of Decolonized Spaces in 21st Century Historical Argument and Presentation |date=2010 |publisher=African Books Collective |isbn=978-9956-578-61-0 |pages=111 |language=en}}

{{Main|Somali Civil War (2009–present)}}

After Sharif Ahmed had become president at the end of January 2009, the remaining ICU groups, supporters of the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia and other insurgent/opposition elements effectively disappeared as members from the organizations merged into new organizations that aligned with their views. Those who did not join the Sharifs government either joined the newly formed Hizbul Islam (Islamic Party), which had formed through a merger of several insurgent groups, or al-Shabaab. Mediation had begun between the newly formed Hizbul Islam and the new Transitional Government of led Sharif. A growing divide was reported in the Al Shabaab organization that controls much of southern Somalia as a large number of Al Shabaab leaders who had held positions in government during the six-month reign of the Islamic Courts Union. They had reportedly met behind closed doors with the President of the Transitional Government and the TFG had announced that Sharia law would be implemented in Somalia, but it had not acted on it.{{Cite web |title=allAfrica.com: Somalia: Hawiye Elders Say Mediation Efforts Going Well (Page 1 of 1) |url=http://allafrica.com/stories/200902100035.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121007083035/http://allafrica.com/stories/200902100035.html |archive-date=October 7, 2012 |access-date=February 10, 2009}}{{cite web |author=Derek Kilner |date=February 10, 2009 |title=Somalia's New President Continues Push for Insurgent Support |url=http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-02-10-voa18.cfm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090318043043/http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-02-10-voa18.cfm |archive-date=March 18, 2009 |access-date=2011-07-09 |publisher=Voice of America}}

By 2009, al-Shabaab started drastically altering its choice of targets and frequency of attacks. The use of kidnappings and bombings in urban areas significantly grew in use. The significant support the group had previously enjoyed from the Somali diaspora dwindled in response to the usage of terror tactics. Ethiopia, the TFG's closest ally during 2004 to 2009, had taken the lead in training and integrating a Somali army but failed. Between 2004 and 2008, over 10,000 Ethiopian trained TFG soldiers deserted or defected to the insurgency. When Ethiopian forces withdrew from Somalia in early 2009, the task of forming a new army was given to AMISOM. At this point there was still no meaningful army chain of command.

Despite the withdrawal of most ENDF troops following the 2008 Djibouti Agreement, there has been a continued occupation of Somalia by the Ethiopian army. Two weeks after the January 2009 withdrawal, it was reported that Ethiopian troops had once again crossed the border following the fall of Baidoa to al-Shabaab. Bereket Simon, spokesman for the Ethiopian government, described the reports as fabrications and responded "The army is within the Ethiopian border. There is no intention to go back,"{{Cite web |last=SudanTribune |date=2009-02-04 |title=Ethiopian troops return to Somalia |url=https://sudantribune.com/article29938/ |access-date=2023-10-26 |website=Sudan Tribune |language=en-US}} In late 2011, Ethiopian troops returned to Somalia (coinciding with Kenya's invasion) in large numbers for the first time since their 2009 withdrawal. In 2014 the Ethiopian troops that deployed to a buffer zone in some parts of southern Somalia were integrated into AMISOM. Former head of the ICU, Sharif Sheikh Ahmed continues to campaign for the withdrawal of the occupying Ethiopian forces.{{cite web |date=21 May 2020 |title=Somali parties call for removal of Ethiopian troops, blast "colluding" AU envoy |work=Somali Affairs |url=https://www.somaliaffairs.com/news/somali-parties-call-for-removal-of-ethiopian-troops-blast-colluding-au-envoy/ }} On 13 November 2020 Bloomberg reported that Ethiopia withdrew thousands of troops from Somalia and redeployed them to fight the Tigray War.{{cite web|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-13/ethiopia-withdraws-thousands-of-troops-from-neighboring-somalia|title=Ethiopia Withdraws Thousands of Troops From Neighboring Somalia|publisher=Bloomberg|date=13 November 2020}} In July 2022, as the Tigray War was ongoing, al-Shabaab launched a major incursion into Ethiopia in order to infiltrate the southern Bale Mountains.{{Cite news |last=Hochet-Bodin |first=Noé |date=2022-09-14 |title=Al-Shabab seeks to 'put down roots' in Ethiopia |url=https://www.lemonde.fr/en/le-monde-africa/article/2022/09/14/al-shabaab-seeks-to-put-down-roots-in-ethiopia_5996884_124.html |access-date=2024-07-14 |work=Le Monde |language=en}}

• [https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/somalia1208web.pdf So Much To Fear: War Crimes and the Devastation of Somalia] – Human Rights Watch (December 2008)
• [https://www.hrw.org/reports/2007/somalia0807/somalia0807webwcover.pdf Shell-Shocked Civilians Under Siege in Mogadishu] – Human Rights Watch (August 2007)
• [https://www.amnesty.org/en/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/afr520092008eng.pdf Routinely targeted: Attacks on civilians in Somalia] – Amnesty International (May 2008)
• [https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/eastafrica1008webwcover.pdf "Why Am I Still Here?" The 2007 Horn of Africa Renditions and the Fate of Those Still Missing] – Human Rights Watch (October 2008)
• [https://peacemaker.un.org/sites/peacemaker.un.org/files/SO_080609_Agreement%20between%20the%20TFG%20and%20the%20ARS%20-%20Djibouti%20Agreement.pdf Copy of Djibouti Agreement signed between the ARS and TFG] – (9 June 2008)

• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRQ7weP2ZIA Islamic Courts ready for offensive] – Al Jazeera English report on ICU insurgents in southern Somalia (14 Sep 2007)
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlYNa8B4Fik&t Mohammed Abdullahi Farah Somalia Piece] – Channel 4 report on insurgency in Mogadishu (10 October 2007)
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PtC897qzq4&t Opposition fighters gaining ground in Somalia] – Al Jazeera English report on insurgent advances across the south (31 Aug 2008)
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKQLMhGajqQ&t Lindsey Hilsum Somalia Piece] – Channel 4 report on fighting between Ethiopian troops and insurgents in Mogadishu (3 December 2008)
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_IIoFaDl_s Chaos feared in Somalia as Ethiopians pull back] – Al Jazeera English report on Ethiopian military withdrawal from Somalia (15 Jan 2009)

• {{Cite journal |last=Khayre |first=Ahmed Ali M. |date=21 March 2013 |title=Self-Defence, Intervention by Invitation, or Proxy War? The Legality of the 2006 Ethiopian Invasion of Somalia |journal=African Journal of International and Comparative Law |volume=22 |issue=2 |pages=208–233 |doi=10.3366/ajicl.2014.0090 |eissn=1755-1609 |doi-access=free|ssrn=2236622 }}
• {{Cite book |last=Samatar |first=Abdi Ismail |author-link=Abdi Ismail Samatar |title=Post-Conflict Peace-Building in the Horn of Africa |date=2008 |publisher=Lund University |isbn=978-91-7267-256-7 |chapter=Ethiopian Occupation and American Terror in Somalia |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/ethiopian-occupation-and-american-terror-in-somalia}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Cocodia |first=Jude |date=24 May 2021 |title=Rejecting African Solutions to African Problems: The African Union and the Islamic Courts Union in Somalia |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/19392206.2021.1922026 |journal=African Security |volume=14 |issue=2 |pages=110–131 |doi=10.1080/19392206.2021.1922026 |via=Taylor & Francis}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Mueller |first=Jason C. |date=9 May 2016 |title=The Evolution of Political Violence: The Case of Somalia's Al-Shabaab |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09546553.2016.1165213 |journal=Terrorism and Political Violence |volume=30 |issue=1 |pages=116–141 |doi=10.1080/09546553.2016.1165213 |via=Taylor & Francis |doi-access=}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Civins |first=Braden |date=2010 |title=Ethiopia's intervention in Somalia 2006-2009 |url=https://theyonseijournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Ethiopia%E2%80%99s-Intervention-in-Somalia-2006-2009.pdf |journal=Yonsei Journal of International Studies |volume=2 |issue=2 |pages=121–138}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Samatar |first=Abdi Ismail |author-link=Abdi Ismail Samatar |date=March 2007 |title=Ethiopian Invasion of Somalia, US Warlordism & AU Shame |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20406369 |journal=Review of African Political Economy |volume=34 |issue=111 |pages=155–165 |jstor=20406369 }}

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