A mystery cargo plane landed in Somalia's capital Mogadishu on Wednesday and the interim government said it was carrying Eritrean weapon supplies for rival religious group.
Residents reported seeing a medium-sized aircraft with no recognisable markings land at Mogadishu's old international airport and unload large boxes. It was only the second plane to land there since newly-powerful religious group re-opened the airport days ago.
Onlookers and journalists were prevented from entering the area by hundreds of heavily-armed religious militiamen guarding the airport with dozens of battle-wagons.
"The plane was carrying anti-aircraft missiles and other weapons donated by Eritrea to the group," deputy prime minister Ismail Mohamed Hurre told Reuters from Baidoa, provincial base of the fragile transitional government. "We condemn this, it will add more problems to Somalia," he added, without citing evidence for the weapons claim.
Senior leader of religious group - who took Mogadishu from US-backed warlords in June and are in a stand-off with the government that has raised fears of war - declined comment.
But one official, who asked not to be named, said that instead of weapons, the plane had brought "small sewing machines, which were a gift from a friendly country." The United Nations has an arms embargo on Somalia. But it has been ignored for years, and the Horn of Africa nation of 10 million people is awash with light and heavy weaponry.
Ethiopia has repeatedly denied sending soldiers to defend the government, which is based in the small town of Baidoa because it is powerless to move to the capital.
However, UN envoy Francois Lonseny Fall told Reuters on Wednesday that Ethiopian troops were indeed stationed in Baidoa, and another southern town, Wajid. But he dismissed reports of up to 5,000 troops as exaggerated.
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