Ethiopian warplanes attacked two airfields in Somalia today, witnesses said.
The attacks - one of them on the capital Mogadishu - came after neighboring Ethiopia formally declared war, saying it was protecting its sovereignty against a movement run by terrorists.
A MiG fighter struck Mogadishu's international airport with machine-gun fire, airport managing director Abdirahim Adan said. Three jets later attacked Somalia's biggest military airfield at Baledogle, 100 km west of Mogadishu.
"They are targeting the runway and I can see it being hit," said an Islamist fighter who asked not to be named.
A week of fighting between Islamists and Somalia's Ethiopian- and Western- backed secular government has turned long-running hostilities into open war.
After an initial Islamist assault, analysts say, it seems Ethiopia has prevented the Islamists from achieving their aim of overrunning the interim government.
Addis Ababa and the Washington say the Islamists, who hold most of southern Somalia after seizing Mogadishu in June, are terrorists backed by Ethiopia's enemy, Eritrea, and by al Qaeda.