premise: Meles, who said he had deployed between 3,000 to 4,000 troops, denied the Ethiopian forces planned to take Mogadishu or any other town. UN reports had said Addis Ababa deployed 8,000 troops, while its regional foe Eritrea sent 2,000 to back the Islamists.
  "Liberating towns is not our agenda. Our troops have not entered any town," the prime minister added. Mainly Christian Ethiopia justified its intervention on the grounds that the Islamists represent a direct threat to its own security and sovereignty, and has aligned with Washington in linking their radical leaders with the Al-Qaeda network.
   What led to the intervention from the Christian Ethiopia?
hypothesis: the Islamists represent a direct threat to its own security