Somali Islamists produce video, claim they can shoot down planes
NAIROBI, Kenya: A video showing a masked man firing a surface-to-air missile is circulating in Somalia, making a graphic — though so far unsubstantiated — claim that Islamic insurgents there are capable of shooting down planes.
The video, obtained by The Associated Press on Friday, is available on the streets of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, and is one of several released recently by the insurgents that echo the propaganda tactics of radical Middle Eastern groups. They may serve less to communicate to the world than to rally supporters at a time when the movement has been driven underground by Somalia's government and its Ethiopian military backers.
Somalia's Islamic militants have claimed in the past to have surface-to-air missiles, but never before shown them in a video.
A U.N. panel monitoring Somalia's arms embargo said in a November report that besides the small arms routinely used in Somalia, the Islamic militants have obtained surface-to-air missiles. The report did not specify the type or number the militants were believed to have.
"One should not be surprised that that equipment (surface-to-air missiles) is available" in Somalia, said Bethuel Kiplagat, a Kenyan diplomat who mediated Somalia's peace process between 2003 and 2004.
Al-Qaida leaders have in the past named the Horn of Africa nation as one of the battlefronts for Islamic militants, and Kiplagat said the group "has the capacity and capability of getting such arms."
The AP got the video showing the firing of a surface-to-air missile from a person associated with the Shabab, the militant wing of an Islamic group that ruled much of southern Somalia for six months last year. The group was driven from its strongholds in December but has vowed to launch an Iraq-style insurgency until Somalia is ruled by an Islamic theocracy.
The short video begins with Arabic text saying Islamic fighters were responsible for the March 23 downing of a cargo plane and that they attacked another plane March 9.
Somali government security officials declined to comment on the video or on investigations into what happened to either plane.
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Pertinent Links:
1) Somali Islamists produce video, claim they can shoot down planes
Showing posts with label somalia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label somalia. Show all posts
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Friday, June 15, 2007
DAR AL ISLAM - SOMALIA: WE WANT THE ISLAMIC COURTS BACK
Somalis yearn for Islamic rulers to return and tame the warlords
By Steve Bloomfield
The ruins of the old sugar factory in Marere, in the southern interior of Somalia, tower over the wooden shacks and brick huts which shelter the 2,000 or so people still living here.
This used to be the second-largest sugar factory in the world, employing more than 20,000 people. Now, its rusting steel frame, chimneys and pipes sunk deep into the tall grass provide a painful echo of the wreck which Somalia has become.
Everything worth anything has gone, the scrap metal systematically torn off and shipped to India or old equipment taken by scavengers to be sold off at the market in nearby Jilib.
"Maybe one day someone will rebuild it," said Abdirizak Hassan Moalim, squinting into the sun. The 21-year-old has been living in a village near the sugar factory for two months after fleeing the violence in Somalia's capital Mogadishu. "It needs to be safe here first though," he added.
"There was a chance under the Courts, but now, I don't know." Six months after the fall of Somalia's Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), insecurity has returned to the country.
In this rural district in the south, where in the past 12 months floods have followed drought, the rule of the gun is back. The government has failed to take control, leaving Marere and the surrounding areas in limbo.
The UIC controlled Marere and the neighbouring district of Jilib for just three months at the end of last year. After Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, fell to the government and its Ethiopian allies at the end of December, the Courts melted away.
Local people, from teen-agers to elders, now talk of the brief period of rule by the Islamic Courts in wistful tones. For the first time in a generation, there was a level of security in the district that few had believed was possible. The various clan-based militias which terrorised the region, setting up checkpoints and settling disputes with guns, buried their arms.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Somalis yearn for Islamic rulers to return and tame the warlords
By Steve Bloomfield
The ruins of the old sugar factory in Marere, in the southern interior of Somalia, tower over the wooden shacks and brick huts which shelter the 2,000 or so people still living here.
This used to be the second-largest sugar factory in the world, employing more than 20,000 people. Now, its rusting steel frame, chimneys and pipes sunk deep into the tall grass provide a painful echo of the wreck which Somalia has become.
Everything worth anything has gone, the scrap metal systematically torn off and shipped to India or old equipment taken by scavengers to be sold off at the market in nearby Jilib.
"Maybe one day someone will rebuild it," said Abdirizak Hassan Moalim, squinting into the sun. The 21-year-old has been living in a village near the sugar factory for two months after fleeing the violence in Somalia's capital Mogadishu. "It needs to be safe here first though," he added.
"There was a chance under the Courts, but now, I don't know." Six months after the fall of Somalia's Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), insecurity has returned to the country.
In this rural district in the south, where in the past 12 months floods have followed drought, the rule of the gun is back. The government has failed to take control, leaving Marere and the surrounding areas in limbo.
The UIC controlled Marere and the neighbouring district of Jilib for just three months at the end of last year. After Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, fell to the government and its Ethiopian allies at the end of December, the Courts melted away.
Local people, from teen-agers to elders, now talk of the brief period of rule by the Islamic Courts in wistful tones. For the first time in a generation, there was a level of security in the district that few had believed was possible. The various clan-based militias which terrorised the region, setting up checkpoints and settling disputes with guns, buried their arms.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Somalis yearn for Islamic rulers to return and tame the warlords
Sunday, June 03, 2007
DAR AL ISLAM - SOMALIA: U.S. BOMARDS JIHADISTS, AT LEAST 12 ARE DEAD, SEVERAL FROM WESTERN COUNTRIES: U.S.A., U.K., & SWEDEN
12 Islamists, including foreigners, killed in Somali clashes
MOGADISHU -- At least 12 Islamist fighters, including foreigners were killed in US naval shelling and fighting with forces from the Somali semi-autonomous region of Puntland, officials said Sunday.
Puntland finance minister Mohammed Ali Yusuf said the region's forces crushed the Islamist fighters in mountainous ranges around Bargal town, about 1,250 kilometers (780 miles) northeast of the Somali capital Mogadishu, before a US Navy warship fired into the area.
"Their bodies are lying in the mountainous area and we hope to show them to the media. They [Islamists] have lost in the battle and we killed 12 of them," said a Puntland military commander who requested anonymity.
"We surrounded the whole area and we expected that none of them would flee," the commander added by satellite phone.
Yusuf, meanwhile, told reporters in the northern Somali town of Bosasso: "Our forces defeated the Islamist fighters consisting of Somali and foreign fighters, most of them are dead now and some of them have fled the area. Our forces are fully controlling Bargal."
Citing documents recovered, Yusuf said the foreign "terrorists [were] from America, Britain, Sweden, Morocco, Pakistan, and Yemen."
There was no independent confirmation of the claims on the deaths of the foreigners who arrived in Bargal Wednesday.
Residents said at least 15 people were wounded when a US Navy destroyer Friday fired on several targets in the mountainous terrains outside Bargal, where Al Qaeda operatives as well as Somali Islamists and foreign fighters are believed to have bases.
"The casualty could be far higher than we think. But, so far, we have been told that 15 people were injured in the attack and some of them are nomad civilians," Mohammed Gure, another resident in a village some 30 kilometers from Bargal, said.
Gure said the injured were taken to Bosasso township for treatment.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) 12 Islamists, including foreigners, killed in Somali clashes
MOGADISHU -- At least 12 Islamist fighters, including foreigners were killed in US naval shelling and fighting with forces from the Somali semi-autonomous region of Puntland, officials said Sunday.
Puntland finance minister Mohammed Ali Yusuf said the region's forces crushed the Islamist fighters in mountainous ranges around Bargal town, about 1,250 kilometers (780 miles) northeast of the Somali capital Mogadishu, before a US Navy warship fired into the area.
"Their bodies are lying in the mountainous area and we hope to show them to the media. They [Islamists] have lost in the battle and we killed 12 of them," said a Puntland military commander who requested anonymity.
"We surrounded the whole area and we expected that none of them would flee," the commander added by satellite phone.
Yusuf, meanwhile, told reporters in the northern Somali town of Bosasso: "Our forces defeated the Islamist fighters consisting of Somali and foreign fighters, most of them are dead now and some of them have fled the area. Our forces are fully controlling Bargal."
Citing documents recovered, Yusuf said the foreign "terrorists [were] from America, Britain, Sweden, Morocco, Pakistan, and Yemen."
There was no independent confirmation of the claims on the deaths of the foreigners who arrived in Bargal Wednesday.
Residents said at least 15 people were wounded when a US Navy destroyer Friday fired on several targets in the mountainous terrains outside Bargal, where Al Qaeda operatives as well as Somali Islamists and foreign fighters are believed to have bases.
"The casualty could be far higher than we think. But, so far, we have been told that 15 people were injured in the attack and some of them are nomad civilians," Mohammed Gure, another resident in a village some 30 kilometers from Bargal, said.
Gure said the injured were taken to Bosasso township for treatment.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) 12 Islamists, including foreigners, killed in Somali clashes
Thursday, April 19, 2007
DAR AL HARB - U.K.: THE INSANE ACTIONS OF THE DIPLOMATIC COMMUNITY IN THE U.K.- - - ISLAMIC COURTS 'FOREIGN MINISTER' VISITS THE U.K.
Islamic Courts minister in UK
The foreign minister for the former Islamic Courts government in Somalia has been allowed to visit the UK.
There's been renewed fighting between Ethiopian troops and Somali insurgents in the Somali capital Mogadishu.
At least seven were killed and dozens injured last night alone.
Now More 4 News has confirmed that the Islamist former rulers of Somalia are behind the attacks.
One of their most senior ministers told us they would never stop in their fight to overthrow the Ethiopian-backed secular government.
In December 2006, the interim government entered Mogadishu and the Union of Islamic Courts who had been in control of the capital were ousted. They then fled the city and, in January '07, abandoned their last stronghold in the south of Somalia.
The conflict flared again last month, killing a thousand people - and causing 200,000 to flee Mogadishu.
Professor Adal Ibrahim Hassan acted as the foreign minister in the government formed by the Islamic Courts.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Islamic Courts minister in UK
The foreign minister for the former Islamic Courts government in Somalia has been allowed to visit the UK.
There's been renewed fighting between Ethiopian troops and Somali insurgents in the Somali capital Mogadishu.
At least seven were killed and dozens injured last night alone.
Now More 4 News has confirmed that the Islamist former rulers of Somalia are behind the attacks.
One of their most senior ministers told us they would never stop in their fight to overthrow the Ethiopian-backed secular government.
In December 2006, the interim government entered Mogadishu and the Union of Islamic Courts who had been in control of the capital were ousted. They then fled the city and, in January '07, abandoned their last stronghold in the south of Somalia.
The conflict flared again last month, killing a thousand people - and causing 200,000 to flee Mogadishu.
Professor Adal Ibrahim Hassan acted as the foreign minister in the government formed by the Islamic Courts.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Islamic Courts minister in UK
Monday, March 26, 2007
DAR AL ISLAM - SOMALIA: SOMALIAN JIHADISTS SHOOT DOWN BELARUS AIRLINER, 11 DEAD
Islamist Fighters Downed Belarus Plane in Somalia
A missile fired by Islamist fighters was responsible for the plane crash that left 11 people dead in Somalia on Friday, the Reuters news agency quoted Belarus officials as saying on Sunday.
“The plane was shot down,” Transport Ministry spokeswoman Kseniya Perestoronina said in Minsk, adding that the large Ilyushin plane, in Somalia to assist struggling African Union peacekeepers, was hit at a height of 500 feet.
A Somali radio and an Islamist website also said a missile hit the Russian-made Ilyushin – used by a Belarussian firm – just after takeoff from Mogadishu.
But Somali Interior Minister Mohamed Mahamud Guled said it was more likely an accident downed the plane and confirmed that an investigation has begun.
The crash came after three days of the worst violence since the January start of a campaign that drove out the six-month regime of militant Islamists in Mogadishu.
Fighters believed to be a mixture of Islamists and disgruntled clan militia have been striking daily against government forces, Ethiopian troops and a contingent of 1,200 Ugandan soldiers in the vanguard of the African Union forcee.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Islamist Fighters Downed Belarus Plane in Somalia
A missile fired by Islamist fighters was responsible for the plane crash that left 11 people dead in Somalia on Friday, the Reuters news agency quoted Belarus officials as saying on Sunday.
“The plane was shot down,” Transport Ministry spokeswoman Kseniya Perestoronina said in Minsk, adding that the large Ilyushin plane, in Somalia to assist struggling African Union peacekeepers, was hit at a height of 500 feet.
A Somali radio and an Islamist website also said a missile hit the Russian-made Ilyushin – used by a Belarussian firm – just after takeoff from Mogadishu.
But Somali Interior Minister Mohamed Mahamud Guled said it was more likely an accident downed the plane and confirmed that an investigation has begun.
The crash came after three days of the worst violence since the January start of a campaign that drove out the six-month regime of militant Islamists in Mogadishu.
Fighters believed to be a mixture of Islamists and disgruntled clan militia have been striking daily against government forces, Ethiopian troops and a contingent of 1,200 Ugandan soldiers in the vanguard of the African Union forcee.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Islamist Fighters Downed Belarus Plane in Somalia
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
DAR AL HARB / ISLAM: SECRET HELP TO AL-QAIDA IN SOMALIA
Secret aid for al-Qa'ida in Somalia
Jon Swain, Johannesburg
February 19, 2007
MIDDLE Eastern countries secretly armed and supported suspected al-Qa'ida recruits in the failed state of Somalia in a direct challenge to Western interests in east Africa, a UN report has revealed.
Hundreds of Islamist fighters were flown, with Eritrean assistance, from Somalia to Syria and Libya for military training. Others were taken to Lebanon to fight with Hezbollah, the report to the UN security council says.
UN investigators detail the military aid given to the Islamists by Saudi Arabia and Egypt, Arab states purportedly friendly to the West. Iran supplied 125 shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles, 80 of which arrived by sea in dhows and the rest by air.
A clandestine operation to smuggle the fighters out of Somalia began in July last year.
Evgueny Zakharov, the owner of Aerolift, an airline with a fleet of ageing Antonov and Ilyushin transport aircraft based in Johannesburg but registered in the British Virgin Islands, said in an interview: "We transported lots of men in uniform -- Arab men with masks.
"They were disciplined men and although none of them had rank badges there were obviously people in charge. They got on the aircraft as if they had done it many times before."
Mr Zakharov said his involvement began after he was approached by a General Tambi of the Eritrean People's Defence Forces. Eritrea, a neighbour of Somalia in the volatile Horn of Africa, was a major supporter of the Islamists.
General Tambi offered to buy Mr Zakharov's Ilyushin 76 transport aircraft carrying the Kazakhstan registration number UN76496 for $US1.5million ($1.9million), even though the normal price for an aircraft of that vintage and condition is just $US1million. Mr Zakharov went ahead, despite unusual contract conditions that stipulated secrecy. He insisted the contract should specify that the new owners were not to use the aircraft to make arms flights.
However, he said last week that the Ilyushin made three sanctions-busting arms flights to Somalia from the Eritrean port of Massawa, bringing out the masked men on the return legs.
Mr Zakharov's revelations came as Western security services continued their investigation into foreigners suspected of fighting on behalf of Islamic forces in Somalia and of joining al-Qa'ida last year. Among them are British, US and French Muslims.
Significant numbers of foreigners went to Somalia, Western intelligence officials have found, after the radical Islamic Courts Council movement seized power from a weak UN-backed government, established links with al-Qa'ida and allowed Somalia to be used as an al-Qa'ida terrorist training ground, like Afghanistan under Taliban rule. However, in December, invading Ethiopian troops took the capital, Mogadishu, from the ICC and restored the internationally recognised Government, routing the Islamists and scattering the foreigners and al-Qa'ida fighters.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Secret aid for al-Qa'ida in Somalia
Jon Swain, Johannesburg
February 19, 2007
MIDDLE Eastern countries secretly armed and supported suspected al-Qa'ida recruits in the failed state of Somalia in a direct challenge to Western interests in east Africa, a UN report has revealed.
Hundreds of Islamist fighters were flown, with Eritrean assistance, from Somalia to Syria and Libya for military training. Others were taken to Lebanon to fight with Hezbollah, the report to the UN security council says.
UN investigators detail the military aid given to the Islamists by Saudi Arabia and Egypt, Arab states purportedly friendly to the West. Iran supplied 125 shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles, 80 of which arrived by sea in dhows and the rest by air.
A clandestine operation to smuggle the fighters out of Somalia began in July last year.
Evgueny Zakharov, the owner of Aerolift, an airline with a fleet of ageing Antonov and Ilyushin transport aircraft based in Johannesburg but registered in the British Virgin Islands, said in an interview: "We transported lots of men in uniform -- Arab men with masks.
"They were disciplined men and although none of them had rank badges there were obviously people in charge. They got on the aircraft as if they had done it many times before."
Mr Zakharov said his involvement began after he was approached by a General Tambi of the Eritrean People's Defence Forces. Eritrea, a neighbour of Somalia in the volatile Horn of Africa, was a major supporter of the Islamists.
General Tambi offered to buy Mr Zakharov's Ilyushin 76 transport aircraft carrying the Kazakhstan registration number UN76496 for $US1.5million ($1.9million), even though the normal price for an aircraft of that vintage and condition is just $US1million. Mr Zakharov went ahead, despite unusual contract conditions that stipulated secrecy. He insisted the contract should specify that the new owners were not to use the aircraft to make arms flights.
However, he said last week that the Ilyushin made three sanctions-busting arms flights to Somalia from the Eritrean port of Massawa, bringing out the masked men on the return legs.
Mr Zakharov's revelations came as Western security services continued their investigation into foreigners suspected of fighting on behalf of Islamic forces in Somalia and of joining al-Qa'ida last year. Among them are British, US and French Muslims.
Significant numbers of foreigners went to Somalia, Western intelligence officials have found, after the radical Islamic Courts Council movement seized power from a weak UN-backed government, established links with al-Qa'ida and allowed Somalia to be used as an al-Qa'ida terrorist training ground, like Afghanistan under Taliban rule. However, in December, invading Ethiopian troops took the capital, Mogadishu, from the ICC and restored the internationally recognised Government, routing the Islamists and scattering the foreigners and al-Qa'ida fighters.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Secret aid for al-Qa'ida in Somalia
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
DAR AL ISLAM - SOMALIA: JIHADISTS HOLDING U.S. PASSPORTS CAPTURED IN SOMALIA
Inside the Ring
By Bill Gertz and Rowan Scarborough
American terrorists
Intelligence sources tell us several Americans — or at least people holding U.S. passports — were captured among the 6,000 Islamists fighting on behalf of the ousted Islamic Courts Union (ICU) during the ongoing conflict in Somalia.
The American passport holders are being held and interrogated in Kenya. According to our sources, one of the American Islamists had received pilot training in the past, an indication that he may be a terrorist who could be used in a future al Qaeda operation to hijack an aircraft and use it as a missile, as occurred during the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
The recent fighting by Ethiopian and transitional federal government forces against the partially ruling ICU forced thousands of Islamist fighters of the ICU to move south to Kismayo and Ras Kamboni, on the Kenyan border.
Army Lt. Gen. Michael Maples, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told the Senate intelligence committee in written testimony last week that Ethiopian forces were in hot pursuit of the Islamists.
"Ethiopia likely intends to eliminate as many of the radical Islamists and their camps as possible before withdrawing," Gen. Maples said.
He said "multiple reports" from the region indicate "the presence of foreign trainers in Somalia from Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Arabian Peninsula."
"Al Qaeda is assessed to be assisting the radical Islamist elements of the [ICU] with leadership and training with hopes of establishing a future Talibanlike state," he said.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Inside the Ring
By Bill Gertz and Rowan Scarborough
American terrorists
Intelligence sources tell us several Americans — or at least people holding U.S. passports — were captured among the 6,000 Islamists fighting on behalf of the ousted Islamic Courts Union (ICU) during the ongoing conflict in Somalia.
The American passport holders are being held and interrogated in Kenya. According to our sources, one of the American Islamists had received pilot training in the past, an indication that he may be a terrorist who could be used in a future al Qaeda operation to hijack an aircraft and use it as a missile, as occurred during the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
The recent fighting by Ethiopian and transitional federal government forces against the partially ruling ICU forced thousands of Islamist fighters of the ICU to move south to Kismayo and Ras Kamboni, on the Kenyan border.
Army Lt. Gen. Michael Maples, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told the Senate intelligence committee in written testimony last week that Ethiopian forces were in hot pursuit of the Islamists.
"Ethiopia likely intends to eliminate as many of the radical Islamists and their camps as possible before withdrawing," Gen. Maples said.
He said "multiple reports" from the region indicate "the presence of foreign trainers in Somalia from Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Arabian Peninsula."
"Al Qaeda is assessed to be assisting the radical Islamist elements of the [ICU] with leadership and training with hopes of establishing a future Talibanlike state," he said.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Inside the Ring
Thursday, January 11, 2007
DAR AL HARB / ISLAM - SOMALIA: 'YOUTHS' FROM KENYA ARE AMONG THE DEAD OF THE UNION OF ISLAMIC COURTS
Kenya: Scores of Kenyan Youth Are Killed in Somalia
Kenyan youth enlisted by the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) forces to fight the Ethiopian invasion in Somalia were killed in the battlefield.
Government officials on Wednesday acknowledged the deaths but remained tight-lipped on the number of local recruits killed in the anarchic horn of Africa nation.
North Eastern Provincial Commissioner, Mr Kiritu Wamae, said intelligence reports indicated that several Kenyan youths fighting alongside UIC militia were killed as they confronted the advancing Ethiopian troops.
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Pertinent Links:
1) Kenya: Scores of Kenyan Youth Are Killed in Somalia
Kenyan youth enlisted by the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) forces to fight the Ethiopian invasion in Somalia were killed in the battlefield.
Government officials on Wednesday acknowledged the deaths but remained tight-lipped on the number of local recruits killed in the anarchic horn of Africa nation.
North Eastern Provincial Commissioner, Mr Kiritu Wamae, said intelligence reports indicated that several Kenyan youths fighting alongside UIC militia were killed as they confronted the advancing Ethiopian troops.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Kenya: Scores of Kenyan Youth Are Killed in Somalia
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
DAR AL ISLAM - SOMALIA: ANOTHER STRIKE BY U.S. TROOPS?!?
Residents report new US raid in south Somalia
MOGADISHU - Residents reported a new US air strike on suspected Al Qaeda targets in southern Somalia on Wednesday but government officials denied the accounts and the Pentagon said it had no information.
Elders in the area where the United States has confirmed hitting an alleged extremist position north of the port of Kismayo said the new attack was launched near the towns of Badade and Afmadow.
“Elders in Badade and Afmadow who made a radio contact with us confirmed there was an American air strike in the same area today,” Yusuf Ismail Aden, a resident of Kismayo told AFP in Mogadishu by phone.
“They said they could hear overflights in the morning,” he said.
However, Somali Information Minister Ali Jama said he was unaware of any air operations in the area other than those by Ethiopian troops backing the Somali government, which have been underway for weeks.
“There are operations going on in southern Somalia by Ethiopian and Somali forces,” he told AFP. “They might be either ground or air.”
Somali government spokesman Abdirahim Dinari said the resident accounts were “nonsense.”
“It is nonsense,” he told AFP. “It is fake news. We do not have any information about the alleged airstrikes. I do not know where these reports ... are coming from.”
In Washington, a Pentagon spokesman, Chris Isleib said he had no information on new strikes.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Residents report new US raid in south Somalia
MOGADISHU - Residents reported a new US air strike on suspected Al Qaeda targets in southern Somalia on Wednesday but government officials denied the accounts and the Pentagon said it had no information.
Elders in the area where the United States has confirmed hitting an alleged extremist position north of the port of Kismayo said the new attack was launched near the towns of Badade and Afmadow.
“Elders in Badade and Afmadow who made a radio contact with us confirmed there was an American air strike in the same area today,” Yusuf Ismail Aden, a resident of Kismayo told AFP in Mogadishu by phone.
“They said they could hear overflights in the morning,” he said.
However, Somali Information Minister Ali Jama said he was unaware of any air operations in the area other than those by Ethiopian troops backing the Somali government, which have been underway for weeks.
“There are operations going on in southern Somalia by Ethiopian and Somali forces,” he told AFP. “They might be either ground or air.”
Somali government spokesman Abdirahim Dinari said the resident accounts were “nonsense.”
“It is nonsense,” he told AFP. “It is fake news. We do not have any information about the alleged airstrikes. I do not know where these reports ... are coming from.”
In Washington, a Pentagon spokesman, Chris Isleib said he had no information on new strikes.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Residents report new US raid in south Somalia
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
DAR AL ISLAM / HARB-SOMALIA & U.K: BRITISH "YOUTHS" CAPTURED IN SOMALIA
Britons 'captured among Somali Islamists' Times Online
Britons have been injured or captured in the recent military action against Islamist militias in Somalia, the Ethiopian Prime Minister claimed today.
Ethiopian forces intervened in Somalia in late December, helping the country's weak official government to rout a collection of Islamist militias that had controlled the capital, Mogadishu, and much of the country since June.
Today, as the US confirmed that it had entered the war, conducting an airstrike against suspected al-Qaeda figures sheltering among the Islamist fighters, the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, said that Britons had been among the various foreign extremists shot or captured during the conflict.
"Many international terrorists are dead in Somalia," Mr Meles was quoted as saying by Le Monde, the French newspaper. "Photographs have been taken and passports from different countries have been collected. The Kenyans are holding Eritrean and Canadian passport holders."
"We have injured people coming from Yemen, Pakistan, Sudan, the United Kingdom."
In London, the Foreign Office said it could not confirm the reports, but a spokeswoman observed that those caught up in the fighting could hold dual nationality. Present-day northern Somalia was a British protectorate from 1887 to 1960.
"We take these reports very seriously and will do everything we can to look into them," she said. "We are in constant touch with the Ethiopian and Somalian governments and will look into this matter."
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Britons 'captured among Somali Islamists'
Britons have been injured or captured in the recent military action against Islamist militias in Somalia, the Ethiopian Prime Minister claimed today.
Ethiopian forces intervened in Somalia in late December, helping the country's weak official government to rout a collection of Islamist militias that had controlled the capital, Mogadishu, and much of the country since June.
Today, as the US confirmed that it had entered the war, conducting an airstrike against suspected al-Qaeda figures sheltering among the Islamist fighters, the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, said that Britons had been among the various foreign extremists shot or captured during the conflict.
"Many international terrorists are dead in Somalia," Mr Meles was quoted as saying by Le Monde, the French newspaper. "Photographs have been taken and passports from different countries have been collected. The Kenyans are holding Eritrean and Canadian passport holders."
"We have injured people coming from Yemen, Pakistan, Sudan, the United Kingdom."
In London, the Foreign Office said it could not confirm the reports, but a spokeswoman observed that those caught up in the fighting could hold dual nationality. Present-day northern Somalia was a British protectorate from 1887 to 1960.
"We take these reports very seriously and will do everything we can to look into them," she said. "We are in constant touch with the Ethiopian and Somalian governments and will look into this matter."
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Britons 'captured among Somali Islamists'
Monday, January 08, 2007
DAR AL HARB / ISLAM-SOMALIA: ETHIOPIAN FORCES UNDER ATTACK IN MOGADISHU
Ethiopian forces under attack in Somali capital
(AP)8 January 2007
MOGADISHU, Somalia -- Gunmen attacked Ethiopian troops supporting the Somali government, witnesses said, sparking a firefight in the second straight day of violence in a city struggling to emerge from more than a decade of chaos.
Farah Abdi Hussein, who witnessed Sunday’s attack, said gunmen launched grenades on Ethiopians about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) from the airport. One Somali soldier was wounded, according to a Somali military official who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals.
Ethiopian soldiers, tanks and warplanes intervened in Somalia on Dec. 24 to help defeat an Islamic movement that threatened to overthrow the internationally recognized government, which at the time controlled only the western town of Baidoa.
But many in predominantly Muslim Somalia resent having troops from neighbouring Ethiopia, which has a large Christian population. The countries fought two brutal wars, the last in 1977.
On Saturday, hundreds of furious protesters took to the streets, burning tires and smashing car windows while denouncing the presence of Ethiopian forces and shouting defiance at the Somali government’s call for disarming Mogadishu.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Ethiopian forces under attack in Somali capital
(AP)8 January 2007
MOGADISHU, Somalia -- Gunmen attacked Ethiopian troops supporting the Somali government, witnesses said, sparking a firefight in the second straight day of violence in a city struggling to emerge from more than a decade of chaos.
Farah Abdi Hussein, who witnessed Sunday’s attack, said gunmen launched grenades on Ethiopians about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) from the airport. One Somali soldier was wounded, according to a Somali military official who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals.
Ethiopian soldiers, tanks and warplanes intervened in Somalia on Dec. 24 to help defeat an Islamic movement that threatened to overthrow the internationally recognized government, which at the time controlled only the western town of Baidoa.
But many in predominantly Muslim Somalia resent having troops from neighbouring Ethiopia, which has a large Christian population. The countries fought two brutal wars, the last in 1977.
On Saturday, hundreds of furious protesters took to the streets, burning tires and smashing car windows while denouncing the presence of Ethiopian forces and shouting defiance at the Somali government’s call for disarming Mogadishu.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Ethiopian forces under attack in Somali capital
Friday, January 05, 2007
DAR AL HARB / ISLAM-SOMALIA: MOSLEM HUMAN EXPLOSIVE DEVICES SHOULD DETONATE THEMSELVES TO FIGHT THE "CRUSADERS" IN SOMALIA: BLOVIATES ZAWAHIRI
Al-Qaida No. 2 urges Somalia’s Islamists to fight ’crusaders’
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) — Osama bin Laden’s deputy has called on Somalia’s Islamic militants to carry out suicide attacks on Ethiopian troops fighting in their country, according to a taped message posted on the Internet Friday.
Al-Qaida’s No. 2 also implores Muslims worldwide to support Somalia’s Islamists with fighters, money and expertise.
“I speak to you today as the crusader invader forces of Ethiopia violate the soil of the beloved Muslim Somalia,” Egyptian-born Ayman al-Zawahri said in the recording.
Ethiopian-backed government forces have driven the militants from the capital Mogadishu and much of southern Somalia, ending their six months in power. Many Islamists have retreated to the southern tip of the country where they have vowed to keep fighting, raising the specter of an Iraq-style guerrilla war.
“I call upon the Muslim nation in Somalia to remain in the new battlefield that is one of the crusader battlefields that are being launched by America and its allies and the United Nations against Islam and Muslims,” al-Zawahri said.
“Launch ambushes, land mines, raids and suicidal combats until you consume them as the lions and eat their prey,” he added.
The message could not immediately be authenticated, but it aired on an Islamic Web site known for publishing militant material and carried the logo of al-Qaida’s media production wing, al-Sahab.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Al-Qaida No. 2 urges Somalia’s Islamists to fight ’crusaders’
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) — Osama bin Laden’s deputy has called on Somalia’s Islamic militants to carry out suicide attacks on Ethiopian troops fighting in their country, according to a taped message posted on the Internet Friday.
Al-Qaida’s No. 2 also implores Muslims worldwide to support Somalia’s Islamists with fighters, money and expertise.
“I speak to you today as the crusader invader forces of Ethiopia violate the soil of the beloved Muslim Somalia,” Egyptian-born Ayman al-Zawahri said in the recording.
Ethiopian-backed government forces have driven the militants from the capital Mogadishu and much of southern Somalia, ending their six months in power. Many Islamists have retreated to the southern tip of the country where they have vowed to keep fighting, raising the specter of an Iraq-style guerrilla war.
“I call upon the Muslim nation in Somalia to remain in the new battlefield that is one of the crusader battlefields that are being launched by America and its allies and the United Nations against Islam and Muslims,” al-Zawahri said.
“Launch ambushes, land mines, raids and suicidal combats until you consume them as the lions and eat their prey,” he added.
The message could not immediately be authenticated, but it aired on an Islamic Web site known for publishing militant material and carried the logo of al-Qaida’s media production wing, al-Sahab.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Al-Qaida No. 2 urges Somalia’s Islamists to fight ’crusaders’
Thursday, January 04, 2007
DAR AL HARB / ISLAM-SOMALIA: JIHADISTS FOUGHT A WRONG KIND OF WAR
ANALYSIS-Somali Islamists fought wrong kind of war
Tue 2 Jan 2007 16:18:26 GMT
By C. Bryson Hull
MOGADISHU, Jan 2 (Reuters) - Somalia's Islamists suffered rapid defeat against Ethiopian troops and their Somali government allies because they fought the wrong kind of war -- a conventional one, experts said on Tuesday.
But the slaughter of their forces on Somalia's low bushlands and arid wastes, followed by a hasty retreat from the capital Mogadishu and later the key southern port of Kismayu, may portend the start of a campaign of bombings and assassinations.
After systematically defeating warlords in more than four months of fighting for Mogadishu, the Islamists won credit for producing one of the most disciplined military forces in Somalia since the Cold War heyday of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
"Taking on the Ethiopians in a conventional war, fighting these set-piece battles, was a tactical mistake for the courts," said independent Somalia analyst Matt Bryden.
The gunmen of the Somali Islamic Courts Council (SICC) chose to fight the joint Somali-Ethiopian forces, packing the support of tanks, helicopter gunships and jets, on front lines spread across flat terrain with only rudimentary cover.
"I think the Islamists were on a roll and overconfident ... against a competent, professional military force like the Ethiopians," said a military expert and combat veteran who follows Somalia and is not authorised to speak to the press.
Ethiopia has demonstrated its military power in the Horn of Africa before, sending troops to attack the militant Somali group al-Itihaad al-Islaami several times from 1992 to 1998, and combating Eritrea in a 1998-2000 border war that killed 70,000.No independent casualty figures are available from Ethiopia's latest war, but the Somali government estimates its fighters and the Ethiopians killed several thousand Islamists.
A Reuters reporter saw about two dozen dead Islamist fighters in Moode Moode, 12 km (7.5 miles) east of Baidoa, their bodies arrayed a few metres apart along trails through the thorny brush -- evidence of a one-sided fight.
SECOND FRONT?
The ideological motivation of the SICC -- which wanted to impose a harsh form of sharia, Islamic law -- was thought to have given it a decisive edge in the battle for Mogadishu last year.
But that evaporated against the Ethiopian military.
"They realised they were not capable of resisting this sophisticated machine. That is the story of war throughout history. Ideology is not enough to get you through when you are being smashed militarily," the military expert said.
But hardcore militants in the SICC's ranks, whom the United States and United Nations say have links to al Qaeda, may plan to return to the kind of insurgency they practised in Somalia in limited instances before the rise of the SICC.
Most experts say there is a risk the remaining fighters, especially those with training in bombings, assassinations and sniping, will go underground and use their skills in Ethiopia, Somalia and even Kenya.
"You don't go up against tanks and jets and helicopters if you don't have an offset to them. But there is a greater plan, and we're just waiting for the rubber band to snap back," said a security expert who declined to be named.
The Ethiopian army, one of the strongest in Africa, appears intent on flushing out the last SICC fighters, chasing them to hideouts in Ras Kamboni on the coast and in the desert as they head for the Kenyan border.
Kenya is trying to seal its lengthy and porous frontier.
Intelligence sources say Kenya has also beefed up ground and sea patrols, and the United States is providing surveillance to help capture three fighters believed in the SICC ranks who are on lists of wanted terrorists.
"This is going to be the final fight. We still have to wait and see if they (the SICC) are going to go underground or be annihilated," the military expert said.
"The Ethiopians want to finish it."
Pertinent Links:
1) ANALYSIS-Somali Islamists fought wrong kind of war
Tue 2 Jan 2007 16:18:26 GMT
By C. Bryson Hull
MOGADISHU, Jan 2 (Reuters) - Somalia's Islamists suffered rapid defeat against Ethiopian troops and their Somali government allies because they fought the wrong kind of war -- a conventional one, experts said on Tuesday.
But the slaughter of their forces on Somalia's low bushlands and arid wastes, followed by a hasty retreat from the capital Mogadishu and later the key southern port of Kismayu, may portend the start of a campaign of bombings and assassinations.
After systematically defeating warlords in more than four months of fighting for Mogadishu, the Islamists won credit for producing one of the most disciplined military forces in Somalia since the Cold War heyday of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
"Taking on the Ethiopians in a conventional war, fighting these set-piece battles, was a tactical mistake for the courts," said independent Somalia analyst Matt Bryden.
The gunmen of the Somali Islamic Courts Council (SICC) chose to fight the joint Somali-Ethiopian forces, packing the support of tanks, helicopter gunships and jets, on front lines spread across flat terrain with only rudimentary cover.
"I think the Islamists were on a roll and overconfident ... against a competent, professional military force like the Ethiopians," said a military expert and combat veteran who follows Somalia and is not authorised to speak to the press.
Ethiopia has demonstrated its military power in the Horn of Africa before, sending troops to attack the militant Somali group al-Itihaad al-Islaami several times from 1992 to 1998, and combating Eritrea in a 1998-2000 border war that killed 70,000.No independent casualty figures are available from Ethiopia's latest war, but the Somali government estimates its fighters and the Ethiopians killed several thousand Islamists.
A Reuters reporter saw about two dozen dead Islamist fighters in Moode Moode, 12 km (7.5 miles) east of Baidoa, their bodies arrayed a few metres apart along trails through the thorny brush -- evidence of a one-sided fight.
SECOND FRONT?
The ideological motivation of the SICC -- which wanted to impose a harsh form of sharia, Islamic law -- was thought to have given it a decisive edge in the battle for Mogadishu last year.
But that evaporated against the Ethiopian military.
"They realised they were not capable of resisting this sophisticated machine. That is the story of war throughout history. Ideology is not enough to get you through when you are being smashed militarily," the military expert said.
But hardcore militants in the SICC's ranks, whom the United States and United Nations say have links to al Qaeda, may plan to return to the kind of insurgency they practised in Somalia in limited instances before the rise of the SICC.
Most experts say there is a risk the remaining fighters, especially those with training in bombings, assassinations and sniping, will go underground and use their skills in Ethiopia, Somalia and even Kenya.
"You don't go up against tanks and jets and helicopters if you don't have an offset to them. But there is a greater plan, and we're just waiting for the rubber band to snap back," said a security expert who declined to be named.
The Ethiopian army, one of the strongest in Africa, appears intent on flushing out the last SICC fighters, chasing them to hideouts in Ras Kamboni on the coast and in the desert as they head for the Kenyan border.
Kenya is trying to seal its lengthy and porous frontier.
Intelligence sources say Kenya has also beefed up ground and sea patrols, and the United States is providing surveillance to help capture three fighters believed in the SICC ranks who are on lists of wanted terrorists.
"This is going to be the final fight. We still have to wait and see if they (the SICC) are going to go underground or be annihilated," the military expert said.
"The Ethiopians want to finish it."
Pertinent Links:
1) ANALYSIS-Somali Islamists fought wrong kind of war
Monday, January 01, 2007
DAR AL ISLAM-SOMALIA: AMNESTY FOR THE JIHADISTS
Though I have not posted too many stories on the jihadist activities in Somalia & the recent blackeye given to them by the Ethiopians, I have to say something about this:
Amnesty offered to fleeing Islamists
THE Somali Government offered today to pardon any Islamist fighters who laid down arms after abandoning their final stronghold overnight.
"The government is providing amnesty for them provided they hand over their weapons," Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi told a news conference in Mogadishu, saying the Islamist fighters had been "misled by international terrorists."
ARE THEY ABSOLUTELY INSANE?!?!?
DO THEY ACTUALLY THINK THAT THEY WILL BE ABLE TO SOMEHOW HARNESS THE JIHADISTS TO DO GOOD?!?
Pertinent Links:
1) Amnesty offered to fleeing Islamists
Amnesty offered to fleeing Islamists
THE Somali Government offered today to pardon any Islamist fighters who laid down arms after abandoning their final stronghold overnight.
"The government is providing amnesty for them provided they hand over their weapons," Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi told a news conference in Mogadishu, saying the Islamist fighters had been "misled by international terrorists."
ARE THEY ABSOLUTELY INSANE?!?!?
DO THEY ACTUALLY THINK THAT THEY WILL BE ABLE TO SOMEHOW HARNESS THE JIHADISTS TO DO GOOD?!?
Pertinent Links:
1) Amnesty offered to fleeing Islamists
Sunday, December 31, 2006
DAR AL ISLAM-SOMALIA: JIHADISTS THAT BOMBED OUR EMBASSY IN 1998 ARE HIDING IN THE KISMAYO STRONGHOLD...
US Embassy bombing suspects 'in Islamic stronghold'
31/12/2006 - 12:30:19
Somalia's prime minister said today the suspects in the 1998 bombings of two US embassies in east Africa are sheltering in the stronghold of his country's militant Islamic movement.
"We are hunting those known to be responsible for the terrorist bombings in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998," Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi said.
"If we capture them alive we will hand them over to the US."
The three men - Comorian Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, Kenyan Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan and Abu Taha al-Sudani, a Sudanese - are al-Qaida suspects and are under US indictment for the 1998 bombings of embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed hundreds of people.
"We know they are in Kismayo,"
Gedi said. "We would like to capture or kill these guys at any cost. They are the root of the problem."Gedi said he had spoken today to the US ambassador in Kenya, Michael Ranneberger, about ensuring the Kenyan border with Somalia is sealed to prevent the three escaping.
"We will get them," he said.
Pertinent Links:
1) US Embassy bombing suspects 'in Islamic stronghold'
31/12/2006 - 12:30:19
Somalia's prime minister said today the suspects in the 1998 bombings of two US embassies in east Africa are sheltering in the stronghold of his country's militant Islamic movement.
"We are hunting those known to be responsible for the terrorist bombings in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998," Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi said.
"If we capture them alive we will hand them over to the US."
The three men - Comorian Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, Kenyan Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan and Abu Taha al-Sudani, a Sudanese - are al-Qaida suspects and are under US indictment for the 1998 bombings of embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed hundreds of people.
"We know they are in Kismayo,"
Gedi said. "We would like to capture or kill these guys at any cost. They are the root of the problem."Gedi said he had spoken today to the US ambassador in Kenya, Michael Ranneberger, about ensuring the Kenyan border with Somalia is sealed to prevent the three escaping.
"We will get them," he said.
Pertinent Links:
1) US Embassy bombing suspects 'in Islamic stronghold'
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