"Truck Bomb Kills Dozens in Somalia’s Capital" by MOHAMED IBRAHIM and JEFFREY GETTLEMAN, Published: October 4, 2011
MOGADISHU, Somalia — This particular area of Mogadishu was supposed to be safe, a highly fortified government compound in one of the few neighborhoods that Somalia’s transitional government actually controls.
But on Tuesday morning, that illusion was shattered when an enormous truck bomb was detonated right outside the compound’s gates, killing dozens of people — many of them students standing around waiting for exam results — and sending the signal that the Shabab Islamist group may be making a comeback after several months of losing ground.
Witnesses reported horrific scenes of burning bodies, twisted in agony, strewn across the streets. African Union officials said at least 50 people had been killed and possibly as many as 100. Floods of wounded people stumbled into this city’s dilapidated hospitals, which were already full of victims of the country’s widening famine.
Somalia has lurched from crisis to crisis since 1991, when the central government collapsed, and while the Shabab formally withdrew from Mogadishu, the capital, in August, it seems that they are now living up to their vow to carry on a vicious guerrilla war.
Related: Sunday Globe Special: Somalia Drought Melts Terrorists
Almost immediately after the bombing, the Shabab, who have pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda and have imported many Qaeda-like tactics to Somalia, claimed responsibility.
“We have targeted the attack to 150 young Somalis who were planning to be flown to Sudan to be trained as spies,” the Shabab said in a statement.
However, according to witnesses, the young Somalis killed were not part of the security services but were students hoping for scholarships to Sudan and Turkey.
On Tuesday, many students and their families had gathered at the government compound, located near a busy intersection, to check bulletin boards with the results of examinations.
“Several students I knew were killed in the blast,” said Anisa Abdulle, a 16-year-old student who visited the compound earlier but left before the blast. “This is horrible. I hate the Shabab, because they see the students going for learning as enemies.”
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The explosion sent a gigantic fireball into the sky and shattered windows for miles around. It spewed bodies across an area several city blocks wide. Many were small and thin and appeared to be children, charred beyond recognition. Somali government officials said no senior officials were hurt.
The Shabab introduced suicide bombs to Somalia, and since Shabab fighters began their insurgency in 2007, they have struck many times, with victims including Somali lawmakers, African Union peacekeepers and poor women sweeping up Mogadishu’s bullet-pocked streets.
But few, if any, of their attacks have killed as many people as the one on Tuesday.
There had been hopes that the Shabab’s withdrawal from Mogadishu would usher in a new era of stability, at least in the capital. For the first time in years, the transitional government, backed by 9,000 African Union peacekeepers, was nominally in control. Certain areas, including the area near the stricken government compound, were considered relatively safe, and in recent months, traders had returned to streets pulsing with more life than there had been for a long time.
Many analysts were even going so far as to say that the Shabab were a spent force, racked by internal divisions and dwindling resources. In recent months, the Shabab have suffered heavy losses in Mogadishu, and Shabab fighters have been pushed out of areas along the Kenya and Ethiopia borders by militias that are covertly backed by Kenya and Ethiopia.
Who are in turn backed by the US.
American drone strikes have also killed several Shabab operatives, and in June, the top Qaeda agent in Somalia, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, was killed in a somewhat random shootout in Mogadishu.
Oh, we have those, too.
But in the past week or so, the Shabab seemed to be regrouping. On Friday, hundreds of Shabab fighters poured into Dhobley, a market town on the Kenya border, setting off an intense battle. The Shabab briefly occupied the town before a Kenya-backed militia was able to push them out. Then on Monday, the Shabab struck a town in central Somalia, Dhusamareb, withdrawing after inflicting casualties....
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"Somalis flee violence by militants in capital" October 13, 2011|By By Abdi Guled, Associated Press
MOGADISHU, Somalia - Fearing renewed warfare, hundreds of Somalis loaded up small children and household goods on donkey-pulled carts yesterday in a northern Mogadishu neighborhood where Islamist militants are taking up positions.
Fighters from the militant group Al Shabab dug new trenches and blocked streets with sandbags, residents said, as minivans and wooden carts moved out using alleyways and side streets to avoid sniper fire. Young, barefoot children lugging bags walked for hours with their parents.
Fighting broke out over the weekend and lasted through Monday, killing at least 20 civilians and one African Union soldier. Somali military officials have asked residents near Al Shabab-held areas to leave, and a lull in the fighting has opened a window for a safe getaway....
To where?
Seasonal rains in Mogadishu have added to the misery of both residents fleeing the fighting and Somalis living in makeshift hunger camps. A wide-scale famine threatens hundreds of thousands of lives, and tens of thousands of Somalis who fled famine in the south now live in tents made of sticks and cloth in Mogadishu.
Related: Somali Starvation Was a Sales Pitch
The problem is real; however, the motives of the agenda-pushing mouthpiece media are very suspect.
Al Shabab has controlled most of Mogadishu for several years, but the group fled the capital in August in what its leaders said was a tactical pullout. The militant group has since returned, though. The fighters set off a truck bomb last week that killed more than 100 people as students tried to learn whether they had won scholarships to attend school in Turkey.
Still, only a few areas remain in militant hands, and African Union troops are trying to push the fighters out of the last strongholds. Large columns of Somali and African Union troops moving toward those pockets in recent days are an indication that new fighting could break out....
Rains in Mogadishu have washed out makeshift homes used by Somalis fleeing famine and violence. While the precipitation is welcomed by farmers, the rain is making camp residents miserable and increases the risk of a disease outbreak....
And things just keep getting worse for Somalis.
The attacks and battles with Al Shabab come as the Horn of Africa nation continues to suffer through its worst drought in 60 years. Tens of thousands of Somalis have already perished, and the UN says more than 750,000 are at risk of starvation in the next several months....
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"Somali militants threaten damaging attacks in Kenya" October 18, 2011|By Abdi Guled, Associated Press
MOGADISHU, Somalia - Somali militants on yesterday threatened to bring down Nairobi skyscrapers after Kenya sent hundreds of troops into Somalia....
The Kenyan invasion is occurring at a time when al-Shabab has been weakened by famine in its strongholds, has been pushed from the capital of Mogadishu by African Union troops, and finds itself increasingly challenged by clan militias.
But they are coming back -- or so I was told above.
The United States has also launched airstrikes against al-Shabab leaders amid concerns over terrorist training camps in the failed state of Somalia....
That isn't helping.
Al-Shabab lashed out in a news conference and an English statement yesterday....
The statement urged Kenyans to tell their “saber-rattling politicians’’ to not let the “flames of war’’ spill over into Kenya, destroying the East African nation’s sense of stability.
“Your skyscrapers will be destroyed, your tourism will disappear. We shall inflict on you the same damage you inflicted on us,’’ Sheik Ali Mohamud Rage, a spokesman for the Islamist militia al-Shabab, said at a Mogadishu news conference.
Why didn't the authorities arrest him, and why is the press showing up?
Kenya on Sunday moved two battalions of about 800 troops each across the border in two locations, a Nairobi-based official said. Tanks, helicopters, and artillery have also been deployed. The invasion is the most significant foreign deployment of the Kenyan military since independence from Britain in 1963....
Major Emmanuel Chirchir, a Kenyan military spokesman, would only say there were “sufficient’’ troops in Somalia. He would not disclose their final objective, how long they were prepared to stay, or any other details. He did say that five Kenyan military personnel were killed when their helicopter crashed near the border on Sunday.
Kenya says the invasion is retaliation for the kidnappings of four Europeans - two aid workers and two tourists - from Kenyan soil. An Englishwoman was taken last month by gunmen who killed her husband, a Frenchwoman was seized two weeks later, and two Spanish aid workers were taken from a refugee camp near the border on Thursday. The attacks have hit Kenya’s tourism industry, the country’s third-biggest foreign exchange earner last year.
But Europeans have been kidnapped before, and it is still unclear if al-Shabab carried out the attacks. Analysts also say it is “highly unlikely’’ that Kenya could organize such a complex military operation so quickly.
“The kidnaps could be a catalyst for something in the works for a long time,’’ said Lauren Gelfand, the Africa and Middle East editor of Jane’s Defense Weekly.
Reminds me of the Afghanistan war plan that was on Bush's desk when 9/11 happened.
The Kenyans had been conducting air strikes in Somalia for the past two weeks, a Nairobi-based diplomat said. He asked for anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Al-Shabab dismissed the kidnappings as a motivation.
“The allegations put forward by the Kenyan authorities with regard to the recent kidnappings are, at best, unfounded and, apart from the mere conjectural corroborations, not substantiated with any verifiable evidence,’’ the al-Shabab statement said.
A government lied? No kidding?
Last year al-Shabab suicide bombers killed 76 people in Kampala, Uganda, as they watched the World Cup final. The group said it was retaliation for Uganda sending troops to the African Union force supporting the weak UN-backed government.
Rage, the al-Shabab spokesman, raised the image of the bombings yesterday.
“Remember what happened in Uganda’s capital,’’ he said.
Related: "Al-CIA-Duh" Expanding Operations in East Africa
Al-Shabab has put up little resistance to the Kenyan forces, melting away into the thorny scrub. A militia supported by the Kenyans took control of Qoqani, about 60 miles from the Kenyan border, late on Sunday, residents said.
Residents in the nearby town of Afmadow said al-Shabab fighters were leaving, but that families were also fleeing into the bush, preferring to sleep in the open and face wild animals than risk any fighting.
“We know there are lions in the jungle but fighting is worse,’’ said Abdiqadir Mohamed.
Kenya’s final objective remains unclear. It has spent the last two years pushing for a buffer zone between itself and troubled Somalia.
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"US not told of Kenya’s foray into Somalia" October 21, 2011|By Jeffrey Gettleman and Josh Kron, New York Times
NAIROBI - As fierce fighting spread to new areas of Somalia yesterday, US officials said they had been taken by surprise by Kenya’s recent march into Somalia to battle Islamist militants.
Kenya is one of the United States’ closest allies in Africa, frequently cooperating on military and intelligence issues, and US officials have branded Islamist militants in Somalia a serious threat to the United States.
But Kenya’s sudden incursion into Somalia over the weekend caught the United States “on its heels,’’ one US official said yesterday. A former US official with experience in Africa said Kenyan officers had given their US counterparts no information before the offensive started.
Pffft!
I THINK WE TOLD THEM TO DO IT!
A senior US officer said there were no US military advisers or trainers with the Kenyan troops, but the officer would not comment on whether the United States was providing intelligence or reconnaissance information to the Kenyans.
Somali officials have likewise denied that they knew anything about the Kenyan offensive before it began, although it would be politically uncomfortable for them to publicly invite a foreign force onto their soil given the anger many Somalis felt toward Ethiopia’s incursion into the country to oust Islamists in 2006.
That's because Ethiopia ran out the Islamic government that ran out the CIA warlords.
Related:
Memory Hole: Somali Slander
Memory Hole: More on Somalia
For a brief six months there Somalia actually had some semblance of relative peace.
That's when the US told Ethiopia to go in.
Some analysts find it hard to believe that the US government, with a huge embassy and presence in Kenya, would not have had an inkling of Kenya’s plans, which have precipitated one of the biggest military operations the Kenyans have undertaken since it gained independence in 1963.
SO DO I!!
This is a government that simply CAN NOT BE BELIEVED regarding ANYTHING!
But the United States has acknowledged its involvement in Somalia before. During the Ethiopian invasion, for instance, US officials revealed that they had provided the Ethiopian military with intelligence, and that they had even coordinated airstrikes alongside Ethiopian maneuvers....
Meaning they would always tell us?
Yesterday, African Union troops stormed a stronghold of the Islamist militant group Al Shabab on the outskirts of Mogadishu, the Somali capital, while a militia backed by Kenyan troops simultaneously attacked another Al Shabab stronghold along the Kenya-Somalia border, taking it over and forcing the militants to flee....
Al Shabab, which controls large areas of southern Somalia, has been beheading people in its territory and blocking Western aid agencies from delivering food during a time of famine.
Is that ANY WAY to WIN OVER a PEOPLE?
The group claimed responsibility for a bombing in Uganda last year that left more than 70 people dead, and it has instituted strict laws banning music, soccer, and even bras from areas it controls.
:-)
That would win me over.
In the past six weeks, several Westerners have been kidnapped from Kenya near the Somali border. Kenyan officials immediately blamed Al Shabab for the abductions, citing them as a rationale for sending hundreds of troops into Somalia over the weekend. But many independent analysts doubt the abductions were committed by Al Shabab and say pirate or bandit gangs were probably the culprits.
Whoever they are they look like they work for western intelligence agencies.
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"Somali militants’ body claims disputed" October 22, 2011|By Abdi Guled and Katharine Houreld, Associated Press
MOGADISHU, Somalia - Al Qaeda-linked militants claimed to have killed 70 foreign African Union peacekeepers but an eyewitness said many of the bodies on display were likely Somali government soldiers. An AU spokesman said yesterday that the insurgents had stolen uniforms and dressed up scores of their own dead.
The militants said the bodies were proof they are still capable of putting up a fight despite coming under attack on two fronts.
African Union troops and government soldiers pushed the Al Shabab militia from their last bases in the capital Thursday, AU spokesman Paddy Ankunda said.
So much for the return(?).
And Kenyan troops supporting a progovernment militia have pushed at least 60 miles inside Somalia in the past week....
“It’s a manipulated picture,’’ Ankunda said. “They dressed up their own casualties....’’
We call it a newspaper here in AmeriKa.
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Related(?):
"Grenade attacks rattle Nairobi residents" October 25, 2011|Associated Press
NAIROBI - A grenade exploded near a crowded bus stop last night as people sought rides home, killing at least one person and wounding eight. The blast was the second grenade attack of the day in Kenya’s capital and came two days after the United States warned of possible terrorist attacks.
The US warning had implied that the militant Somali group Al Shabab would carry out reprisal attacks in response to Kenyan troops’ invasion of Somalia in mid-October. The Al Qaeda-linked group promised to unleash terrorist attacks in Nairobi in retaliation.
I suppose the CIA passed along the info.
The attacks occurred at a downtrodden bar and a bus stop in a working-class neighborhood.
Nairobi’s provincial commissioner, Njoroge Ndirangu, said it was too early to tell whether Al Shabab was involved....
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They obviously didn't get the message.
"Group wants court to look at Kenya killings" October 28, 2011|Associated Press
NAIROBI, Kenya - The International Criminal Court should investigate the killings and forced disappearances of more than 1,000 Kenyans as the government has failed to bring the perpetrators to justice, a human rights group said yesterday....
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Think those threats made Kenya move?
"Allies seek help to fight militants; Somalia, Kenya ask ‘big countries’ to blockade port" November 01, 2011|By Josh Kron, New York Times
MOGADISHU, Somalia - Kenya and Somalia yesterday called for other nations to help in their fight against Islamist insurgents, as an aid organization said that five civilians were killed and more than 50 injured when a military aircraft hunting the militants struck a displaced-persons camp in southern Somalia.
Most of the victims and injured were women and children, the organization said.
That is ONE HELL of a RESCUE!
In a meeting in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, delegations from Somalia and Kenya, which has sent hundreds of soldiers backed by tanks and gunships into Somalia in a premeditated assault to vanquish the Shabab Islamist militant group, called for a naval blockade on the Shabab-controlled seaport of Kismaayo.
There is a worldwide fleet out in the Indian Ocean. WTF?
A Somali government spokesman said Somalia was calling on “big countries and big organizations,’’ to help with the naval blockade of Kismaayo, a major moneymaker and densely populated stronghold for the Shabab inside Somalia.
Although the official did not name any countries specifically, he did say that Somalia was interested in help from NATO, whose UN-backed intervention in Libya officially ended yesterday....
That's what I thought.
The US government has said it is playing no direct or indirect role in Kenya’s operations in Somalia....
Pffffft!
However, the United States has carried out drone attacks inside the country and relies on private contractors to help advance its interests as well....
Related: Somalis Smarter Than Your Average AmeriKan
Who are the terrorists again?
The Kenyan army is well equipped and well trained, but it has virtually no experience fighting a conventional foreign war. Furthermore, rains have been bogging down the troops on the ground.
So airstrikes have increased. On Oct. 18, the Kenyan military said it had killed 73 Shabab members in southern Somalia. Several days later, the military said it had struck the coastal border city of Ras Kamboni.
Last week, Kenyan aircraft struck the city of Anole, also in southern Somalia, killing 19 Shabab militants, according to the military.
But Sunday, an aircraft carried out a strike on Jilib, which lies in Shabab territory, hitting a humanitarian camp where roughly 7,500 Somalis suffering from the famine were taking shelter, according to Doctors Without Borders.
Kenya confirmed yesterday an airstrike the day before in the area but said it had hit a Shabab training camp, not a humanitarian camp, killing 10 militants and injuring 47.
“We hit an al-Shabab camp; 500 meters from that camp is an internally-displaced-persons camp,’’ said a Kenyan military spokesman, Major Emmanuel Chirchir.
He said that Shabab militants had tried to fight back with a vehicle armed with antiaircraft guns but mistakenly drove into the humanitarian camp after the vehicle was hit by Kenyan aircraft.
“It was already burning, and because of all the ammunition, it exploded,’’ Chirchir said.
Governments are un-f***ing-believable, aren't they?
Worries are growing that the war is exacerbating an already grim humanitarian situation.
It ALWAYS DOES!
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"US, France deny airstrike in Somalia" November 17, 2011|By Associated Press
NAIROBI, Kenya - When thundering explosions rattled a small Somali town during a meeting of Islamist insurgent leaders, it sent them scurrying for safety. An international military appears to have launched the powerful, well-timed attack, but no one will admit it.
The two top possibilities - the US and French militaries - both deny responsibility. Officials from the two countries even suggested it might be the other.
Sigh.
Sunday night’s explosion in Afgoye, a heavily populated corridor along a main road leading out of the Somali capital, came as Somalia’s Al Qaeda-linked Al Shabab militia is fighting to defend itself on two fronts. African Union soldiers have taken over the capital of Mogadishu, and Kenyan soldiers crossed the border into southern Somalia last month.
But neither Kenya nor the AU force was likely to have launched the attack, said Lauren Gelfand, the Africa and Middle East editor of Jane’s Defense Weekly.
“To have that kind of strike capability is completely beyond [the AU force]. They have no air support,’’ said Gelfand. “The Kenyan F5s [jets] do have the capability, but whether they have the precision is unlikely.’’
Then they must have been the ones that hit the refugee camp.
None of the militant leaders was believed to have been killed.
“The Americans do have the assets required for a targeted strike in the region, as do the French,’’ said Gelfand. The French “have a base in Djibouti from which they launch their tactical support to the European Union’s antipiracy operations.’’
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And look who else is coming to help:
"Ethiopian troops in Somalia, villagers say" November 21, 2011|By Associated Press
MOGADISHU, Somalia - A convoy of Ethiopian troops entered Somalia yesterday, residents said, in a possible attempt to open a third front against Al Qaeda-linked Somali insurgents.
The incursion into the central town of Guriel appears to be the largest movement of Ethiopian troops into Somalia since an unpopular Ethiopian invasion nearly five years ago.
The Al Shabab insurgents are already fighting an African Union force in the Somali capital and Kenyan troops in the south, where Al Shabab said it attacked a Kenyan warship yesterday.
The arrival of the Ethiopians would stretch Al Shabab further but could also hand it a propaganda victory if the insurgents are able to capitalize on the memories of Ethiopia’s previous unpopular invasion....
Yeah, somehow when you kill a lot of people the locals don't like it.
Ethiopia’s foreign ministry spokesman Dina Mufti denied that troops have crossed the border into Somalia. But Guriel resident Ali Husein said he saw 21 vehicles carrying uniformed Ethiopian troops. “They waved at people then went to the south part of the town,’’ he said.
Resident Shamso Hamsi also said he saw men wearing the uniforms of Ethiopian troops.
Is there NOT ONE GOVERNMENT on this planet that will TELL the TRUTH?!!!
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