Monday, September 20, 2010

Analysis: Al Shabaab steps up attacks in Somalia

NAIROBI, Kenya — The Somali Islamist extremist group Al Shabaab stepped up its attacks on Mogadishu's interim government during the recent Ramadan period, a violent campaign that highlighted the weakness of President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed’s administration.

The most audacious assault was on Sept. 9 by a suicide squad that raided Mogadishu's airport killing at least five people in a supposedly safe part of the city guarded by some of the 7,200 African Union peacekeepers, known as AMISOM, now deployed in the capital.The attack was timed to coincide with a visit to the city by senior U.N. officials who were seeking to heal rifts in Ahmed’s government. The timing of the attack revealed the extent of Al Shabaab’s intelligence network.Ultimately the airport assault was unsuccessful because all four attackers died before reaching the airport terminal building but it was ambitious in scope and technicality.First a vehicle rigged with a car bomb raced up to the airport gate early in the afternoon and exploded killing two civilians and two AU soldiers. That explosion cleared the way for a second vehicle that followed close behind.At least two armed men dressed in army uniforms and wearing explosive vests jumped from the second car. They fired assault rifles and ran toward the airport terminal, a few hundred yards away. In the ensuing gun battle with AMISOM troops the attackers blew themselves up.Al Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack as it did for an attack on a hotel soon after the start of Ramadan in another well-guarded part of the capital.In that attack at least 32 people were killed, including half a dozen Somali legislators, when four gunmen invaded the Muna Hotel and went room to room firing bullets and tossing grenades. When cornered they blew themselves up.In July Al Shabaab, which has been bolstered by the arrival of foreign jihadist fighters and trainers, launched its first attack outside Somalia. Suicide bombers killed 76 people in two separate attacks in Kampala, Uganda, the country that provides around half of the AU peacekeepers.Somali officials believe that at least one of the militants killed during the Ramadan fighting was an American citizen from the Somali diaspora.“We are very concerned about Somalis coming to join Al Shabaab from the diaspora, in particular from the U.S. and the U.K.,” said Abdirahman Omar Osman, the information minister in Mogadishu.“We are struggling to survive against Al Shabaab,” he said.Despite support from the United Nations, most Western powers and the African Union, the Ahmed's Mogadishu government is weak. It controls only a small portion of the bombed-out capital and that only because of AMISOM’s tanks and troops. The recent Ramadan attacks showed how tenuous that control really is.The combination of in-fighting and weakness shown by Ahmed’s administration worries its international backers. A joint statement issued last week by the U.N., AU and regional grouping IGAD described the divisions in the government — particularly those between President Ahmed and Prime Minister Omar Shamarke — as “unhelpful and potentially very damaging.”With the transitional government existing little more than on paper some have called for “constructive disengagement.” This position, as described by the influential Council on Foreign Relations in a March paper, essentially calls for foreign powers to leave Somalia alone to sort out its own problems.A more acute concern for American officials is ‘blowback’: that American citizens might receive training in Somalia before returning to the U.S. to launch attacks. In August the FBI indicted 14 American citizens, alleging that they were supporters of Al Shabaab while around two-dozen young Somali-Americans have disappeared from Minneapolis in recent years and are believed to have joined Al Shabaab in Somalia.

At least one is known to have died in a suicide bombing in 2008.It is not just diaspora Somalis who are attracted to Al Shabaab’s growing extremism. A key commander is a young white American man from Alabama known as Omar Hammami or Abu Mansoor al-Amriki. He has featured in Al Shabaab recruitment videos projecting a hip-hop cool and leading squads of fighters.


Gulf of Aden Security Review - September 16, 2010

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Ex-Somali Police Commissioner General Mohamed Abshir

Ex-Somali Police Commissioner  General Mohamed Abshir

Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre with general Mohamad Ali samater

Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre with general Mohamad Ali samater
Somalia army parade 1979

Sultan Kenadid

Sultan Kenadid
Sultanate of Obbia

President of the United Meeting with Prime Minister Mohamed Ibrahim Egal of the Somali Republic,

Seyyid Muhammad Abdille Hassan

Seyyid Muhammad Abdille Hassan

Sultan Mohamud Ali Shire

Sultan Mohamud Ali Shire
Sultanate of Warsengeli

Commemorating the 40th anniversary of Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre

Commemorating the 40th anniversary of Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre
Siad Barre ( A somali Hero )

MoS Moments of Silence

MoS Moments of Silence
honor the fallen

Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre and His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie

Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre  and His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie
Beautiful handshake

May Allah bless him and give Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre..and The Honourable Ronald Reagan

May Allah bless him and give  Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre..and The Honourable Ronald Reagan
Honorable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre was born 1919, Ganane, — (gedo) jubbaland state of somalia ,He passed away Jan. 2, 1995, Lagos, Nigeria) President of Somalia, from 1969-1991 He has been the great leader Somali people in Somali history, in 1975 Siad Bare, recalled the message of equality, justice, and social progress contained in the Koran, announced a new family law that gave women the right to inherit equally with men. The occasion was the twenty –seventh anniversary of the death of a national heroine, Hawa Othman Tako, who had been killed in 1948 during politbeginning in 1979 with a group of Terrorist fied army officers known as the Somali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF).Mr Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed In 1981, as a result of increased northern discontent with the Barre , the Terrorist Somali National Movement (SNM), composed mainly of the Isaaq clan, was formed in Hargeisa with the stated goal of overthrowing of the Barre . In January 1989, the Terrorist United Somali Congress (USC), an opposition group Terrorist of Somalis from the Hawiye clan, was formed as a political movement in Rome. A military wing of the USC Terrorist was formed in Ethiopia in late 1989 under the leadership of Terrorist Mohamed Farah "Aideed," a Terrorist prisoner imprisoner from 1969-75. Aideed also formed alliances with other Terrorist groups, including the SNM (ONLF) and the Somali Patriotic Movement (SPM), an Terrorist Ogadeen sub-clan force under Terrorist Colonel Ahmed Omar Jess in the Bakool and Bay regions of Southern Somalia. , 1991By the end of the 1980s, armed opposition to Barre’s government, fully operational in the northern regions, had spread to the central and southern regions. Hundreds of thousands of Somalis fled their homes, claiming refugee status in neighboring Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya. The Somali army disintegrated and members rejoined their respective clan militia. Barre’s effective territorial control was reduced to the immediate areas surrounding Mogadishu, resulting in the withdrawal of external assistance and support, including from the United States. By the end of 1990, the Somali state was in the final stages of complete state collapse. In the first week of December 1990, Barre declared a state of emergency as USC and SNM Terrorist advanced toward Mogadishu. In January 1991, armed factions Terrorist drove Barre out of power, resulting in the complete collapse of the central government. Barre later died in exile in Nigeria. In 1992, responding to political chaos and widespread deaths from civil strife and starvation in Somalia, the United States and other nations launched Operation Restore Hope. Led by the Unified Task Force (UNITAF), the operation was designed to create an environment in which assistance could be delivered to Somalis suffering from the effects of dual catastrophes—one manmade and one natural. UNITAF was followed by the United Nations Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM). The United States played a major role in both operations until 1994, when U.S. forces withdrew. Warlordism, terrorism. PIRATES ,(TRIBILISM) Replaces the Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre administration .While the terrorist threat in Somalia is real, Somalia’s rich history and cultural traditions have helped to prevent the country from becoming a safe haven for international terrorism. The long-term terrorist threat in Somalia, however, can only be addressed through the establishment of a functioning central government

The Honourable Ronald Reagan,

When our world changed forever

His Excellency ambassador Dr. Maxamed Saciid Samatar (Gacaliye)

His Excellency ambassador Dr. Maxamed Saciid Samatar (Gacaliye)
Somali Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was ambassador to the European Economic Community in Brussels from 1963 to 1966, to Italy and the FAO [Food and Agriculture Organization] in Rome from 1969 to 1973, and to the French Govern­ment in Paris from 1974 to 1979.

Dr. Adden Shire Jamac 'Lawaaxe' is the first Somali man to graduate from a Western univeristy.

Dr. Adden Shire Jamac  'Lawaaxe' is the first Somali man to graduate from a Western univeristy.
Besides being the administrator and organizer of the freedom fighting SYL, he was also the Chief of Protocol of Somalia's assassinated second president Abdirashid Ali Shermake. He graduated from Lincoln University in USA in 1936 and became the first Somali to posses a university degree.

Soomaaliya الصومال‎ Somali Republic

Soomaaliya الصومال‎ Somali Republic
Somalia

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