ICU official signs agreement with Harakat Al-shabab Mujahideen
BALADWEYN (Sh. M. Network) – Sheik Abdirahman Ibrahim Ma’ow, the chairman of the ICU administration in Hiran region had held press conference in Beledweyn town and said he signed an agreement with Harakat Al-shabab Mujahideen, witnesses told Shabelle radio on Friday.
The chairman said that he and his adminstration agreed with Harakat Al-shabab Mujahideen for cooperating the security of the region not to happen any bullet in Hiran region in central Somalia once again saying that his administration has split from the transitional government and will operate as and Islamic administration that is independent from the groups who are against each other in the country.
Asked about whether the deal was signed by him alone, he replied that there had been elders and politicians from his clan ‘Hawadle’ were present in the place where both administrations reached the deal.
From an assessment posted in a commentary carried at Hiiraan Online
Ever since the Governor of Hiiraan region, Sheik Abdirahman Ibrahim Ma’ow, declared the independence of Hiiraan and its administration from the current central government in Mogadishu, the region has gone through an uncertain phase of charting out the road ahead. This uncertainty and confusion reached its climax last week when it became evident that the governor of Hiiraan had entered into talks with the radical group of Alshabab in which they agreed to end all hostilities in the region and particularly in the regional capital, Beledweyne. The conclusion to this uncertain period of charting out the road ahead finally came yesterday (11-09-09) when the radical group of Alshabab reached its first agreement with a Somali clan, in this case that of Xawaadle which resides largely in Hiiraan region.
...
This agreement had 4 points:
1) That the clan of Xawaadle accepts the adoption of Islamic Law in their lands
2) That both parties withdraw their militia from the city of Beledweyne
3) That both parties end hostilities
4) That both parties solve their issues under Islamic Law.
This agreement was the first in its nature, since it is one between a radical Islamist faction vying for political power (toppling of the current TFG and the creation of a radical Islamic government) and a Somali clan. By scrutinizing the 4 points of the agreement one can detect the true reasons (intentions) behind this agreement, namely:
- A tactical move by Alshabab in which they want to focus on AMISOM in Mogadishu and Ahlu Sunnah in Central Somalia.
- A tactical move by the Governor of Hiiraan in which he wants to rally the clan of Xawaadle behind his political agenda for the region.
One can explain the coming about of this agreement by pointing out to the stiff opposition Alshabab had received in Hiiraan from the local population and thus from one of the largest clans in the region: Xawaadle. Another explanation lies in the fact that Alshabab is preparing for the second phase in their war effort, namely that of against AMISOM, who have now a new mandate which enables them to conduct military operations against the opposition factions, and more importantly the threat coming from the faction Ahlu Sunnah which after having conquered Galgaduud is pushing for Hiiraan and Middle Shabelle. So, the agreement is a tactical cease-fire in which Alshabab wants to focus its energy and resources on AMISOM in Mogadishu and Ahlu Sunnah in Central Somalia. For the Governor of Hiiraan the agreement also offers gains since he wants to rally his clansmen behind his peace initiatives for the region. This does not come as a surprise to most people since it was just recently when other key leaders of the clan, namely Gen.Mukhtar and the previous Governor of the region, have publicly accused the Governor of selling out the region to outsiders (Alshabab) and that he handed over the control of Beledweyne to them.
Thus, as becomes clear the agreement that was reached yesterday is one that both parties entered because of tactical considerations and not one that is meant to establish a lasting peace in the region.
We'll see about that, but then it's not really up to these two parties whether "lasting peace" is even possible, given the campaign by international forces (and their proxies) to wage counterinsurgency operations against Harakat al-Shabaab Mujahideen and Hizbul Islam. For one, you can bet that Ethiopia is still wanting revenge for the hotel bombing that claimed some of its officer corps. And the international players, especially those of imperialist hue, have a vested interest in preventing the much-demonized islamist groups from ever being viewed by external audiences in any positive light.
For instance,
USA and UN disagree on talks with Al Shabab
For the first time in the history of Somali conflict, external actors have openly clashed over policies aimed at talks with Somali Islamist militants groups such as Al Shahab. In an interview with the BBC radio 4 flagship today programme, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah the UN Special Representative to Somalia said he supports the idea of talks with any Somali.
“I invite any Somali, whatever he is, extremist or not, to make the first step to rebuild his country. I am open to all of them, any Somali who needs to make peace, my door is open, my telephone lines are open, I am ready to call them and I call them. We should not raise the level of the discussion to US. US has nothing to do with it.
”The US Ambassador to Kenya, Michael Ranneberger disagrees: “No, definitely not. The Al Shabab lacks any legitimacy in Somalia. I mean, they are an extremist group with significant outside support. I think that is, by and large, something anathema to the Somali people. I know what our position is. It is not appropriate for us or for the TFG to be talking to the Al Shabab. They don’t have the legitimacy that entitles them to be talked to,” he told Mike Thompson of the BBC.
Hmm.. Let's see here.
"Al Shabab [sic] lacks any legitimacy in Somalia"
Well, they control exponentially far more territory and people than the largely fictitious TFG, which was created by foreigners and whose only lifeline is entirely dependent upon "outside support".
"I know what our position is. It is not appropriate for us or for the TFG to be talking to the Al Shabab"
Which is exactly what you would expect Sh. Sharif's handler to say if the main raison d'être for peeling him off from the ICU and promoting him to power has been to neutralize Somalia's experiment in Islamic revolution by pitting Islamist against Islamist, brother against brother.
"They don’t have the legitimacy that entitles them to be talked to"
Now that's different than claiming they don't have any legitimacy period. Just a particular kind of legitimacy then, which in this case has nothing to do w/ authenticity and everything to do w/ Ranneberger's imagined "position".
-- -- --
Fault lines in the TFG are quickly widening
Somalia MPs oppose Djibouti anti-piracy deal
MOGADISHU, Somalia Sep 14 (Garowe Online) - A group of lawmakers in Somalia have rejected a new deal between the governments of Somalia and Djibouti, which states that Djibouti will be the base for anti-piracy training and operations, Radio Garowe reports.
MP Mowlid Ma'ani told the BBC Somali Service that the new agreement is "illegal" and warned against its consequences.
"Recently, we [parliament] removed our feet from mud after the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) signed a maritime agreement with Kenya, and I see this [Djibouti deal] as new mud," said MP Ma'ani.
He noted that Somali Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmake inked a deal with the federal State of Puntland in northern Somalia, allowing Puntland to be the base for anti-piracy operations.
"It is unfortunate…but a Minister cannot change an agreement signed by a Prime Minister," he added. Puntland's president, Dr. Abdirahman Mohamed "Farole," has warned the TFG not to violate the agreement signed in Galkayo on August 23.
...
There is a rift developing between President Sheikh Sharif and Prime Minister Sharmake. According to government sources in Mogadishu, the Prime Minister was "unaware" of the new deal signed in Djibouti, which many see as a violation of the Galkayo agreement.
From an analysis at Garowe Online
The Puntland State of Somalia has warned the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia (TFG) against failing to honour the agreement signed by the TFG prime minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke and Puntland president, Abdirahman Farole in Galkacyo in August. The warning comes in the wake of an agreement signed by the Somali Minister Fisheries, Abdirahman Ibbi and Djibouti minister of Transport, Ali Hassan Bahdoon, this week.
The new agreement will make Djibouti the centre of anti-piracy campaign. The Puntland leadership warned against any attempt to sack the Somali prime minister. It is not secret that power struggle has erupted between the Somali president Sheikh Sharif and his prime minister. President Sharif banks on the expanded Parliament to be able sack the prime minister in the same way that the former Transitional National Government president Abdiqasim Salad Hassan sacked his prime minister Ali Khalif Galaydh in 2002. Unlike Ali Khalif Galaydh, the TFG prime minister, Omar Abdirahshid Sharmarke, enjoys support in his powerbase, Puntland, and has put a lot of effort into convincing the Puntland leadership that the TFG can be serious about federalism although the Sharia law was passed without any consultation with autonomous administrations.
Prof. Weinstein, in a critique of the latest egregious ICG paper on Puntland, observes that
The Galkayo agreement represented a symbolic victory for Farole rather than a practical gain. Not only is it ineffective and embattled; the T.F.G. is also severely divided. Indeed, the agreement has already begun to unravel, with factions in the T.F.G. opposed to it reportedly moving to unseat Sharmarke. On September 13, the T.F.G.'s deputy prime minister and fisheries minister, Abdirahman Ibbi, and Djibouti's transport minister, Ali Hasan Bahdon, signed an agreement to establish an anti-piracy training center in Djibouti in return for Djibouti's promised military aid to the T.F.G. Ibbi remarked that Djibouti's president, Ismail Omar Guelleh had requested the provision on the training center in meetings with the T.F.G.'s president, Sh. Sharif Sh. Ahmad. The Farole administration predictably saw the Djibouti agreement as a violation of the provision of the Galkayo accord that specifies Puntland as the site of the anti-piracy command. It did not help that Ibbi told Somaliweyn Media that putting the anti-piracy command in Puntland would be like trusting "a hyena to take goats to the grazing field."
...
As for the anti-piracy center, Farole would like to get closer to the donors, who would pay for the base, but he knows that Djibouti is fast becoming a dependency of the donors and has abandoned its traditional neutrality and role as a presumptive honest broker (France and the United States have military bases there, and Djibouti hosted the conference in which Sh. Sharif Sh. Ahmed became president of the T.F.G., has promised troops to support the T.F.G., and is providing training facilities for T.F.G. security forces). Djibouti expects pay-back for doing the donors' bidding. It remains to be seen which faction of the T.F.G. wins out in the battle over the location of the base, and whether Sharmarke, who comes from Puntland, will be able to hold his post as prime minister in the ongoing power struggle.
On that divide, the article I cited on it in last week's thread stated,
There is growing friction among the top TFG leaders, as President Sheikh Sharif has "sided" with Finance Minister Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden and Fisheries Minister Abdirahman Ibbi over Prime Minister Sharmake.
Some MPs have now started going after Finance Minister Sharif Hassan, pulling out a laundry list of some rather heavy charges
Somalia MPs accuse Finance Minister of corruption
MOGADISHU, Somalia Sep 19 (Garowe Online) - A group of lawmakers in Somalia have publicly criticized the Horn of Africa country's finance minister, accusing him of mismanaging public funds and taking steps to "destroy" the interim government, Radio Garowe reports.
...
"The Finance Minister illegally misuses the small income collected at the port and airport in Mogadishu," said MP Afrah, who is a member of the TFG parliament's financial accountability subcommittee.
Further, the lawmakers accused the Finance Minister of "directly mismanaging donor funds," particularly financial donations from Arab countries that support the TFG in Mogadishu.
"Government funds are not deposited at the Central Bank and there is no paper trail for accountability purposes," MP Afrah added.
The group of lawmakers said Finance Minister Sharif Hassan has not presented the 2009 budget to the TFG parliament.
"Sharif Hassan is currently leading an illegal process to mint Somali Shillings without parliament approval, which will have a negative impact on our [Somali] economy," MP Afrah said.
Further, the Somali MPs accused the country's Finance Minister of entering into a controversial agreement with Kenya, whereby imported products from Kenya are taxed in Nairobi before arriving in parts of south-central Somalia.
According to the MPs, this scheme, which does not include imports to regional authorities in Somaliland and Puntland, is led by "relatives" of Finance Minister Sharif Hassan.
...
The group of MPs, who issued a strongly-worded statement referring to the Finance Minister as "Sharif Sakiin," or Sharif the Razor Blade, said he plans to derail last month's agreement between the TFG and the Puntland State government in northern Somalia.
"Sharif Hassan is directly involved in a scheme to create friction between the TFG and Puntland, which is rooted in the agreement Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid [Ali Sharmake] signed [with Puntland] which called for the establishment of a Somali naval base in Puntland to fight pirates," said MP Afrah, who was reading aloud the written statement.
The Finance Minister was accused of "using Fisheries Minister Abdirahman Ibbi" to ink an anti-piracy cooperation deal with neighboring Djibouti, a move that angered Puntland President Abdirahman Farole.
And back to the Djibouti issue, Biyokulule Online reprints a private intel report from earlier this month
Djiboutians helping the TFG in Somalia
According to information obtained by The Indian Ocean Newsletter in Djibouti, around thirty Djibouti servicemen are on a mission in Mogadishu to help the Somalian Transitional Federal Government (TFG) army with its training. About ten of them come from the Sheikh Osman`s camp, including drivers of armoured vehicles and certain are close to the Djibouti chief of army staff, General Zakaria Cheikh Ibrahim. Some soldiers who refused to go to Somalia were sanctioned. The Afar civilian doctor Hamadou Ali Gardé was sacked from his government job at the end of July for the same reason. On the other hand, some high ranking officers, such as Colonel Omar Bouh and Colonel Youssouf Kayad, who did not want to go to train Somalian soldiers in Mogadishu, were not sanctioned at all. President Ismail Omar Guelleh informed them in mid-August that he would not be needing them if they refused to go to the help of the Somalians.
485 Somalians are already receiving military training at Holhol camp in Djibouti supervised by French instructors. With the backing of the European Union (EU) and probably financial aid from the United States, some Somalian officers should shortly be trained at a French military camp in Djibouti.
As I pointed out a few weeks back, it is estimated that ethnic Somalis make up 60% of the population of Djibouti.
Al Shabaab warns Djibouti not to send peacekeepers to Somalia
Sheikh Ali "Dheere" Mohamud, the Al Shabaab spokesman, told reporters in Mogadishu on Friday that Al Shabaab will fight any soldier from Djibouti that arrives in Somalia.
"We warn the people of Djibouti not to send their boys to Somalia and to join the enemy that is slaughtering Somalis," Sheikh Ali Dheere said.
He specifically warned Djiboutian President Ismail Omar Ghelle, saying: "He [Djiboutian President] used to say he is distressed by the suffering in Somalia, but now it is clear that he was lying and is on the side of the enemy."
Earlier this month, Djiboutian Foreign Minister Mohamud Ali Yusuf declared that 500 soldiers from Djibouti would join the 5,000-strong African Union peacekeeping force (AMISOM) currently deployed in Mogadishu to back the fragile interim government.
-- -- --
On the first major event that occurred in Somalia this week, and of which I haven't had time to read very widely, there remain more questions than answers. We know that the U.S. carried out another of their extralegal operations in the country, this time claiming to have killed a suspected al-Qa'idah operative the FBI has been wanting to questions for years regarding bombings in East Africa. But trying to follow the media coverage of what exactly transpired is an exercise in frustration.
Where there four helicopters or six? How many were U.S.? Did they attack two vehicles or just one? Was everyone killed or did some survive? Was Saleh Nabhan killed or was he taken alive? Is his real age 28 or 30? Did the soldiers on the helicopters take only wounded survivors or some of the dead too? Why did witnesses in the early reports say that the helicopters and soldiers had the French flag on them?
Maybe there are some clearer accounts that I have not found yet, and perhaps more will be revealed as time elapses.
There were even conflicting accounts in the same report, as in this Reuters story
MOGADISHU, Sept 14, 2009 (Reuters) - Suspected foreign commandos on board two helicopters killed at least two people when they attacked a car thought to be carrying Islamist insurgents in southern Somalia, witnesses said on Monday.
Residents said the incident took place near Roobow village in Barawe District, some 250 km (155 miles) south of Mogadishu, and that a senior rebel commander might be among the dead.
Local man Bashir Abdi told Reuters soldiers in two helicopters opened fire on a car passing near their village.
"The troops appeared to have French flags on the shoulders of their uniforms," Abdi said by telephone from the scene. He said two people were killed and others taken by the soldiers.
...
Another witness, Abdulkadir Muse, said al Shabaab insurgents exchanged fire with the commandos. He said all four people in the car were killed and their bodies taken by the foreigners.
A number of reports mentioned Nabhan's alleged role in the 1998 embassy bombings.
Mareeg Online:
Foreign helicopters have killed two people, one of them believed to be one of al Qaeda leaders in Barawe town in southern Somalia.
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Unconfirmed reports say Saleh Nabhan, who the US says was behind the attacks in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 was killed in the raid.
Some reports have also suggested that troops got down from the helicopters and took two wounded people with them.
If Nabhan is only 28 years old now, then in 1998 he would have been only 17. Or 19 if he's now 30. Surely there's no serious claim he was a leader behind those attacks eleven years ago.
The western media did their part to make the story digestible, dancing around the extrajudicial aspect of it all w/ clearly couched qualifications, like in this Times Online story:
US commandos killed Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan in a helicopter raid on his convoy as it travelled through the Barawe district in lawless southern Somalia. US officials said that another foreign militant had been killed and two men captured.
Nabhan, a 30-year-old Kenyan, was suspected of building the truck bomb that killed 15 people at the Paradise hotel in Mombasa in 2002 shortly after a botched missile attack on an Israeli airliner that was leaving the city's airport.
He was also suspected of involvement in the simultaneous bombings of the US embassies in Dar Es Salaam and Nairobi in 1998 in which hundreds of people were killed.
An AP article points out that
Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, a Kenyan citizen, was wanted for questioning in connection with the car bombing of a beach resort in Kenya and the near simultaneous attempt to shoot down an Israeli airliner in 2002.
None, though, even hint at the role of the U.S. government, on the orders of President Obama, taking it upon themselves to act as judge, jury & executioner in this case. And it's no different than the earlier missile attacks on Somali territory that have killed numerous civilians and livestock, destroying property and inflaming local anger against the impunity of it all. It evidently goes without question that the U.S. is above international law.
Some reports even had the audacity to stress how the use of helicopters and SOF's, rather than guided missiles, displayed an awareness on the part of the U.S. to protect against such civilian casualties and was somehow commendable.
It's not even clear, though, exactly who was killed. The official spokesperson for Harakat al-Shabaab Mujahideen was quoted in several sources as saying that their information was that there were six helicopters and that Nabhan was taken alive.
Mareeg Online:
Sheik Ali Dhere confirmed that the three of his security guards were killed in the attack but he added that they only knew that Saleh was wounded in the attack and was taken alive by the US soldiers.
“Six American Helicopters attacked our brother Saleh Nabhan and three teenagers of his security guards. We only know that Saleh was inured in the attack,” said Ali Dhere.
From the AP article cited earlier,
Two U.S. military officials said forces from the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command were involved in the raid in southern Somalia. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the operation was secret.
Three senior U.S. officials familiar with the operation said Tuesday that Nabhan was killed. The officials in Washington spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record.
Abdi Fitah Shawey, deputy mayor for security affairs in Somalia's capital, also confirmed 30-year-old Nabhan was killed. He cited intelligence reports.
Al-Shabab militia spokesman Sheik Ali Mohamud Rage confirmed the attack but not Nabhan's death.
"We are sure that the enemy took Nabhan with wounds, but we do not know that he is alive or dead," he said.
Somali witnesses to Monday's raid say six helicopters buzzed an insurgent-held village near Barawe, some 155 miles (250 kilometres) south of Mogadishu, before two of the aircraft opened fire on a vehicle, killing two and wounding two.
Another thing you notice in the coverage of these type of operations is the reliance of off-the-record sources, which makes it even more difficult to seperate the facts from the misinformation and deliberate disinformation. An earlier report in one of the major wire services quoted an anonymous USG official saying that the U.S. only used two helicopters in the raid. It's not hard to imagine that more than just the U.S. was involved in supporting the raid, which could explain the witness claims of French helicopters and soldiers. It doesn't seem necessary or sane for US SOF personnel to have decoyed as such.
Other than the focus on Nabhan, and Rage's note that three of his teenage bodyguards were killed, Garowe Online had also reported that
Sources close to Al Shabaab insurgents in Mogadishu tell Garowe Online that the insurgent group's official in charge of the regions, identified as Sheikh Hussein Ali Fidow, was among the dead.
Have to wait and see if more solid information eventually trickles out to help in understanding exactly what went down that morning.
Going back to the AP article one more time, there is one more interesting aspect of all this to draw attention to:
Ernst Jan Hogendoorn, Horn of Africa Project Director of the International Crisis Group, said the "surgical" precision of Monday's raid shows that U.S. has specific intelligence in Somalia.
"I think it will certainly make al-Shabab leaders much more cautious when they are operating because obviously the United States has very precise intelligence about their movements," he said.
From something I pointed in the thread from two weeks ago, as a propaganda piece, mostly built on the use of anonymous sources, that ran in Nairobi's Daily Nation back in June claimed
A Mr Abu Mansur al-Meriki, a US citizen, is Nabhan’s deputy in the Al-Muhajirun chain of command.
Hmmm. The U.S.American poster-boy recruiter for jihad in Somalia? Wouldn't that be interesting if it was indeed true. It certainly would lend support to the speculation that al-Amriki is an infiltrator on behalf of U.S. intelligence services, wittingly or not.
And, speaking of "very precise intelligence", this brings us to the second major story this week in Somalia, the double-suicide bombings on Thursday of AMISOM headquarters and a DynCorp office right as important meetings were taking place, which were supposedly organizing a post-Ramadan pre-emptive "peace-enforcement" attack on insurgent forces in and around Mogadishu. Presumably, this is in line w/ the reports of a quiet enhancement of the AMISOM mandate that we've been hearing about from the Ugandan's lately.
At any rate, as we saw w/ the strategically-timed hotel bombing in Beledweyne earlier this summer, Harakat al-Shabaab Mujahideen forces got in their own pre-emptive attack, wounding and killing at least 61 people, including the already acknowledged deaths of 17 AMISOM troops.
From an AU Press Statement on Friday
At around 12:00hrs yesterday, Al Shabaab insurgents launched a suicide attack on AMISOM Force Headquarters and a DynCorp office in Mogadishu within the vicinity of the Aden Abdulle International Airport.
...
One vehicle focused its attack on the Force Headquarters while the other one targeted a DynCorp office located in the area. The attack was carried out as a high level TFG/AMISOM security meeting was ending. Following the explosions, insurgents in the area launched a mortar attack to maximize the number of casualties.
According to the latest estimates, 21 people died (4 Somalis, 5 Ugandans and 12 Burundians) including the Deputy Force Commander of AMISOM, Major General Juvenal Niyoyunguruza. At least 40 other people were injured ... so far, 26 people have been evacuated from Mogadishu to Nairobi for medical attention.
(That makes at least 29 Burundi soldiers killed in Somalia since 2007)
Garowe Online:
An unidentified fighter who spoke for Al Shabaab told reporters that there was a "secret meeting" being held at the AMISOM base, with American, European and Somali officials present.
Citing a police official in Nairobi, the Associated Press reported that at least one American was transported to Kenya for medical treatment after being wounded in the Mogadishu blasts.
This is the first public acknowledgement of a DynCorp office inside Somalia, as far as I am aware, or of any U.S. presence there, even.
Good luck trying to find much mention of that in any media coverage. Like the role of DynCorp in chartering the ilyushin cargo plane that went down in Lake Victoria with a secret cargo of explosive ordnance, references to the company have largely been suppressed. CNN did give it one or two lines near the end of a story they did over the weekend, but there is definately a media blackout here.
Nor were there many reports on the number of deaths attributed to AMISOM and TFG forces firing blindly into, in what-has-become-routine-now, the usual neighborhoods.
From an AP report on the 17th
An hour later, an Associated Press reporter saw missiles fired from the AU base strike rebel-controlled areas of the capital, hitting several civilians.
Continuing with the AP report, it provides one of the initial accounts of how the suicide attacks managed to be so successful.
An airport security officer said the explosions were caused by two white Land Cruisers with United Nations logos.
"The soldiers at the gate assumed they were U.N. cars and opened the gate for them," the security official said, asking that his name not be used because he is not authorized to speak to the media. "When the cars entered one of them sped toward a petrol depot and exploded. The other one exploded in a nearby area."
Some reports added that the drivers spoke perfect English, which may or may not be true, though it could be an enhancement added on to support the narrative of U.S. somalis being lured to the country and turned into suicide bombers.
And it was also said that the U.N. vehicles were immediately followed through the gate by one or two truckloads of TFG soldiers.
If you read the AU press statement linked above, the official story is now that the U.N. trucks rammed the gates. Given all other accounts, including one from the TFG police commander claiming that armed men got off of one of the trucks in the compound, this is a false statement. Embarassing as it is, it sounds like the security at the base fell for the ruse, hook, line & sinker.
Several media sources also quote Rage stating that the attack was revenge for Monday's SOF raid.
al Jazeera:
Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage, an spokesman for rebel group al-Shabab, claimed responsibility for the attacks saying they were to avenge the death of Salah Ali Saleh Nabhan, a Kenyan-born al Qaeda suspect, who was killed in southern Somalia on Monday during a raid by US special forces.
"We have got our revenge for our brother Nabhan. Two suicide car bombs targeting the AU base, praise Allah," Rage said.
"It took place at noon on the 27th of Ramadan, the best blessing. We knew the infidel government and AU troops planned to attack us after the holy month. This is a message to them."
While revenge may have played a role in carrying out the attack, it's highly unlikely that it was in response to events earlier in the week and, as the second quote above makes clear, it was, again, a pre-emptive strike against AMISOM operations. The western media focus on the revenge angle in order to suppress the actual motive. The same thing happened after the suicide attack in Beledweyn - what is actually a tactical manuever gets sold as meaningless violence. One does not have to endorse suicide attacks to understand what is going on here.
An interestingly, the western media are quoting Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, in his address before the Eid prayer at Elasha Biyaha, as endorsing suicide attacks, implicitly aimed at the U.S.
Reuters:
The leader of Somalia's Hizbul Islam rebels on Sunday justified the suicide bombing of an African Union peacekeeping force's base and urged insurgents to carry out other similar attacks.
...
"We are calling our brothers in the fight against Muslim enemies to increase suicide bombings, which I believe is an acceptable tactic in Islam when it comes to defending your people and your religion," Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys said.
A former ally of the U.N.-backed President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed said all weapons were fair game in the fight against Western powers. "People should kill with everything, even knives," he said.
I have yet to see a transcript of what Aweys actually said or the entire context in which he said it, but other media point out his focus on the U.S. raid on Monday, which will no doubt get woven into justification for elevated threats to u.S. interests in the region, largely keeping Kenya and Ethiopia both stable and in the stable.
Daily Nation:
Speaking during Eid prayer at Elasha Biyaha on the outskirts of Mogadishu today, Sheikh Aweys strongly condemned the killing of Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, the suspected al-Qaeda regional leader, by American commandos.
Sheikh Aweys termed the US operation that took place in Barawe District in southern Somalia on September 14, an unwarranted intervention by US forces.
The leader of Hizbu Islam acknowledged that Nabhan, the international jihadist from Kenya, and his colleagues, died in martyrdom.
“They were killed unlawfully,” remarked Sheikh Aweys, who indicated that the action will not end the struggle of the Islamists in Somalia.
“It is not the first time the Americans are intervening in Somalia, militarily,” said Sheikh Aweys. “They have been hostile to the Muslim people of this country.”
-- -- --
And, finally, related to both the news that the U.S. company DynCorp does have an office in Mogadishu and that TFG and AMISOM forces regularly fire indiscriminately into neighborhoods not in support of the imposed government, the latest dispatch from Inner City Press, blogging from the U.N. tells us that
In Somalia, WFP Spins As It Hires Mercenaries, Sources Say, of Fig Leaves and Famine and Blackwater / Xe Training the TFG
UNITED NATIONS, September 20 -- The UN World Food Program's activities in Somalia, portrayed critically last week by the Wall Street Journal and defended by the BBC, bear a closer look. The Wall Street Journal ran a belated story on U.S. and UK concerns that some of their funding of WFP is running off to the Al Shabaab rebels. Inner City Press followed up, asking top UN humanitarian John Holmes about the allegations. Holmes, like the BBC, pinned them on the U.S., not his native UK. ...
The BBC ran a piece saying that U.S. sanctions are leading to starving children in zones that are rebel controlled. Inner City Press' Somali sources, too, say that the U.S. and UK are playing the politics of food, trying to starve out those who live in Shabaab controlled areas. They wonder why the UN's Ban Ki-moon has said nothing about this.
But now sources tell Inner City Press that the World Food Program, in part to counter U.S. concerns and also to serve U.S. policy, has hired mercenaries, "Blackwater" it is said. The sources go further, saying that the stated size of WFP's program in Somalia cannot be verified with real food purchases, that some portion is just cover for funding mercenaries' training of militias supportive of the Transitional Federal Government.
These sources say this is not the first financial shenanigans by WFP, that much of WFP's appeal for funding is to cover a "black hole" in WFP's past budget, money borrowed in expectation of pledges.
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