Calm has returned to the war zones of yesterday’s heavy fighting with shelling in north of Somali capital Mogadishu, just as Harakat Al-shabab Mujahideen officials claimed victories over the fighting, official and witness said on Tuesday.
At least 4 people were killed and more others wounded after bitter shelling and fighting between the transitional government of Somalia and Harakat Al-shabab Mujahideen broke out in Abdal aziz and Shibis districts in north Mogadishu.
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..Sheik Ali Mohamed Hussein, the governor of Harakat Al-shabab Mujahideen had held press conference for the journalists in Mogadishu claiming victories over the fighting adding that they took over more new military bases of the TFG in Abdal aziz district in Mogadishu.
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Shabelle Media: Government soldiers exchange gunfire, halt movement of traffic in Mogadishu
heavily armored troops of the transnational government of Somalia have exchanged gunfire at Ex-control Afgoi, a strategic checkpoint for the government that connects between the Mogadishu and Afgoi towns halting all movement of the traffic from each town.
Drivers of the public traffic told reporters that clash of the government troops at Afgoi checkpoint in Mogadishu came as the troops dispute over the taxation money which the troops take from the traffic that daily travel between the Mogadishu and Afgoi town, which 30 kilometers to south of Mogadishu adding that they were ordered to halt the movement of the traffic until the tense of the government soldiers halted.
No casualties were reported so far, but reports say that both sides exchanged heavy gunfire early on Monday morning as the passengers with their vehicles going to start their daily transport between the two towns in southern Somalia.
It was last week when such war between the soldiers in the checkpoint fought there.
The clash between the transitional government troops had been increasing in Mogadishu recently and it was yesterday when government soldiers fought between Zobe and Banadir intersection in Mogadishu, killing two soldiers.
There were more other clashes between the government troops happened in the capital and caused casualties of civilians and soldiers and the fighting comes as the administration of Banadir region called for the security department of the government to start a crackdown on the security of the capital to decrease the confrontations between the government soldiers.
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Haaretz: Israeli indicted in U.S. for smuggling arms to Somalia
Foreign Ministry and Defense Ministry sources adamantly denied yesterday that they were in any way involved in arms shipments to Somalia.
Spokesmen for both ministries were responding to news of the arrest in the U.S. of Hanoch Miller, an Israeli arms merchant, for allegedly illegal arms sales to Somalia, forging documents, money laundering and violating the UN arms embargo on Somalia.
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According to the charges brought against Miller at a Florida district court, he was arrested with an unnamed American partner for alleged involvement in the sale of hundreds of AK-47s to the government of Somaliland, a breakaway district in Somalia since 1991. Miller and his American partner allegedly organized arms shipments, which apparently included arms bought in Bosnia, and had planned to fly them from there in cargo planes to Somalia. The indictment also mentions a shipment that was sent from Panama.
The suspect allegedly presented "end user" documents of the defense ministry of Chad. Arms shipments to that African country are not forbidden.
The two were arrested in a sting operation of the U.S. Customs, when one of their contact persons, whose help they sought in organizing the air shipments, turned out to be an undercover Customs agent.
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Even though the indictment does not mention him by name, Joseph O'Toole, a former colonel in the U.S. Army who was arrested in the 1980s for allegedly illegally selling arms to Iran along with Israeli Ari Ben-Menashe, is mentioned in the case.
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The strategic location of the breakaway territory, which borders on the Gulf of Aden and the sea routes of the Indian Ocean from Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and through the Red Sea, have always been important for Israel's geo-strategic interests. In the past Israel has shown great interest in the countries of the Horn of Africa, and the Mossad had secret links with some countries there.
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Somaaljecel: Somali president reportedly refuses to meet Ethiopian army general
Reliable reports from sources close to the presidential palace of the interim Somali government say that Somali President Shaykh Sharif Shaykh Ahmad has refused to meet with Gen Gebre, who arrived in Mogadishu 27 June. The general was the commander of Ethiopian troops that invaded Somalia.
Gen Gebre, who was among a delegation of IGAD [Inter-Governmental Authority on Development] which suddenly arrived in the city yesterday to resolve rifts between President Sharif and Prime Minister Umar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, requested to meet with the president and the prime minister. He met with Premier Umar Abdirashid Sharmarke while President Sharif refused to see him. It is unknown why President Sharif refused to meet with Gen. Gebre.
Reports say that Gen Gebre is an envoy of Ahlu Sunnah wal Jama'a [moderate Somali Islamic group], which is seeking to have an influential presence in the Somali government. The reports said that Ahlu Sunnah wal Jama'a had lodged to the Ethiopian government about [President Sharif], and Gen Gebre has been tasked with dealing with the issue. This is the third time he has come to Mogadishu on behalf of Ahlu Sunnah wal Jama'a.
Some reports say that Gen Gebre, Prime minister Umar Abdirashid Sharmarke, and Ahlu Sunnah wal Jama'a are allies while President Sharif stands alone, and that could complicate the rifts between government leaders.
From an opinion piece at al Jazeera:
Last week, Ethiopia called a ministerial level emergency session of member states of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD). IGAD's subsequent communiqué calling for a meeting of heads of state in order to "re-engineer" the Somali peace process points to gerrymandering of the crisis by Ethiopia, which seems to want to impose its proxies on the Somalis.
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..Addis Ababa has been unhappy with the developments that have taken place in the country since the Djibouti process - which resulted in the formation of the current unity government - ended in 2009, and has sought to insert its influence via backdoor means.
It has done this by exploiting the legitimate grievances of Somalia's traditional Sufi orders, while sidelining the genuine representatives of the moderate Sufi group Ahlu-Sunna Wal-Jama'a. It has also militarily supported local warlords and empowered some pro-Ethiopian Somali politicians, effectively forcing the leaders of the transitional government to share power with them.
For Addis Ababa, this whole exercise is about securing politically what it failed to achieve militarily in its 2006-2009 invasion - that is re-appropriating the peace process and transitional government institutions, and eliminating and/or weakening those Islamist groups that are part of the transitional government.
AllPuntland: Regional body IGAD said likely to deploy troops in Somalia
Reliable sources at the Somali Presidency, Villa Somalia, indicate that a delegation of senior armed forces officials from IGAD [Inter Governmental Authority on Development] countries have arrived there. Reasons for their arrival at this time have not yet been disclosed.
These military commanders from IGAD member countries are led by the former commander of Ethiopian troops who were deployed in Somalia towards the end of 2006, General Gabre. The delegation is said to have arrived in a chartered plane at the Mogadishu airport.
The delegation led by General Gabre has since held talks with the AMISOM [African Union's Mission in Somalia] commanders and senior Transitional Federal Government of Somalia [TFG] officials in Mogadishu. Some of the senior TFG officials have denied reports of this particular delegation's arrival in the capital while others have said their presence in Mogadishu is part of the regular evaluation visits by armed forces commanders from IGAD member countries.
A senior armed forces official who refrained from being named has told us that this delegation is visiting the country in order to monitor operations of the TFG forces. He also said there is a possibility that IGAD member countries might deploy troops in Somalia to fight armed Islamist groups who are in control of most parts of the capital and southern Somalia regions.
The delegation whose arrival has been kept low key have been in Mogadishu for two days now and many in the Somali politics have interpreted it in different ways but all agree that their presence has to do with armed forces operations.
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From Ecoterra International's June 29th Status Of Seized Vessels Ans Crews In Somalia And The Indian Ocean
YOU ARE PERSISTENTLY BEING LIED TO WITH IMPUNITY:
The Lie: The navies and their mainstream media claim that they achieved a decline in piracy.
The Reality: Never before in history the cases of piracy have been around the Horn of Africa so numerous than in these times and after the specific multi-national naval operations were launched at the end of 2008; with a thereafter continuously expanding force and naval presence never seen before - even not during WWII. But in the same time piracy has increased to an all-time high with increased violence and escalating armed encounters.
The Lie: The navies have to blow small, captured "piracy" skiffs out of the water, because they would endanger shipping.
The Reality: The EU NAVFOR even leaves big vessels like the MV RIM adrift, if as in this case it is convenient to NOT inspect the ship abandoned by the crew after they killed all their captors under the watch of the EU, though credible reports stated that the vessel had been an illegal weapons transporter for Yemen.
The Lie: The navies act under valid UN Security Council Resolutions.
The Reality: The navies have according to international and Somali national law no right whatsoever to enter the 200nm territorial waters of Somalia. The UN Security Council Resolutions, to which repeatedly the navies refer, are explicitly stating that they would be only valid and applicable with the consent of the Somali Government, i.e. the Somali parliament, which never has been given, while a fictive letter of former Somali president Abdullahi Yusuf was never produced and a letter signed "on behalf of the Somali Government" by Mauretanian former UNSRSG Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah is legally nil and void.
The Lie: EU NAVFOR has an agreement with the Somali government concerning the Somali Waters and the fight against piracy.
The Reality: A paper signed without the knowledge of the Somali parliament in a clandestine meeting by the French Ambassadress to Kenya, Ms Elisabeth Barbier - for the EU - and by one Noor Hasan Hussein (aka Nuur Xasan Xuseen), who was at the time a Prime Minister in the cabinet of former Somali TFG President Abdullahi Yussuf, is legally nil and void and does not give the navies of the European states any permission in Somali waters. Nuur Cadde, as he is widely known, obviously received as reward for such favour and assumable high treason, and after he was chased out of his PM chair and cabinet, the post of Somali ambassador to Italy - the former colonial power, who still serves as ill advised lead-country for the European Union and which is the only statelet of the newly empowered European Union, which still channels directly and without EU consent money to Italy's friends and warlords within the changing governing alliances of the Somali quagmire.
In addition, the fake framework is misused by states like Norway, who are not even a member of the European Union, but dare to send commando units under EU mandate in mid-night raids into natural harbours of northern Somalia and commit outright murder by killing innocent fishermen from Somalia and Yemen.
In Addition: Nobody gave the EU NAVFOR operation ATALANTA or any European entity the right to monitor fishing in the Somali waters. Though it might have been welcomed if the navies would assist the Somali government and people in the fight against illegal foreign fishing fleets, given the fact that not a single of all those illegally fishing vessels, whose presence had been established, was repulsed by the navies, the "monitoring of fishing" is mere economic spying on the natural resources of Somalia and - as many Somalis claim - the scouting for and protection of illegal foreign fishing ventures.
The Lie: Somalia has no 200nm Somali Waters
The Reality: Since 1972 the international community had respected Somali Law No. 37, which similar to the recognized nation states of Benin, Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, El Salvador, Liberia and Peru, declared 200nm territorial waters with all the respective rights and duties.
Since 1989, and Somalia was one of the first 40 signatories who also endorsed the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), Somalia has - congruent to its territorial waters - an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of 200 nm, with all the rights and protection mechanisms the Common Law of the Sea provides to all coastal states. Somalia had declared and never given up these rights, but had to suffer from much illegal activity by foreign interests, which caused the African Union (AU / then the OAU) at the Pan-African Conference on Sustainable Integrated Coastal Management (PACSICOM, Maputo, 1998) to decry specifically the constant violation of the Somali rights in Somalia's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and H.E. Ambassador (Egypt) Ahmed Hagag as Assistant Secretary-General of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) declared that everybody must respect the 200 nm EEZ of Somalia.
Since 2009 Somalia has also a Continental Shelf Zone of 350 nm, based on international law and Somalia's claim documented and handed in by Somalia on 17 April 2009 to the UN and the International Seabed Authority before the deadline of 13 May 2009. The establishment of the outer limits of the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles is the right of all coastal States under international law.
The Lie: There is no illegal fishing in Somali Waters.
The Reality: Illegal fishing continues, but it has like always seasonal peaks and licences still continue to be issued illegally to foreign vessels despite a moratorium by the TFG government since April 2009. The annual loss in the Somali waters is estimated at around 300mioUS$.
The problem of illegal and overfishing is not only a Somali one: The annual consequential costs due to over-fishing of the oceans have reached 50 Billion US-Dollar, as calculated by the WorldBank and FAO. While losses at Wall Street due to the recent credit crunch have so far been calculated to stand at only 1,5 Billionen Dollar, allowing financial institutions and bankers to be "rescued" by a 700 Billion Dollar rescue plan - using taxpayer's money -, NOTHING is done to rescue the oceans!
The Lie: The international community is helping Somalia and the Somalis
The Reality: Hardly any of the funds pledged with top-spin public relations campaigns through the mainstream-media have ever even been set-up to be released. This is not only a Somalia problem and these global lies have now even been criticized by the G20 summit. If some funds were released for Somalia they were for widely criminal WFP operations (now under UN investigations), weapons deliveries and training of fighters, who actually could train their trainers. Even EU NAVFOR escorts for deliveries by ship of only weapons, other military hardware or supplies solely to the AMISOM troops are listed by the navies as escorts of "humanitarian aid". While the bandwagon NGOs are kept quiet with well-funded "studies" paid for by the intelligence groups, real help on the ground has declined to an all time low since the beginning of the civil war.
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Inner City Press: At UN, Buck Passed on Somali Child Soldiers...
... Inner City Press asked [outgoing Council president Claude] Heller one last question:Inner City Press: I wanna ask a non Cheonan question. This issue that came up that the UN supported the TFG of Somalia using child soldiers. Where does it go from here? I know that it didn’t seem to come up on [inaudible]. In your role as chair of the CAAC, when will that be …
Claude Heller: This issue is in the agenda of the Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict, and it should be considered in the next two months. I don’t have the date, but it’s in the agenda. We have to consider this and make recommendations on the cases, of course depending on the information that we get. But its in the agenda of the Working Group.
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Garowe Online: Latest Mogadishu clashes kill 20
At least 20 people, mainly combatants have been killed and over 35 others, including journalists injured in heavy shelling and gunbattle that pitted pro-government forces against rebel fighters in Somali capital Mogadishu within the last twenty four hours.
Clashes erupted on Tuesday between pro-government militia Ahlu Sunnah Wal-Jama and fighters from insurgent.
Shelling also rocked rebel-held northern districts of Shibis, Abdiasis and Bondhere, where reports said 8 civilians were killed and over 20 others injured.
Civilians and government soldiers who injured in the latest fightings have been admitted in Mogadishu’s Medina Hospitals.
In one incident, barrage of artillery shells landed at a former police compound in Abdiasis district, where some senior Al-Shabaab officials were briefing journalists about their gains in the latest calashes. Eight journalists, among those who attended the press briefing got minor injuries, according one of them.
Al-Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Ali Mouhammud Raghe aka Ali Dhere led journalists in tour around the former police compound that his group captured in the last few days.
“Thanks to Allah, we are now in control of former police vehicle compound which was once used by the Somali parliament. We have achieved a lot in this latest fighting,” he said while addressing the journalists.
Ali Dhere was accompanied by Sheikh Mukhtar Robow Abu Mansur, who in recent past was reported to have been badly injured in clashes with government forces. He however refuted those claims, saying he is well and in good health.
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Garowe Online: Ahlu Sunnah: Agreement with TFG has collapsed
A power-sharing agreement signed between Somalia’s weak transition federal government and Ahlu Sunnah Wal-Jamaa, a moderate Sufi Islamist movement has officially collapsed, says the Sufi leaders.
Sheikh Muhammad Sheikh Hassan, the group's spiritual leader said the collapse of the agreement was perpetrated by the Somali government for including non-Ahlu Sunnah members into its implementation.
“We are declaring that the power-sharing agreement has collapsed because the Somali government awarded some individuals, who are not part of us, with the cabinet slots meant for Ahlu Sunnah,” he said.
“These people, who are awarded with the positions, are politicians, who don’t have anything to do with the agreement. But they main agenda is to derail the implementation of the agreement,” he added.
The leader, who led a section of his loyal followers into signing the agreement in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, has earlier warned against infiltration of power-hungry politician and warlords into the agreement.
The Sufi sect was promised to be allocated a number of ministerial and military posts within the transitional Somali government under the agreement in return with maximum support in the fight against the insurgents.
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These two stories go together, but probably won't be linked by those the corporate media...
BBC: Somali president leads troops in anniversary battle
Somalia's President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed is on the front line, as fierce battles rage on the day the country marks 50 years of independence.
Eyewitnesses told the BBC that the president was dressed in military fatigues atop an African Union tank.
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The BBC's Mohamed Moalimuu in the capital, Mogadishu, says it is the first time the president has gone to the front line to lead an attack.
The government offensive follows two days of battles as fighters from the hardline Islamist al-Shabab group and their allies tried to regain recently lost ground in the north of the city.
Our reporter says the government forces began shelling the Islamist stronghold of Karan, a residential area, on Wednesday evening.
ICRC: shelling of Mogadishu's Keysaney Hospital continues despite ICRC pleas
Geneva (ICRC) – For the third consecutive day, shelling is taking place near Keysaney Hospital in northern Mogadishu.
Two more mortar shells have hit the hospital since yesterday, causing damage to the structure.
On 29 June a first shell killed one patient and wounded another.
"We are shocked about the situation at Keysaney.
Despite our repeated calls to all warring parties to respect international humanitarian law and spare medical facilities, nothing seems to have changed on the ground," said Pascal Mauchle, who heads the Somalia delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
"The situation is becoming more and more dangerous for patients and medical staff by the day." Once again, the ICRC and the Somali Red Crescent Society remind all parties to the conflict that launching attacks against medical facilities marked with the red crescent emblem is a violation of international humanitarian law.
The parties must spare medical staff and hospitals, clinics and similar medical facilities the effects of hostilities.
Whether launching an attack or positioning military personnel and materiel, all those involved in the hostilities must take every feasible precaution to minimize the potential harm to civilians and to civilian objects such as hospitals.
Keysaney is one of two ICRC-supported surgical hospitals in Mogadishu.
It is managed by the Somali Red Crescent and accepts all patients, regardless of their clan and religious or political background.
Keysaney Hospital is, of course, located in Karan district.
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Garowe Online: Dozens killed in Mogadishu clashes
At least 24 people civilians have been killed and 80 others injured in heavy shelling and gun fire exchanged between Somali government troops and rebel fighters in Somalia's capital Mogadishu, Radio Garowe reports.
Somali government troops backed by African Union peacekeepers launched coordinated attacks on rebels’ bases in northern districts Karan and Shibis, while other parts of the restive capital received share of the indiscriminate shelling.
“At least 17 women and children were killed when two mortar shells smashed parts of Suq Ba’ad in Yaqshid. They were all hiding from the bitter shelling that rocked the city,” said Ali Muse, the head of Mogadishu Ambulance Services. He added that more than 80 civilians were wounded in the Thursday’s clashes.
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Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed was also seen dressed in military camouflage on the frontlines with the government who were fighting to push back the rebel fighters in northern areas.
The latest clashes led to massive exodus in northern districts wkth most of the people on the move being women and children.
“I fled with my children from Arjantin neighbourhood in Karan district. My elderly father refused to flee, he remained behind,” said Asho Nur, a mother of six children.
Both the government and the insurgents have vowed to continue with the battle as civilians bear the brunt of suffering.
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CPJ: Somali government harassing journalists as fighting rages
Somali government forces have been increasingly harassing independent journalists covering violent fighting in Mogadishu, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
Somali reporters targeted for their reporting included a New York Times correspondent and a CPJ International Press Freedom Award winner, while nine other journalists were injured this week while reporting during deadly clashes between government troops and Islamist rebels, according to news reports and CPJ interviews.
On Thursday, police detained award-winning journalist Mustafa Haji Abdinur and freelance cameraman Yusuf Jama Abdullahi for taking pictures of their colleague, Associated Press photojournalist Farah Abdi Warsame, who had been hit by crossfire, according to the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ). Officers at the Criminal Investigation Department interrogated the journalists for several hours and forced them to delete their photographs, Abdinur told CPJ. They were released without charge. Warsame was rushed to Medina Hospital for shrapnel wounds in his hand and back, and is now recovering at home, according to NUSOJ.
Last week, New York Times correspondent Mohammed Ibrahim fled the country following threats from government security forces, he told CPJ. Ibrahim had contributed reporting to a June 13 New York Times article, “Children Carry Guns for a U.S. Ally, Somalia,” concerning child soldiers within the government forces.
“The reaction of the Somali government to these very serious allegations is both frightening and typical,” said CPJ East Africa Consultant Tom Rhodes, who is based in Nairobi. “Instead of addressing this very serious issue, security forces are persecuting reporters. Journalists must be allowed to do their job.”
In response to the story, the deputy commander of the Somali military, Adbdulkarim Yusuf Adam, held a June 24 press conference in which he accused those involved in publishing the article of having ties with terrorist organizations, local journalists told CPJ. Adam also declared that all individuals involved—whether foreign or local—would be taken to court, according to the same sources. Government spokesman Abdi Kadir Walayo claimed the article had been fabricated in a June 29 Voice of America interview.
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Garowe Online: Somali PM reshuffles cabinet to include new members
Somali Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Sharmarke has reshuffled his cabinet...
Among the 39 cabinet members is Sheikh Aden Madoobe, former speaker of the parliament, who was appointed deputy Prime Minister and minister of ports and transportation.
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The Ahlu Sunna Waljamaca militia, fighting on the government’s side, has been rewarded with some cabinet slots as agreed in the power-sharing agreement inked with Transtional Federal Government on 15 March in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Ahmed Abdi SalanM, who according to the agreeement represents the sufi sect was appointed as national security minister
However, the group’s grand chairman Sheikh Muhammad Sheikh Hassan has announced that the agreement had collapsed due to infringement by 'foreign elements' who don't represent the group.
Reports from Villa Somalia said the president has ratified the new cabinet.
Garowe Online: Ahlu Sunna militia "unhappy" with government posts
A spokesman for Somalia’s moderate pro-government group Ahlu Sunna Waljamaca has disapproved the appointment of some members claimed to be from his group into the new Somali cabinet.
Sheikh Abdullahi sheikh Abu Yusuf told reporters in central Somali town of Guriel that his group has officially walked out of the power-sharing agreement it signed with the transitional federal government in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on mid-March.
“Those appointed under our name are people who were picked by individuals within the government, they were in the former government,” he said.
“For those reasons, we are declaring that we have officially walked out of the agreement that was signed in Addis Ababa.”
SMC adds:
"It is very unfortunate that the government of Somalia to come with their own option figures and declare that they have added some officials from Ahlu-Suunh Waljama in the government of Premier that is absolutely plain propaganda and I would like to tell the Somali people that there is no single Ahlu-Suunah representative in the Somali government" said Al-Qadi the head of the information department of Ahlu-Suunah Waljama.
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