Jihadists target Somalia

When Osama bin Laden issued a rambling audio recording of his views on Somalia earlier this year, the new authorities in the country's capital, Mogadishu, laughed hard. Bin Laden's thinking on this utterly failed state in the Horn of Africa seemed out of touch, even patronizing. Yet only a few months after Somalia's latest "transitional" government was set up amid a rare burst of albeit cautious optimism, Somali radicals linked to al-Qaida are gaining strength, while moderate Islamists, such as the country's new president, Sharif Ahmed, are losing ground.
A fresh flow of foreign fighters is said to be heading for Mogadishu. Some of them -- Americans, Britons and Italians of Somali origin, as well as Arabs, Chechens, Pakistanis and Uzbeks -- are no longer being hidden by their commanders but are being eagerly shown off to display the insurgents' global support.
When Ethiopia invaded Somalia with American encouragement in 2006, the aim was to fend off any kind of Islamist threat to Ethiopia and to catch the handful of al-Qaida people sheltering in the country. The invasion and the ensuing air raids destroyed the first incarnation of Somalia's jihadists but the second seems to be proving stronger and fiercer. Robbed of their rationale by the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops and by Ahmed's introduction of Shariah law, they are hitting back harder.
In the latest fighting in Mogadishu, hundreds more people have been shot dead or injured, and tens of thousands displaced. The insurgents have tightened a noose around the capital by capturing the nearby towns of Jowhar and Mahaday. Such advances now let the jihadists control traffic between Mogadishu and central Somalia.
The fighters and their "technicals" (pick-up trucks often laden with heavy machine-guns on the back) have also advanced on Beledweyne, a town close to the Ethiopian border. Their aim is apparently not to hold the town but to provoke Ethiopia into sending its troops back into Somalia, which could spur nationwide resentment towards the old enemy and more support for the radicals fighting against it. The Ethiopians are reported to be poised to make incursions back into Somalia.
Loosely arranged in cells of 20-30 fighters, the radicals of the Shabab ("Youth") and Hizbul Islam control much of south Somalia too. Across the country, they get a lot of cash from taxes, from the profits of pirates, from extortion and from donations by Arabs and Somalis in the diaspora...more..http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/westview/jihadists-target-somalia-46073137.html