MOGADISHU, Somalia, Dec. 21 (UPI) -- A recent surge of suicide bombings in Somalia underlines the growing influence of al-Qaida in the Horn of Africa as the war-ravaged country's Islamist forces keep up pressure on the U.S.-backed transitional federal government holed up in the capital Mogadishu.In the worst suicide attack, three government ministers were killed along with 16 other people at a graduation ceremony for medical students at Benadir University held in a Mogadishu hotel on Dec. 3. Two other ministers were wounded.The attack was a punishing blow to the beleaguered transitional government, whose writ barely covers a few blocks of the city and its airport. Several weeks earlier two suicide cars bombers attacked the main military base of the African Union peacekeeping force in Mogadishu, killing 17 soldiers, including their deputy commander. The bombings underlined the government's weakness and the ease with which the jihadists are able to strike more or less at will. They are spearheaded by the Harakat al-Shebaab al-Mujahedin, universally known as al-Shebaab, or Youth, that is linked to al-Qaida.The only real obstacle to al-Shebaab overwhelming the TFG is divisions that plague the Islamists. Al-Shebaab has been locked in a power struggle with its main rival, Hizbul Islam, in the south since May. Al-Shebaab has been making some gains there against the alliance of clan-based militias. But until it can secure unfettered domination it appears that the TFG, propped up by U.S. arms and money, will be able to hold on even though it has no popular mandate. "It is likely that President Sharif Ahmed and the TFG are actively supporting the clan-based organizations that make up the various parts of Hizbul Islam in the south," according to Texas-based security consultancy Stratfor.The TFG, aided by Ethiopia, has another ally in the Ahlu Sunna Waljamaca, a Somali militia backed by Addis Ababa. Mainly Christian Ethiopia, which sent its army into Somalia in December 2006 to prop up the TFG, does not want to see an Islamist regime installed in its northern Muslim neighbor. An AU peacekeeping force that deployed when the Ethiopian troops withdrew in 2008 is supposed to bolster the TFG. But the 5,250-strong force is woefully inadequate, poorly trained and under-armed. It is also widely despised by the inhabitants of Mogadishu, whom its troops regularly slaughter indiscriminately when their bases come under fire from the jihadists. Many of al-Shebaab's leaders are Somali veterans of the wars in Afghanistan. Their current commander, Ahmed Abdi Godane, aka Abu Zubehr, is believed to have fought the Soviets in the 1980s alongside Osama bin Laden and his Arab jihadists.He took over the leadership in the fall of 2008 after his predecessor, Aden Hashi Ayro, was killed in a U.S. airstrike on May 1 with another important leader, Sheik Muhyadin Omar.Ayro, aka Eyrow, is believed to have trained in Afghanistan with al-Qaida and returned to Somalia in 2003.Another senior commander is Ibrahim Hajji Jaama, known as "al Afghani" because he spent years fighting in Afghanistan and Kashmir.There are reported to be scores of "foreign fighters" in the ranks of al-Shebaab who have carried with them a radical ideology of global jihad as espoused by Osama bin Laden.Their influence is spreading among the Islamist forces, changing their outlook from a localized insurgency to a wider battle against the West. The foreign element in the leadership is exercising increasing control over the organization. "There's a serious struggle within al-Shebaab between nationalists and the foreign jihadis who want to take the fight to another level," says Abdi Rashid, a Somali analyst with the Brussels-based International Crisis Group.The Americans are increasingly concerned that the jihadists are extending their influence across the Horn of Africa, infiltrating East Africa and the Red Sea. The jihadists recently threatened to attack African states that have contributed troops to the peacekeeping force in Somalia.Al-Qaida's resurgence in Yemen, across the Gulf of Aden from Somalia, is also causing concern, although the Yemeni government unleashed airstrikes against the jihadists on Dec. 17. There have been reports that al-Qaida is sending veteran fighters to Yemen and Somalia Suicide bombings mark jihadist advance - UPI.com
Monday, December 21, 2009
Suicide bombings mark jihadist advance
MOGADISHU, Somalia, Dec. 21 (UPI) -- A recent surge of suicide bombings in Somalia underlines the growing influence of al-Qaida in the Horn of Africa as the war-ravaged country's Islamist forces keep up pressure on the U.S.-backed transitional federal government holed up in the capital Mogadishu.In the worst suicide attack, three government ministers were killed along with 16 other people at a graduation ceremony for medical students at Benadir University held in a Mogadishu hotel on Dec. 3. Two other ministers were wounded.The attack was a punishing blow to the beleaguered transitional government, whose writ barely covers a few blocks of the city and its airport. Several weeks earlier two suicide cars bombers attacked the main military base of the African Union peacekeeping force in Mogadishu, killing 17 soldiers, including their deputy commander. The bombings underlined the government's weakness and the ease with which the jihadists are able to strike more or less at will. They are spearheaded by the Harakat al-Shebaab al-Mujahedin, universally known as al-Shebaab, or Youth, that is linked to al-Qaida.The only real obstacle to al-Shebaab overwhelming the TFG is divisions that plague the Islamists. Al-Shebaab has been locked in a power struggle with its main rival, Hizbul Islam, in the south since May. Al-Shebaab has been making some gains there against the alliance of clan-based militias. But until it can secure unfettered domination it appears that the TFG, propped up by U.S. arms and money, will be able to hold on even though it has no popular mandate. "It is likely that President Sharif Ahmed and the TFG are actively supporting the clan-based organizations that make up the various parts of Hizbul Islam in the south," according to Texas-based security consultancy Stratfor.The TFG, aided by Ethiopia, has another ally in the Ahlu Sunna Waljamaca, a Somali militia backed by Addis Ababa. Mainly Christian Ethiopia, which sent its army into Somalia in December 2006 to prop up the TFG, does not want to see an Islamist regime installed in its northern Muslim neighbor. An AU peacekeeping force that deployed when the Ethiopian troops withdrew in 2008 is supposed to bolster the TFG. But the 5,250-strong force is woefully inadequate, poorly trained and under-armed. It is also widely despised by the inhabitants of Mogadishu, whom its troops regularly slaughter indiscriminately when their bases come under fire from the jihadists. Many of al-Shebaab's leaders are Somali veterans of the wars in Afghanistan. Their current commander, Ahmed Abdi Godane, aka Abu Zubehr, is believed to have fought the Soviets in the 1980s alongside Osama bin Laden and his Arab jihadists.He took over the leadership in the fall of 2008 after his predecessor, Aden Hashi Ayro, was killed in a U.S. airstrike on May 1 with another important leader, Sheik Muhyadin Omar.Ayro, aka Eyrow, is believed to have trained in Afghanistan with al-Qaida and returned to Somalia in 2003.Another senior commander is Ibrahim Hajji Jaama, known as "al Afghani" because he spent years fighting in Afghanistan and Kashmir.There are reported to be scores of "foreign fighters" in the ranks of al-Shebaab who have carried with them a radical ideology of global jihad as espoused by Osama bin Laden.Their influence is spreading among the Islamist forces, changing their outlook from a localized insurgency to a wider battle against the West. The foreign element in the leadership is exercising increasing control over the organization. "There's a serious struggle within al-Shebaab between nationalists and the foreign jihadis who want to take the fight to another level," says Abdi Rashid, a Somali analyst with the Brussels-based International Crisis Group.The Americans are increasingly concerned that the jihadists are extending their influence across the Horn of Africa, infiltrating East Africa and the Red Sea. The jihadists recently threatened to attack African states that have contributed troops to the peacekeeping force in Somalia.Al-Qaida's resurgence in Yemen, across the Gulf of Aden from Somalia, is also causing concern, although the Yemeni government unleashed airstrikes against the jihadists on Dec. 17. There have been reports that al-Qaida is sending veteran fighters to Yemen and Somalia Suicide bombings mark jihadist advance - UPI.com
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Ex-Somali Police Commissioner General Mohamed Abshir
Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre with general Mohamad Ali samater
Somalia army parade 1979
Sultan Kenadid
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Sultanate of Obbia
President of the United Meeting with Prime Minister Mohamed Ibrahim Egal of the Somali Republic,
Seyyid Muhammad Abdille Hassan
Sultan Mohamud Ali Shire
Sultanate of Warsengeli
Commemorating the 40th anniversary of Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre
Siad Barre ( A somali Hero )
MoS Moments of Silence
honor the fallen
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
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)
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.
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
Somalia
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