Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Somali defector reveals foreigners’ role in war

Outsiders train, fund al-Shabab militants

Mohamed Ibrahim Suley, a one-time insurgent in Somalia, shows off scars on his back in Mogadishu, Somalia, on Jan. 15. Mr. Suley said a foreign fighter shot him in the back and left him for dead when he tried to help a wounded friend. It prompted him to defect. (Associated Press)
MOGADISHU, Somalia | After Mohamed Ibrahim Suley joined Somalia’s al Qaeda-linked insurgency, foreign fighters taught him how to plant bombs and plan assassinations. He fought alongside an Indian, an Eritrean and an American.
But after five years, Mr. Suley grew disillusioned by the deaths and by the actions of senior commanders. Then one day, during a firefight against government forces, one of the foreign fighters deliberately shot him. The foreigner was displeased because Mr. Suley had stopped to attend to a wounded friend.
Hundreds of foreign fighters have brought battlefield knowledge and cash to the terrorist group called al-Shabab. But their hard-line ideology alienates many Somalis. For his part, Mr. Suley abandoned the militia after the foreign fighter turned on him.
“I defected from al-Shabab because I was deliberately shot by a foreigner,” the 29-year-old Mr. Suley told a reporter, pulling up his shirt to show bullet scars. “He shot me in the back, after I had defied his order to not help some of my friends.”
His experiences, relayed at a fortified government position in Mogadishu in an interview arranged by a public relations firm working for the United Nations, illustrate the complex relationship between Somali insurgents and foreigners who have joined them to topple the country’s weak U.N.-backed government.
The foreigners are often blamed for promoting a more hard-line version of Islam than Somalis are used to, alienating the local population, but al-Shabab cannot afford to dump them.
Foreign intelligence services say a few hundred foreign fighters are helping train al-Shabab and carry out attacks. Most are from other countries in East Africa, but a few come from farther afield - Chechnya, Pakistan and even the U.S.
They provide cash, skills and volunteers fluent in English to become suicide bombers. Some teach the insurgency increasingly sophisticated tactics, propaganda and bombmaking.
On the advice of teachers at Mr. Suley’s religious school in the city of Kismayo, he and 39 other students joined an Islamist training camp in 2006. They learned to plant land mines and plan assassinations.
Among the instructors, Mr. Suley said, was an Indian man nicknamed Abumuslim and an Eritrean. Later, in the Somali capital, he briefly met a white American recruit - Omar Hammami from Alabama, according to Mr. Suley’s account. Nicknamed Abumansur Al-Amriki, Hammami has starred in al-Shabab recruitment videos that have been posted online.
“He would organize and lead to us to the fighting. Most of the time he was carrying a walkie-talkie,” Mr. Suley said, adding that al-Shabab fighters preferred walkie-talkies to mobile phones because they feared cell-phone conversations could be intercepted.
Intelligence analysts say sniper attacks are rising because of the training camps run by foreigners. There was one insurgent sniper attack in December 2009, but in December 2010 there were 18, according to the African Union, which has deployed 8,000 troops to Somalia to back the government.
Some foreigners have high-ranking positions within the insurgency and do long-term strategic planning, said Lauren Gelfand, the Africa and Middle East editor of Jane’s Defense Weekly, a military publication. Others are young recruits hoping to gain experience in Somalia to start their own Islamist uprisings at home.
Fighters who do not have military skills but can speak fluent English have been used as suicide bombers because they can get past checkpoints.
Mr. Suley said many of his friends and classmates who took up arms with him died in the war.
“Every day I would see casualties from my side,” he said.
Mr. Suley said he became disillusioned by the deaths and from seeing senior commanders send young recruits - often children - to the front lines while they, themselves, stayed out of harm’s way.
Scores have defected from al-Shabab since 2007, said a Nairobi, Kenya-based security official. There is no program to reintegrate them, and if Mr. Suley ventures outside the small area controlled by the government, he would likely be killed.
The government, which is totally dependent on foreign support, is trying to design a reintegration program. However, donors are reluctant to back the program because disarmament is complicated and the financial commitment could grow, the official said, citing discussions he had been party to. He spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press. AP

 

No comments:

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

About Us

The Foundation is dedicated to networking like-minded Somalis opposed to the terrorist insurgency that is plaguing our beloved homeland and informing the international public at large about what is really happening throughout the Horn of Africa region.

Blog Archive

We Are Winning the War on Terrorism in Horn of Africa

The threat is from violent extremists who are a small minority of the world's 1.3 billion Muslims, the threat is real. They distort Islam. They kill man, woman and child; Christian and Hindu, Jew and Muslim. They seek to create a repressive caliphate. To defeat this enemy, we must understand who we are fighting against, and what we are fighting for.

Terror Free Somalia Foundation