Engaging the Islamic Courts at Ras Kamboni
|
| Satelitte view (clouded) of the southeast corner of the Kenyan-Somali border. Click image to view. |
Ethiopian and Somali forces battling Islamic Courts remnants on the Kenyan border
The Ethiopian armored column and Somali forces pushing southward since the fall of Mogadishu last week appear to have finally reached Ras Kamboni and are engaging a significant element of the remnants of the Islamic Courts. "Government troops backed by Ethiopian soldiers were fighting about 600 Islamic militiamen in the southern tip of Somalia," reports The Associated Press. "The Somali forces have surrounded the Islamic militiamen 'from every direction' in the [sic] southwestern district of Badade, near the Kenyan border."
Ras Kamboni, the al Qaeda and Islamic Courts training and communications hub, is located within the district of Badade (or Badhaadhe). Islamic Courts leaders and fighters have been reported to be regrouping in Ras Kamboni after the fall of Mogadishu and Kismayo. The Islamic Courts have been active along the Kenyan border, and Ethiopian air assets have been pursuing fleeing Islamic Courts fighters. Today, a "heavily armed Somali Islamist militia" attacked a Kenyan helicopter patroling along the border.
In Mogadishu, Somali police arrested eight suspected members of the Islamic Courts after they boarded an airplane. There were "four Sudanese, three Indians and one Somali," reports SomaliNet. "All of them were taken out of the plane by the police." Meanwhile, suspected Islamists attacked Ethiopian troops in the capital with a grenade, but there were no casualties.
The United States has publicly stated its naval forces are actively blockading the Somali coast with assets from Combined Task Force (CTF) 150. "Coalition naval forces are performing boardings on a number of vessels to deter individuals with links to al-Qaida and other terrorist organizations the use of the sea as a potential escape route," notes a CENTCOM press release. The USS Bunker Hill, a Ticonderoga class cruiser which wields the AEGIS Combat System, and the destroyer USS Ramage are engaged in the blockade.
U.S. Special Forces have been rumored to be accompanying Ethiopian and Somali forces on the ground, hunting for senior members of the Islamic Courts, including the three al Qaeda operatives involved in the 1998 embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.
See The Rise & Fall of Somalia's Islamic Courts: An Online History for additional information on Somalia.
