(4)The Islamic Courts Abandons Kismayo
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| The Somalia Battlefield on 1/1/2007. |
Mutinies, defections in the Islamic Courts after a brief battle north of Kismayo
Ethiopian forces quickly moved south to pursue the al Qaeda backed Islamic Courts after taking Mogadishu last Friday. Just four days after ejecting the Islamic Courts from the capital, a large armored column punched over 300 miles south to the outskirts of Kismayo. The Ethiopian and Transitional Federal Government forces engaged the beleaguered Islamist militias that were hastily building a network of trenches to defend the town of Jilib, just north of the strategic port city of Kismayo. Inside "clan militias within Kismayo turned on the Islamists," reports The New York Times. "That set off running gunbattles across the city, with several people reportedly killed."
The battle in Jilib began at 5:00 pm local time on New Years Eve, with an intense artillery dual. The Ethiopian Air Force pounded Islamic Courts positions. By 2:00 am New Years Day, just nine hours after the fighting began, the Islamic Courts retreated, and also withdrew from Kismayo without a fight. Both sides are said to have taken heavy casualties in the fight. A source indicates a significant element of the Islamic Courts army mutinied during the fighting, and others deserted.
Garowe reports the remnants of the Islamic Courts army and its leadership have fled Kismayo for the island of Ras Kamboni (see our report from yesterday for more on Ras Kamboni). Shabelle indicates "senior leaders along with nearly hundred battlewagons and troops" left the city for areas unknown. A Somali source tells us the Islamic Courts are also moving into the forests west of Kismayo, to regroup and initiate an insurgency. Ethiopian forces are no doubt pushing southward yet again in pursuit of the Islamic Courts remnants.
The Islamic Court's decision to muster its forces in the south is a curious one. The leadership essentially decided to hem itself into a narrow corridor with the Indian Ocean to the east and the Kenyan border to the west and south, and the Ethiopian and TFG forces to the north.
"They first thought they could escape to Kenya because the ethnic Somalis in Kenya were sympathetic to them, but the Kenyan government immediately closed its border. Then they thought they could flee by taking boats to Eritrea but the American warships blocked that escape route," said Dr. Abdiweli Ali, a professor at Niagra Universery who is in contact with the Ethiopian government, in an interview with us.
"The Kenyan government said it closed its border with Somalia to intercept the Islamist leaders who abandoned their last stronghold of Kismayo, trying to enter Kenya," Shabelle confirms.
The Islamic Courts leaders have repeatedly stated they would begin an insurgency. The TFG and Ethiopians must kill or capture the Islamic Courts and al Qaeda leadership to prevent an insurgency or decrease its effectiveness. The Islamic Courts decision to engage the Ethiopian forces at Jilib must be viewed as a holding action to allow the leadership to escape.
The whereabouts of al Qaeda linked Hassan Dahir Aweys, the wanted leader of the Islamic Courts, is still unknown. As are Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan and Abu Taha al-Sudani, three known terrorist behind the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania being sheltered by the Islamic Courts, are still missing. Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, Sheikh Hassan Turki , Aden Hashi Ayro, Yusuf Indohaadde and others involved with al Qaeda, the Islamic Courts and training foreign fighters are on the run.
READER COMMENTS: "The Islamic Courts Abandons Kismayo"
Posted by E. T. USN 71-78 at January 1, 2007 10:26 AM ET:
This is wonderful news. We owe a debt of gratitude to the Ethiopians, too. I imagine they also owe us for some assistance along the way; at least, I hope we provided some support, even if it was only intel!
Posted by DJ Elliott at January 1, 2007 11:58 AM ET:
U.S. trainers prepare Ethiopians to fight
http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=42481
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Troops attached to the Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa have been training Ethiopian soldiers in basic infantry tactics, officer logistics and maintenance since 2003, when the U.S. government identified the East African country as an ally in its global war on terror. Similar training programs are ongoing in Djibouti and Kenya.
In Hurso, the so-called military-to-military training has taken on a new urgency in the days following Ethiopia's incursion into Somalia on behalf of that collapsed nation's embattled, albeit U.N.-sanctioned, government.
"Depending on whether things really kick off, it's a very real possibility that some of these guys could find themselves using these skills very soon," said Sgt. 1st Class Bill Flippo, an instructor based at Camp Hurso.
"You want to make sure you cover everything thoroughly," the 27-year-old Winfield, Kan., native said. "The stuff you teach them could result in things working out really good for them, or really bad."
Flippo is one of a handful of instructors here who belong to Company A, 1st Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 1st Infantry Division. The instructors, who are three-quarters of the way through a yearlong deployment, are currently training more than three dozen Ethiopian army officers, noncommissioned officers and enlisted from throughout the country.
"The majority of these guys are trainers themselves," said 1st Lt. Ben Daughters, 24, of Chillicothe, Ohio. "The idea is that we train them and they go back and train their own."
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Posted by Neo-andertal at January 1, 2007 1:00 PM ET:
Happy New Year To All!
I ended the old one with a nice case of the flue. Otherwise I'd be doing something other that reading blogs. The flue seems to have broken today.
Keep safe and good luck in your endeavors.
Posted by Pat Patterson at January 3, 2007 11:04 AM ET:
300 miles in four days is the mark of a well-organized and equipped army. Especially considering that some of our NATO allies couldn't travel that far unless give Eurail passes.