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Somalia
Mogadishu’s cleric rulers slowly reveal their agenda
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Somalia
Somalia: Aweys criticizes clan-based Islamic Courts
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Suicide Strikes in Somalia
The first suicide bomber in Somalia targets transitional president and parliament as Somalia slides further into the hands of the al Qaeda backed Islamic Courts Map of Somalia, recent gains by the Islamic Courts marked in red. Click map to view. The Islamic Courts makes the first overt move against the weak transitional government of President Abdullahi Yusuf. Just minutes after a speech to the transitional Parliament based out of the western town of Baidoa, a suicide car bomber attacked the presidential convoy. Some reports indicate two car bombs were detonated. Six were killed in the suicide strike, including President…
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Somalia
The ICU targets interim president Abdullahi Yusuf with two bombs in Baidoa. The Islamic Courts killed a 13 year old boy and wounded three others while breaking up a group watching a soccer on television. The ICU also murdered a 70 year old Italian nun hours after the Pope spoke on Islam. An ICU linked cleric calls for the Pope’s death.
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Somalia
Somali scholar cleric calls on rally against Pope Benedict XVI
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Somalia
Italian nun murdered in Somalia
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Somalia
Baidoa police use gunfire to disperse an Islamist demonstration in the city. The flow of Somalis fleeing the ICU advance on the southern port city of Kisaymo triples. The African Union is waiting for funding before deploying its 8,000 man peacekeeping force.
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Somalia
Somali police use arms to disperse Islamist protest
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Somalia
Talibizing Somalia
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Somalia
Border tension between Somaliland, Puntland
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Somalia
US counterterrorism work stumbles in Somalia
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Somalia
An EU official reports the army of the Islamic Courts is marching on the southern port city of Kismayo. The head of the Juba Valley Coalition denies the ICU is marching on the city. The African Union “will endorse an ambitious peacekeeping force for Somalia.”
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Somalia
The Islamic Courts are training recruits in the in Middle Jubba region, about 500km south of Mogadishu. An email chain in private security contractor circles indicates the U.S. is conducting black operations inside Somalia. IGAD continues to plan to deploy a Somali peacekeeping force.
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Somalia
US accused of covert operations in Somalia
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Somalia
The Islamic Courts closed a radio station in Jawhar and banned music. Hundreds protest the murder of an unarmed man said to have been killed by an ICU member. The UN has arrived in Mogadishu to negotiate the resumption of aidprograms.
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Somalia
Somalia: Islamists accused of killing local man
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Somalia
A militia leader in Baidoa called on the interim government to leave peacefully or they will be ejected by force. Somalia’s Islamic leaders, including Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys and Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, are headed to Libya to visit Gadhafi. The ICU will only accept an Islamic constitution. The United Nations will reopen its office in Mogadishu.
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Somalia
Sheik Ahmed Sherif, the head of the ICU, held talks “with US and European diplomats during a recent visit to Kenya.” The purpose was very likely an attempt to split him from Aweys. ICU organized veterans to protest against foreign intervention. During the rally, Sherif “warned Uganda not to send troops to Somalia.”
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Somalia
The ICU and Somali government troops clashed over control over Baidoa’s airport, resulting in 12 dead. The weak Somali government is asking the ICU military to integrate into the government forces as the ICU meets with a senior UN representative. The ICU will hold a rally to protest any IGAD intervention.
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Somalia
10 killed in fighting between police and militia fighters in the Somali town of Baidoa
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Somalia
Ethiopian And Ugandan Military Officers Train Government Forces in Somalia
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Somalia
al Qaeda connected Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, the leader of the radical Islamic Courts in Somalia is “prepared to talk peace” as talks between the ICU and the Transitional Government. The ICU has suspended “all trade and public transportation during prayer times.” The autonomous region of Puntland is beginning to arrest ICU friendly Islamist clerics. Africa is viewed by many experts as the “next big battleground” against al Qaeda, and Washington is considering creating an African command structure. An unnamed intelligence source indicates the ICU and the Algerian GSPC are enemies number 1 and 2, respectively.
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Islamic Courts Consolidates Power in Somalia
Map of Somalia, recent gains by the Islamic Courts marked in red. Click map to view. Somalia continues the slide into the darkness of a radical Islamist state. Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, the al Qaeda linked leader of the Islamic Courts is consolidating power in Somalia by taking control of vital lines of communications, organizing the army of the Islamic Courts, and instituting shariah law throughout the areas it controls. As Daveed Gartenstein-Ross has noted, the Islamic Courts have taken control of the port cities of Harardhere, Eldher and Hoyobo, as well as Beletuein on the border with Ethiopia. The…
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Fighting resumes in Mogadishu; Shariah Law enforced
The Islamic Courts Union, al Qaeda’s affiliate in Somalia, is consolidating power in the capital city of Mogadishu. The ICU is conducting military operations against rival warlords who sat out of last month’s fighting. Over 140 Somalis have been killed in the past two days of fighting, with over a hundred estimated wounded. The ICU is attacking warlords Abdi Hassan Awale Qeydiid and Hussein Aidid. Hussein Aidid is the son of Mohamed Farrah Aidid, the target of the United Nations and U.S. operations in October of 1993 during the Battle of Mogadishu. Qeydiid’s militia has surrendered to the Islamic Courts,…
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al Qaeda in Somalia
Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and Sheik Yusuf Indohaadde during a news briefing, Saturday, June 17, 2006. AP photograph, click to view. Just days after Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, the chairman of Somalia’s Islamic Courts Union attempted to distance his movement from Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda, a senior member of the ICU has appearaed on a video with foreign Arab fighters engaging in combat with Somali clans of the
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ICU attempts to distance itself from bin Laden; Ethiopia Army pushes into central Somalia
Osama bin Laden’s endorsement of the Somali al Qaeda affiliate Islamic Courts Union has caused some consternation within the organization. Osama bin Laden referred to the Islamic Courts as “our kinfolk and brother mujahidin,” and implored them to “Seek God’s help and prepare the necessary means, especially tank mines and anti-armor RPG’s. Be patient like your brothers in Iraq and Afghanistan in this world crusade against our Islamic nation. You have seen several years ago the defeat of the United States and its allies on your land.”
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Somalia’s Terror Camps
16 of 17 known locations of terror training camps. Map is from 2002. Click map to view. As the situation in Somalia deteriorates and the al Qaeda backed Islamic Courts Union (or al-Ittihad Mahakem al-Islamiya) consolidates power in the capital city of Mogadishu, the Ethiopian military has crossed the border into Somalia. Approximately 200-300 Ethiopian troops, about two companies including two armored platoons, have pushed upwards to 100 miles into Somali territory. It is unclear if their goal is to secure the lawless border, make a land grab or engage the militias of the Islamic Courts. The Ethiopian government denies…
