Posted on 12/30/2006 4:05:28 PM PST by blam
Ethiopians chase Somali Islamists
There is fierce opposition to Ethiopia in northern Mogadishu
Ethiopian and Somali troops are reported to be heading south towards the stronghold of Islamist fighters driven from the capital on Thursday. Ethiopian tanks are advancing to the port city of Kismayo, 500km (300 miles) south of Mogadishu.
A senior figure in the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) has vowed that the group is still alive and ready to fight.
The head of Somalia's transitional government has met clan leaders to discuss how to stabilise the capital.
Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf, who has not yet entered Mogadishu, held the talks in the nearby town of Afgoye.
Some are opposed to Ethiopia's role in Somalia and thousands have protested in Mogadishu as Ethiopian soldiers secured the city's port and airport.
Trapped
The Ethiopian forces, who back Somali's transitional government, are now reported to be closing in on an estimated 3,000 Islamist fighters in Kismayo.
Now we are gearing up to kick these occupiers out of the country. Sheikh Sharif Ahmed
The BBC's Africa correspondent, Peter Biles, says that the Islamists could find themselves trapped between Kismayo and the Kenyan border.
Sheikh Sharif Ahmed of the UIC urged thousands of residents gathered in Kismayo stadium to celebrate the Muslim festival of Eid to defend their country.
"Our country is under occupation so we have decided to fight. We are gearing up to kick these occupiers out of our country."
Residents of Kismayo were reported to have seen Ethiopian fighter jets overhead on Friday and Saturday, Reuters reported.
In Mogadishu, Ethiopian-backed troops have already taken control of the UIC's headquarters in the north and the former US embassy compound in the south.
The African Union has called for Ethiopian forces to leave Somalia, but the United Nations Security Council failed to agree on a statement calling for the withdrawal of all foreign forces.
Much of Somalia faces food shortages because of recent heavy floods.
'Uniting force'
The UN estimates that about 30,000 people have been displaced during the fighting, and causalities have been high.
The UIC assumed control of the capital in June, driving warlords out and rapidly extending their influence to much of southern Somalia.
Some analysts say the UIC's popularity stemmed from their ability to transcend clan enmities that have bedevilled Somalia since the overthrow of former President Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.
Almost all Somalis are Muslim, and after years of lawlessness many were happy to have some kind of law and order under the UIC.
Xan Rice in Nairobi
Saturday December 30, 2006
The Guardian (UK)
Somali Islamist leaders vowed yesterday to continue fighting against pro-government forces yesterday even as Ethiopian MiG fighter jets buzzed over Kismayo, their last stronghold.
The Islamists fled from Mogadishu, 260 miles north of Kismayo, on Thursday after being surrounded by Ethiopian troops and fighters loyal to the Somali government. Hassan Dahir Aweys and Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, the top two Islamist leaders, were joined in the southern port city by several thousand militiamen and scores of "technicals" - pick-up trucks with machine guns mounted on the back.
"We will not run away from our enemies," Mr Ahmed, head of the executive committee of the Somali Council of Islamic Courts (SCIC), told Associated Press. "We will stay in Somalia."
Both Ethiopia and the Somali government have pledged to rout the Islamists, who had brought order to most of southern Somalia since they seized power six months ago. Speaking from the government base of Baidoa yesterday, President Abdullahi Yusuf said that the allied forces would "go there [Kismayo] and confront them".
At the same time, the government was pondering how to take control of Mogadishu. After discussion with local clan elders, the Somali prime minister, Ali Mohamad Gedi, entered the capital in a 22-vehicle convoy yesterday afternoon, visiting the main port and airport.
Although thousands of people turned out on to the streets, which are now patrolled by government troops, Ethiopian soldiers and clan-based militias, his arrival was scarcely one of a "liberator".
The Islamists enjoyed significant goodwill in the capital but the weak government is unpopular among the local population, who are mainly from the Hawiye clan. Mr Yusuf, who is from the Darod clan, is believed to have last visited the city in 1977, and even Mr Gedi, a Hawiye native of Mogadishu, narrowly survived an assassination attempt there last year.
Ethiopia, which fought two wars against Somalia in the 1960s and 1970s and which accuses the Islamists of being terrorists, is even more widely reviled. In what may be an early sign of trouble to come, several thousand people staged angry demonstrations against Ethiopia's role, burning tyres and throwing stones in at least two neighbourhoods, according to agency reports.
"We do not need and clearly we do not welcome Ethiopian forces here or anywhere in Somalia," Muhamoud Abdi, a local resident, told Agence France Presse.
Meles Zenawi, the Ethiopian prime minister, has repeatedly stated that his forces would withdraw swiftly from Somalia - within "weeks" he said on Thursday night. However, this is unlikely to happen. Mr Zenawi has already broken his pledge that Ethiopian troops would not enter Mogadishu.
Without Ethiopia's firepower, the Somali government may not be able to keep control of the territory it has captured in the past week of fighting.
Furthermore, Mr Yusuf's fractured administration has no money - ministers' salaries and transport costs are paid by the United Nations - and no capacity to administer a city such as Mogadishu, let alone an entire country. Its strategy of using "friendly" warlords - many of whom were kicked out by the Islamists - to help in the short term is unlikely to increase its support among the population.
Even if the Islamists are routed in Kismayo, analysts say that the potential for a long-running guerrilla-style conflict remains. Many of the SCIC fighters did not flee south from the capital but simply melted back into the population, discarding their uniforms but not their guns. The hardline fighters, particularly the Shabaab youth wing, who are well trained and highly committed, may see an insurgency as the ideal outlet for their ambitions. And countries such as Eritrea, which backed the Islamists as a way of agitating against its arch-foe Ethiopia, are unlikely to stop their meddling, analysts say.
Interesting how well things can go when you don't have cowardly politicians and bureacrats interfering with what must be done.
BBC spin.
Today's WSJ had an article describing over 50% of the Islamists coming from "southern Asia". These are imported terrorists from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia.
So the 8th level of hell is better than the 9th eh?
I hope the Nubian Forces just exterminate them. Period.
local Somalis here in MPLS were on the news tonight telling the Ethipians to "get out of "their" country.
I found myself telling them the same.
Kenya had better be reinforcing its northern border. The Islamists will be heading that way pretty soon.
"..causalities have been high."
They are high because neither party takes prisoners.
Northern Kenya is rapidly becoming Islamic with Somalians refugees who never leave.
Thanks blam. :')
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1760250/posts?page=14#14
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1760255/posts?page=21#21
Thousands Greet Somalia's PM in Capital
AP | 12/29/06 | LES NEUHAUS
Posted on 12/29/2006 11:46:42 AM EST by Valin
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1759911/posts
I fear for Kenya.
Um, 'casualty' in technical military parlance includes killed, wounded, and captured.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1711848/posts?page=26#26
CBS Evening News
Somalia's Islamic Militia Seizes Village
by Mohamed Olad Hassan Associated Press Writer
BAIDOA, Somalia, Sep. 30, 2006
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/09/30/ap/world/mainD8KF9N1O0.shtml
http://www.cbsnews.com/images/2006/09/30/image69661af9-f3f3-45ea-a425-eb3c2e1550e8.jpg
"Fighters loyal to the radical Union of Islamic Courts group routed a pro-government militia in the village of Jawill, some 10 miles from the Ethiopian border. The only roads between Ethiopia and central Somalia pass through the village."
also:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/30/AR2006093000439.html
[I found the obviously staged photo a bit disturbing]
Every time these Al Qaeda types face serious opposition, they run. It happened in Afghanistan, and it's happening in Somalia. Al Qaeda is only good at murdering unsuspecting innocents.
I love that word ....CHASE>>>> adds so much to the TITLE!!
I read a report of an Islamicists who said their "children" were being slaughtered and losses were at the 1,000 mark. Apparently, the fanatics sent in their teen army who quickly found themselves overwhelmed by a professional army that did not resemble the usual victims they faced in women and children.
I hope that the US Special Forces are working with our military in Somalia right now to put the pincer on the retreating forces of fanatics.
And then I want to see the Arab League cry their crocodile tears. The ones that can't even spill for the people of Sudan.
They are in full retreat. Get to that Kenyan border fast and cut off their escape routes. Then unleash hell.
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