Somali Clan Elders Urge Islamists to Leave Stronghold

New York Times ^ | January 1, 2007 | JEFFREY GETTLEMAN

[bd476]

As fighting began to flare Sunday around Kismayo, in southern Somalia, the final redoubt for the country’s diminished Islamic movement, elders within the city demanded that the Islamists go.

Muhammad Arab, a leader of the Ogaden subclan, said 36 elders of various clans and subclans met over the weekend with Islamist leaders and tried to persuade them that resistance against the huge Ethiopian-backed force heading toward them was futile.

"We told them that they were going to lose," Mr. Arab said, "and that our city would get destroyed."

Kismayo, a scenic harbor town along the Indian Ocean that was once part of the East African spice empire, has been spared the fighting so far.

But the Islamists, Mr. Arab said, did not care. "These guys are bent on war," he said.

The fighting started around 5 p.m., with the Ethiopian-backed forces unleashing an artillery barrage against Islamist troops dug in near Jilib, a town about 30 miles north of Kismayo. As the shells began to rain down, residents said, clan militias within Kismayo turned on the Islamists.

That set off running gun battles across the city, with several people reported killed. It also accelerated the exodus from Kismayo, with thousands of residents hastily gathering a few belongings and joining the stream of people fleeing the fighting in southern Somalia.

It is hard to predict what is going to happen next. Local support for the Islamists in Kismayo is obviously evaporating, just as it did last week in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, when clan elders decided that the Islamists were a losing cause and pulled their troops and weapons out of the movement.

That led to the city falling much faster than anyone expected into the hands of Somalia’s transitional government, which has used Ethiopian troops and airpower to reclaim much of...

[bd476]

US Naval Forces Central Command U.S. Fifth Fleet

The Fifth Fleet is present and accounted for (click here)

The photos are much too large to post here but it is well worth
the click over to see the Fifth Fleet.

Also see:

Somali Troops, Allies Prep for Showdown

[bd476]

The elders of Kismayo (also Chisimayu) have courage asking the Islamic terrorists to make foot bail Ping.

[endthematrix]

Commence Operation Cat Box!

[JasonC]

It would impress me more if they simply shot them.

[Cindy]

It does take courage bd476, but the battle is on -- everyone needs to pick a side and the elders just picked theirs.

[Valin]

Bump for next year.

[HardStarboard]

>>>"Mr. Arab said, "and that our city would get destroyed."<<<

In Somalia...hardly likely! Reminds me of someone that once said "a good carpet bombing could only improve things"!!

[blam]

"The fighting started around 5 p.m., with the Ethiopian-backed forces unleashing an artillery barrage against Islamist troops dug in near Jilib, a town about 30 miles north of Kismayo. As the shells began to rain down, residents said, clan militias within Kismayo turned on the Islamists."

Good news. I think some Islamist are about to bite the dust.

[blam]

Army Prepares To Oust (Islamic) Somali Fighters"

[wingsof liberty]

I thought these guys were surrounded, yet I am reading stories about them "dissapearing." How can they dissapear if theyre surrounded? By putting on burkas and pretending to be women? I doubt the Ethiopians would fall for that.

[bd476]

wingsof liberty wrote: "I thought these guys were surrounded, yet I am reading stories about them "dissapearing." How can they dissapear if theyre surrounded? By putting on burkas and pretending to be women? I doubt the Ethiopians would fall for that."

Pick one of the following:

• They caught the last train to Clarksville h e r
• Elvis has left the building
• On the road again h e r
• They're out of pocket
  
  Islamic Forces Abandon Somali Stronghold

[Candor7]

We could learn a lot from the Ethiopians. They have been fighting Islamofascists for a thousand years, and they know how to do it. The Islamofascists are scared to death of them. Rightly so, traditionally the Ethiopians earned the moniker " Conquering Lions of Judah."

Tenastaling!

[SunkenCiv]

Muhammad Arab? That's like "John Doe". :')

[dirtbiker]

Muhammad Arab?

Now that's what I call "truth in advertising"...

[romanesq]

They are not yet quite surrounded. As the reports indicate, their last bastion has fallen and they are moving to the Kenyan border with the remants left that survived the Ethiopian attack from the north.

The US 5th Fleet is patroling offshore to the east and the Kenyans are at their border to the south waiting to engage.

The hammer is about to drop.

[NickatNite2003]

No mercy
No quarter
No Sympathy.

[wingsof liberty]

I see. Several thoughts come to mind - shore bombardment, MOAB, carpet bombing.....why not all 3?

[romanesq]

The US prefers effectiveness over anything overt. If need be, the task force will take out any boats coming or going. No resupply of arms and other Arab fighters will occur.

And it works for me.

[Fred Nerks]

thanks for the good news ping!