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Law: American heroes are arraigned for allegedly punching a terrorist in wartime. What happens to Tiger Woods isn't vital to our country's future. What happens to Matthew McCabe, Julio Huertas and Jonathan Keefe is. People are more likely to recognize the names of Tiger's alleged bimbo eruptions than the names of these three Navy SEALs we sent into battle. They are not household names in a nation consumed with Climate Gate, the public option and the antics of billionaire athletes. An administration consumed with apologies has said the architect of 9/11's massacre, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, must be given all the...

Video description - quote: Al-Qaeda Linked "Al Shabaab" Suicide Bomber Kills At Least 19 In Mogadishu **GRAPHIC** December 3, 2009 -Mogadishu - A suicide bomber disguised as a veiled woman killed at least 19 people, including three Somali government ministers, on Thursday at a medical graduation ceremony in a Mogadishu hotel, witnesses and officials said. It was the worst attack in the lawless Horn of Africa nation since June, when hardline al Shabaab insurgents killed the security minister and at least 30 other people in a suicide bombing at a hotel in the town of Baladwayne. he United Nations-backed government...

MOGADISHU, Somalia — A male suicide bomber dressed as a woman attacked a university graduation ceremony Thursday in a small part of the capital still under government control, killing up to 19 people, including three Cabinet ministers and three journalists. The attack was a severe blow to a country long battered by war and underscored the government's tenuous hold on even a small area of Mogadishu. African Union peacekeeping troops protecting the government wage near daily battles with Islamic militants who hold much of central and southern Somalia and act so brazenly in the capital that they carry out public...

Monday, November 16, 2009 Islamic Extremists Kill Somali Church Leader Thirteenth Christian Assassinated This Year By Jeremy Reynalds Correspondent for ASSIST News Service WASHINGTON, D.C. (ANS) -- A human rights group has learned that members of al-Shabab (a Somali Islamic extremist group) have killed yet another leader of an underground church in the Somalia capital of Mogadishu. Washington-based International Christian Concern (ICC), reported that on Oct. 10, Pastor Ali Hussein Weheliye was returning home from a worship service when two masked members of al-Shabab ambushed and shot him. He was later taken to Darful Shifa Hospital where he died of...

MOGADISHU, Somalia – Gunmen have killed a top Somali judge who had sentenced many pirates and human traffickers to long jail terms, the security minister for northern Somalia said Thursday. Mohamed Said Samatar said three men were arrested Thursday over the killing of High Court Judge Mohamed Abdi Aware. In addition to jailing suspected pirates, Aware also recently jailed four members of Somalia's Islamic insurgency. Eyewitness Mohamud Dahir said masked men with pistols shot the judge in the head and chest several times as he left a mosque Wednesday evening in the port city of Bossaso. "These gangs hate him...

"Harakat Al-shabab Mujahideen vow they will deflect the fighting to Kampala and Bujumbura" Shabelle: SOMALIA SNIPPET: "MOGADISHU (Sh.M. Network) – the Islamist officials of Harakat Al-shabab Mujahideen have Friday talked about yesterday’s shelling in Somali capital Mogadishu and said that they will deflect the fighting in Mogadishu Kampala and Bujumbura." SNIPPET: "The official of Harakat Al-shabab Mujahideen had threatened to the African Union troops reiterating that they will replace the fighting continuing in Mogadishu to the capital cities of Uganda and Burundi."

Somali Islamists clash over port. Two Islamist groups who were previously working together in Somalia have become embroiled in a fierce fight for control of the southern port of Kismayo. At least 12 people have been killed and hundreds have fled their homes.

Note: Photo included. Photo caption: "Hizbul Islam leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys." # A senior Islamist leader and ally of al Qaeda has called for additional suicide attacks against African Union peacekeepers operating in Mogadishu. Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, the leader of Hizbul Islam, or the Party of God, called for more suicide attacks during a sermon in the town of Elashabiyah, just outside Mogadishu. "I also call upon the people to carry out more attacks against the African forces; they came to Somalia to assist our enemy, kill them ... in any way possible and use suicide attacks to...

A fifth Somali man from Minneapolis apparently has been killed in his war-ravaged homeland, a relative said Friday. Mohamoud Hassan, a 23-year-old former engineering student at the University of Minnesota, reportedly died in the past day or two. "It's real bad news," Hassan's uncle said Friday night. "But that is what happened." The uncle, who did not want to be identified, said he didn't know when Hassan was killed, but added that "it's very recent. Today or last night." The circumstances of Hassan's death were not immediately known. Abdirizak Bihi, a community activist who visited with Hassan's grandmother on Friday,...

Law Of The Sea: The U.S. seeks U.N. authorization to fight Somali pirates from the air, on land and at sea. When American cruise ships become targets, maybe it's time to renew a proud tradition: Send in the Marines.On Tuesday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice formally presented to a special U.N. session on Somalia a draft Security Council resolution saying that member states fighting against piracy "may take all necessary measures ashore in Somalia, including its airspace, to interdict those who are using Somali territory to plan, facilitate or undertake acts of piracy and armed robbery at sea and to...

Two French agents held by rebels in Somalia will be tried soon under Islam's Sharia law, an official of the radical Shebab group told AFP, as a Somali minister said they had been taken out of Mogadishu and expressed concern for their safety. "The men were caught assisting the apostate government and their spies, so that they will soon be tried and punished under the Sharia law, they will face the justice court for spying and entering Somalia to assist the enemy of Allah," a senior Shebab officer told AFP on condition of anonymity. "The decision about their fate will...

Note: Photo included. # SNIPPET: "Two French security advisers helping the Somali government have been kidnapped in the capital Mogadishu, French officials have said. Gunmen who were wearing police uniforms entered the hotel where the two were staying and took them away, eyewitnesses said. The abductions took place in a government-held part of Mogadishu. Islamist rebels are battling troops from the UN-backed interim government for control of the city." SNIPPET: "The French foreign ministry said the two advisers were in Mogadishu on an official mission to provide help to the government. They were seized at the Sahafi Hotel, which has...

A hardline Somali leader on a U.N. list of terror suspects claimed Tuesday to be making progress in uniting two Islamist insurgent factions as a single front against the Western-backed government. Militiamen loyal to Islamic Party leader Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys have been fighting side-by-side in recent weeks with al-Shabab, an extremist Islamist group considered by the U.S. State Department to be a terrorist organization with links to al-Qaida. Al-Shabab denies that. "Talks to unite al-Shabab and the Islamic Party are at an advanced stage,"

The Red Sea dictatorship has drawn the wrath of America by backing extremist Islamic groups in Somalia as part of a proxy war with Ethiopia, its former ruler. It champions al-Shabaab, an al-Qaeda-linked group that American intelligence believes has trained a dozen of its own citizens to carry out attacks in the US

Islamist militants took almost full control of Mogadishu on Thursday, less than 24 hours after Ethiopian troops withdrew from Somalia's capital, a witness reported. The Ethiopian forces pulled out their last remaining bases in the city late Wednesday after two years propping up Somalia's transitional government. Forces from different Islamist groups -- including the hard-line al-Shabab, which the United States has designated a terror organization -- immediately seized every base the Ethiopians abandoned. "The city is almost under Islamist rule," said a local journalist who did not want his name revealed. "You can hear different names of the Islamist groups...

SNIPPET: "The NEFA Foundation has obtained a new audio recording from Al-Qaida Deputy Commander Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri released on February 22 and titled, "From Kabul to Mogadishu.""

GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) - Osama bin Laden wanted to introduce himself to America with an ABC television interview months before al Qaeda bombed two U.S. embassies in Africa, the interviewer testified on Tuesday. Former ABC correspondent John Miller, testifying at the first Guantanamo war crimes trial, also recalled comparing bin Laden with U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt as he made small talk during filming of the May 28, 1998, interview at an Afghanistan mountain hideout. It was a rare opportunity for an American journalist, and Miller detailed a movie-thriller route to get to bin Laden, complete with...

"Sir, you have done India proud." That was how the anchorman of a television channel in Delhi addressed the Indian navy chief, Admiral Sureesh Mehta, on the victorious sea battle by warship INS Tabar with would-be hijackers as dusk was falling on Tuesday evening in the Gulf of Aden. Those words would have made Sir Francis Drake, the 16th-century British navigator and slaver-politician of the Elizabethan era, truly envious. Sir Francis had bigger claims to fame in a life cut short by dysentery while attacking San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 1595. Unsurprisingly, the patriotic Indian media dutifully expressed its gratitude...

It's been a busy, profitable week for Somali pirates: They hijacked one South Korean bulk carrier Wednesday, released another South Korean cargo ship Thursday and let a hijacked Thai ship go Saturday after getting a ransom. Somali minister Ali Abdi Aware reported the release of the Thai ship after the ransom, but said Sunday it was not clear exactly how much money was paid.

A Muslim gunman opened fire on a Somali house church where Christians were worshipping on January 2, seriously injuring the church leader. the worshippers were attacked in the Southern town of Tayeglow, 320 kilometers from the capital, Mogadishu. ICC says the leader of the house church, known as "S," was hit by gunfire several times and assumed dead for about an hour before he regained consciousness. He is currently seeking medical care and his status is critical. The gunman is reportedly still threatening other Christians in the surrounding area.

A U.S. destroyer off the coast of Somalia closed in Saturday on a hijacked Ukrainian ship loaded with tanks and ammunition, watching it to ensure the pirates who seized it do not try to remove any cargo or crew. Nikolsky said the ship was anchored near the Somali town of Hobyo and that two other apparently hijacked ships were nearby. Hobyo is in the central region of Mudug, south of Puntland. It is a natural port and does not have any facilities.

Pirates have seized a Greek chemical tanker with a crew of 19 off Somalia's coast, days after hijacking a Ukrainian cargo ship loaded with tanks, an international anti-piracy group said Saturday. The hijacking brings the number of attacks on ships off the coast of Somalia to 62 this year, or more than one every week. A total of 26 ships were hijacked, and 15 remain in the hands of the pirates along with 300 crew members.

How The West Was Won The rapid and unexpected decline of the Sunni insurgency in Iraq was officially recognized this week, when Maj. Gen. John Kelly, commanding the Marine Expeditionary Force, turned operational control of Anbar Province over to the Iraqi army and police. Anbar, a vast expanse of desert the size of North Carolina, had been the stronghold of the Sunni insurgency. For years, foreign fighters loyal to al-Qaida had sneaked across Iraq's northwestern border with Syria, into Anbar and down a "rat line" of safe houses in Haditha, Ramadi and Hit. From Fallujah, the arch terrorist Zarqawi...

A roadside explosion in Mogadishu on Sunday killed at least 13 people, most of them women who were sweeping a street, witnesses said. Residents said a remotely detonated device exploded in Waberi district along a main road leading to the presidential palace. Nearly 50 people were wounded... Four people died in the emergency room at the main Madina hospital... Insurgents have launched near-daily attacks on the transitional administration and its Ethiopian military allies. Somalia has not had a functioning central government since 1991. On Friday a roadside bomb killed a Ugandan member of a small African Union peacekeeping force based...

Food riots and anti-US protests in Somalia are compounding the chaos in the long-suffering war zone in the Horn of Africa. Meanwhile, an Amnesty International Report released Tuesday alleged that Islamist militants, as well as US-backed Ethiopian and Somali government troops, are committing widespread atrocities against civilians in the capital, Mogadishu. And a recent US strike against what it says was an Al Qaeda leader in Somalia has sparked further protests. The Associated Press reports that Tuesday saw a second day of protests over rising food prices, with hundreds of youths burning tires, throwing stones, and blocking roads. Somalia is...

Somali forces rescued a hijacked ship carrying food to this desperately poor African nation Tuesday, as a top security official accused U.S. troops stationed off the lawless coast of failing to combat growing piracy. Seven pirates were arrested and three were wounded in the raid on the Dubai-flagged al-Khaleej, said Abdullahi Said Samatar... "It is sad that the American forces off the coast of Somalia are here for fun and are not combatting the pirates," ... A spokesman for the transitional government, Abdi Hagi Gobdon, welcomed French and U.S. efforts to combat piracy and guard the country's coastline. The transitional...

Islamist uprising kills 81 in Somalia By Mike Pflanz in Nairobi Last Updated: 3:06am BST 21/04/2008 Fresh fighting between Islamist insurgents and Somali government troops in Mogadishu has killed at least 81 people in two days, witnesses reported yesterday. A wounded man is brought to hospital in Mogadishu A further 119 wounded civilians and soldiers were being treated in hospital after a weekend of mortar attacks and small-arms battles. "There was a lot of fighting we could hear on Saturday, mostly guns and grenades, then much more today," said a doctor contacted by telephone yesterday at the Save Our Souls...

Bodies of Ethiopian troops dragged through streets of Mogadishu By Mohamed Sheikh Nor, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS MOGADISHU, Somalia - Islamic insurgents clashed with Ethiopian troops in Somalia's capital today in battles that killed 12 people and wounded 10 others. Witnesses say jubilant supporters of the insurgents dragged the bodies of four dead Ethiopian soldiers through the streets Mogadishu. Eight civilians were also killed in the fighting.

Sweden's Migration Board ruling has rejected the asylum application of a 20-year-old from Mogadishu on the grounds that the situation in the Somali capital does not constitute an armed conflict. The board's ruling, which is expected to set the standard for future applications, goes against UN recommendations, Dagens Nyheter reports. The 20-year-old Somali, who arrived in Sweden in May, will now be sent back to his home country. Under the new guidelines, refugees from Mogadishu must be able to show that there is a specific threat against them if they are to be considered eligible for permanent residency. This was...

Bodies dragged through Mogadishu Ethiopian reinforcements were sent into the battle zone Somali insurgents have dragged the bodies of two dead Ethiopian soldiers through the streets of Mogadishu after a day of heavy battles. Residents say hundreds of people trailed after them, pelting the corpses with stones, chanting "God is Great". Similar scenes were witnessed after Somali militiamen shot down two US Black Hawk helicopters in 1993. Thousands of Somalis have been killed, and hundreds of thousands displaced, by renewed fighting in the capital. The BBC's Mohamed Olad Hassan says clashes in the Huriwa neighbourhood in north-eastern Mogadishu were sparked...

A former warlord who has long lived by his gun was sworn in as mayor of Mogadishu on Friday and immediately ordered residents of the Somali capital to get rid of their weapons. But Mayor Mohamed Dheere offered no clear details on how that could be accomplished in a city awash in Kalashnikov rifles, machine guns and hand grenades. Previous efforts to get residents to give up their weapons have been unsuccessful. "No weapons are allowed in the city," Dheere, who spent 16 years as a warlord struggling for power in this Horn of Africa nation, said at his inauguration...

Somalia's prime minister claimed victory Thursday over Islamic insurgents in Mogadishu, where nine days of battles using tanks and artillery left hundreds dead. Western diplomats... who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of damaging relations with the interim government, said the insurgents had suffered many casualties and were running low on ammunition, but were not yet defeated. But Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi said government forces and their Ethiopian allies had captured an insurgent stronghold in the northern part of the capital and that more than 100 fighters had surrendered. He said the city should be secure by Friday......

Looting troops prey on Somalia's refugees Fugitives are forced to pay to shelter in the shade Sam Kiley Sunday April 29, 2007 The Observer (UK) During a lull in fighting in Mogadishu yesterday, survivors picked their way through the post-apocalyptic landscape of Somalia's capital, quickly burying bodies. The floors and stairs of the filthy hospitals were crammed with injured civilians and slick with blood. Up to 350,000 refugees from fighting were camped in the bush - easy prey for armed thugs and warlords. Almost two weeks of heavy fighting and indiscriminate shelling between Islamic militia and clan fighters battling Ethiopian...

Fighting brings fresh misery to Somalia By Mike Pflanz in Nairobi Last Updated: 4:07am BST 26/04/2007 A new humanitarian crisis is rapidly taking shape in the Horn of Africa where eight days of heavy fighting in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, has forced about 350,000 people to flee. Artillery fire has devastated large areas of the city, forcing about one third of its population to leave. Yesterday Mogadishu's main hospital was shelled. The plains around Mogadishu are filled with refugees enduring desperate conditions with little food or shelter. The fighting began when Somalia's internationally recognised government, supported by Ethiopian troops,...

Ethiopian tanks pound Mogadishu More than 300,000 civilians have fled the violence in the capital Ethiopian tanks are pounding parts of the Somali capital, stepping up a week-long campaign against insurgents and fighters from the Hawiye clan. Heavy shelling is also taking place near the presidential palace - guarded by Ethiopian and African Union troops. And about five people were killed in a suspected suicide bomb attack near a hotel frequented by officials. Meanwhile, Ethiopia's prime minister has said the number of civilian casualties has been exaggerated. UN chief Ban Ki-moon has called for an end to clashes in which...

More than 1,000 people have been killed in recent clashes in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, according to elders from the city's main clan. Hawiye clan spokesman Hussein Aden Korgab also said more than 4,000 had been injured in some of the heaviest fighting in 15 years. The clashes came as the government and Ethiopian soldiers battled insurgents - both Islamists and Hawiye fighters. Meanwhile, Eritrea has confirmed that a Somali Islamist leader is there. The Union of Islamic Courts was driven out of Mogadishu in December by an alliance of Somalia's transitional government and Ethiopia. Eritrea, Ethiopia's regional rival, has...

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Guns were silent in Mogadishu on Monday after four days of battles pitting Ethiopian and Somali troops that are believed to have killed several hundred residents and fighters, witnesses said. "This is the first time since four days ago that we don't hear heavy shelling going on," a Reuters reporter said, surveying the city from his roof after daybreak.

Heavy Fighting Engulfs Mogadishu Published: 3/30/07, 3:25 PM EDT By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) - Insurgents shot an Ethiopian helicopter gunship out of the sky and mortar shells slammed into a hospital Friday during the heaviest fighting in the Somali capital since the early 1990s, leaving corpses in the streets and wounding hundreds of civilians. By official count 30 people have been killed since Thursday. But the fighting was so severe and so widespread in Mogadishu that bodies were not being picked up or even tallied, and residents said hundreds more were believed dead across the city of...

11 die as Belarus plane is shot down over Mogadishu Mogadishu: Belarus said yesterday a missile caused a plane crash in Mogadishu that killed 11 of its citizens, while the Somali government said the incident looked more like an accident than an attack by ever bolder insurgents. "The plane was shot down," Transport Ministry spokeswoman Kseniya Perestoronina said in Minsk, adding the large Ilyushin plane, in Somalia to assist struggling African peacekeepers, was hit at a height of 150 metres. If confirmed, it would be the most spectacular strike yet by rebels fighting the Somali government, their Ethiopian military allies...

AFP via translation - Somalia: a plane is crushed after its takeoff of Mogadiscio MOGADISCIO - A plane was crushed Friday to have taken off shortly after of the international airport of the Somali capital Mogadiscio, one learned from airport source and near witnesses. “I assure you that the plane was crushed after having taken off of the airport, but we are not sure cause” of this incident, indicated to AFP Abdiwelli Said, a person in charge for the safety of the airport, without specifying if it is about a civil aircraft or military. It was not either possible in...

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) -- Masked men believed to be Islamic militants dragged the corpses of two soldiers through the streets of the Somali capital and set their bodies on fire Wednesday during fierce battles with government forces trying to consolidate their control of Mogadishu.

Kenyan authorities say they have cracked the password on a laptop computer belonging to one of the most wanted Al Qaeda suspects in Africa. A report by the Kenyan newspaper, The Daily Nation, on its Web site Monday quoted anonymous "senior police sources" as saying that the computer "contained vital information on terrorism training and intelligence collection, including spying." The report gave no further details, but said the computer was seized from the wife of Faisal Abdullah Mohammed - indicted by federal prosecutors for his role in the Al Qaeda truck bombings of two US embassies in East Africa in...

The system allowed individuals and companies to use Iraq's UN-controlled oil-for-food programme to purchase Iraqi oil at concessionary prices and resell it, splitting their huge profits with Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi leader. Under the programme, the Iraqi regime had to sell its oil under international supervision but could choose its own middlemen. Those intermediaries, invariably sympathetic to Saddam and his money, paid for the oil into a United Nations account at prices agreed by Baghdad. That money was in turn used by the UN to buy food, medical supplies and other essential goods for Iraq. The purpose of the system...

MOGADISHU (AFP) - An Ethiopian military convoy was ambushed in a new round of deadly violence in the Somali capital Mogadishu, hours after the African Union agreed to send peacekeepers to the war-torn country. At least one person was killed in the ambush Saturday, which triggered a major gunbattle in the volatile south of Mogadishu. Coming in the wake of a brazen attack late on Friday on the residence of the interim president, the AU stabilisation force should be under no illusions about the scale of the task that awaits it. The interim administration and peacekeepers not only face having...

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - At least two mortars slammed into Somalia's presidential palace on Friday night as explosions and gunfire rocked Mogadishu in the latest outbreak of violence in chaotic Somalia, witnesses and officials said. "I can confirm two mortars have hit Villa Somalia," a senior government source told Reuters, of the building where President Abdullahi Yusuf stays. "We do not have word yet if there were casualties or not." Yusuf arrived in Mogadishu days ago to take up residence in the bullet and mortar-scarred building but it was not yet known if the 72-year-old former soldier was there during the...

After many weeks of intense thought on the events taking place in Horn of Africa, I can say I have come to a logical conclusion "That Osama Bin-Laden is in fact dead and has been since last summer." and here are some reasons. One would think with the fall of Mogadishu that Bin Laden personally would have addressed the fall of the city to Somali transitional government forces, backed by Ethiopian troops with intelligence from the United States and Kenya. Bin-Laden himself once claimed in a interview that Mogadishu was akin to holy ground for Al-Qaeda and it was the...

1/9/2007 - WASHINGTON (AFNEWS) -- Air Force AC-130 gunships struck al Qaeda targets in Somalia Jan. 8, news sources reported last night. The operation allegedly hit al Qaeda concentrations in the southern part of the country, but Pentagon officials did not comment. The Navy 5th Fleet moved the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower into the waters off Somalia in an effort to capture al Qaeda terrorists attempting to flee the country, a 5th Fleet spokesman said. Officials of the United Nations-recognized Somali government said the strikes were aimed at al Qaeda terrorists who planned the attacks against the U.S....

Hundreds of Protesters Rage in Mogadishu Saturday January 6, 2007 8:01 PM By ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY Associated Press Writer MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) - Hundreds of furious protesters crowded the streets Saturday, burning tires and smashing car windows while denouncing the presence of Ethiopian forces and shouting defiance at the interim Somali government's call for disarming Mogadishu. At least two people died in the violence, which exposed discontent in a city seeing its first legitimate governing force in years. Soldiers loyal to the U.N.-backed government and Ethiopia's military drove out a radical Islamic group last week that had been in control...

Somali militia group 'surrounded' Mogadishu is full of weapons and people are reluctant to disarm Somali troops backed by Ethiopian forces are fighting about 600 Islamist militiamen in the south of the country, says an interim government spokesman. Abdirahman Dinari told the BBC soldiers had surrounded the militia group near the Kenyan border - which has been reinforced to stop their escape. US naval forces are deployed off the Somali coast to prevent leaders of the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) escaping. The UIC controlled much of Somalia until retreating over the past 10 days. Kenya's government has shut its...

US navy patrols Somalia's coast Somali soldiers may struggle to maintain order in Mogadishu US naval forces have deployed off the Somali coast to prevent leaders of defeated Islamist militias escaping. Kenya has also significantly tightened border security to stop an influx of fleeing fighters, as aid agencies called for help for genuine refugees. Uganda's president is travelling to Ethiopia to discuss forming an African force to stabilise the country. A two-week advance by Ethiopian troops swept the Islamist militias from areas they had controlled for six months. Location of militias and US Navy patrols The militias - known...