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Satelitte view (clouded) of the southeast corner of the Kenyan-Somali border. Click image to view. |
Ethiopian and Somali forces battling Islamic Courts remnants on the Kenyan border
The Ethiopian armored column and Somali forces pushing southward since the fall of Mogadishu last week appear to have finally reached Ras Kamboni and are engaging a significant element of the remnants of the Islamic Courts. “Government troops backed by Ethiopian soldiers were fighting about 600 Islamic militiamen in the southern tip of Somalia,” reports The Associated Press. “The Somali forces have surrounded the Islamic militiamen ‘from every direction’ in the [sic] southwestern district of Badade, near the Kenyan border.”
Ras Kamboni, the al Qaeda and Islamic Courts training and communications hub, is located within the district of Badade (or Badhaadhe). Islamic Courts leaders and fighters have been reported to be regrouping in Ras Kamboni after the fall of Mogadishu and Kismayo. The Islamic Courts have been active along the Kenyan border, and Ethiopian air assets have been pursuing fleeing Islamic Courts fighters. Today, a “heavily armed Somali Islamist militia” attacked a Kenyan helicopter patroling along the border.
In Mogadishu, Somali police arrested eight suspected members of the Islamic Courts after they boarded an airplane. There were “four Sudanese, three Indians and one Somali,” reports SomaliNet. “All of them were taken out of the plane by the police.” Meanwhile, suspected Islamists attacked Ethiopian troops in the capital with a grenade, but there were no casualties.
The United States has publicly stated its naval forces are actively blockading the Somali coast with assets from Combined Task Force (CTF) 150. “Coalition naval forces are performing boardings on a number of vessels to deter individuals with links to al-Qaida and other terrorist organizations the use of the sea as a potential escape route,” notes a CENTCOM press release. The USS Bunker Hill, a Ticonderoga class cruiser which wields the AEGIS Combat System, and the destroyer USS Ramage are engaged in the blockade.
U.S. Special Forces have been rumored to be accompanying Ethiopian and Somali forces on the ground, hunting for senior members of the Islamic Courts, including the three al Qaeda operatives involved in the 1998 embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.
See The Rise & Fall of Somalia’s Islamic Courts: An Online History for additional information on Somalia.
6 Comments
Any chance bin Laden could be travelling on a Sudanese passport?
Sounds like Ethiopia is a promising place for a few discrete sub-leased secret interrogation prisons…
If it hasn’t been already.
Quote from news source
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070105/ap_on_re_af/somalia
“Today we will launch a massive assault on the Islamic courts militias. We will use infantry troops and fighter jets,” said Shire, who left for the battle zone on Friday. “They have dug huge trenches around Ras Kamboni but have only two options: to drown in the sea or to fight and die.”
End of quote
I love the last phrase of two options. It seems the terrorists have no option to surrender, and have only options how to die.
By the way, for those with knowledge of al Qaida, you will see “Al-Sahab” appearing in the news. Al Sahab has been playing a key role for the Al Qaida’s media division. I have not heard about Al Sahab for a while and never thought to hear this name again until today.
Engaging the Islamic Courts at Ras Kamboni
Courtesy of The Fourth Rail:
Ethiopian and Somali forces battling Islamic Courts remnants on the Kenyan border
The Ethiopian armored column and Somali forces pushing southward since the fall of Mogadishu last week appear to have finally reached Ras …
This is very significant and telling about truly friendly governments in the war on terror versus unfriendly or neutral players in name only. Once Ethiopia made the decision there was no hesitation and they have stepped up to root out the terrorist.
I hope this gives us a new foothold to direct new military and civilian leadership and education in the area for those who support freedom.
We need to support them strongly in creating new opportunities for all people in the region and in producing leaders who fight corruption.
Islam has for years created strong footholds with very little resistance in the region. We need to be more forceful with China and Russia in the region too. They continue to support Sudan’s corrupt government either with passive UN support, money or in supplying weapons.
Now, if we could produce a similar effort against Sudan’s terrorist thugs in the Darfur region.
God Bless our troops in this “quiet” war being waged around the world. Hope they catch many of the leaders alive so we can create more intel data and connect more dots.
I wonder how much efforts are being made against the Sudanese government thru the financial institutions. If we cannot make progress in the UN, America should through similar efforts like those against NK, implement stringent banking restrictions.
Many Sudanese are also caught or killed fighting in Iraq. It is a festering swamp of terrorism.
Excuse my language, but this whole conflict is simply bull!!
Why is it that is a Muslim picks up arms to defend his nation, and establish rule of law, he is automatically labeled a terrorist???
I fail to see any al-Qadia connection with the horn of Africa, what ever the hell al-Qadia is. Why is it only after 911 this al-Qaida name came up? What were they before? Why did it come into existence? It’s all just a political term to label a striving Muslim as a terrorist. Tell me, what conclusive connection do we have between the Islamic courts government and al-Qadia? Just because of few al-Qadia people might be in the country, by that logic that means the United States is harboring terrorist, is it not? This administration hates to see an Islamic nation raise itself up, without their approval.
This administration and this nations law makers should be warned, that this “developing world”