Tag Archives: Somalia

Two people were killed during an exchange of mortar fire in northern Mogadishu. The commander of police in the Mudug region of Puntland escaped an assassination attempt. Kenya has completed the training of 2,500 Somali troops.

Civilians are fleeing Mogadishu as government troops and Shabaab fighters are reinforcing their bases. The government admitted that Islamist groups control the nation’s economic centers and air and sea ports, and claimed Shabaab torched the Bakara market. The government will also close its foreign embassies.

Hizbul Islam leader Hassan Dahir Aweys vowed to continue waging jihad in Somalia. A senior Hizbul Islam official dodged an assassination attempt in Mogadishu. Danish troops stormed a ship under the control of Somali pirates.

Hassan Turki confirmed the merger of the Ras Kamboni Brigade with Shabaab and said he made the decision to aid in “the unification of all Mujahidins and Muslims.” Hizbul Islam leader Hassan Dahir Aweys denied that the Ras Kamboni Brigade joined Shabaab. The government claimed the military would begin a major offensive in Mogadishu. Two […]

The Ras Kamboni Brigade has broken away from Hizbul Islam, merged formally with Shabaab, and pledged allegiance with al Qaeda. Ras Kamboni leader Hassan Turki and Shabaab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane attended a ceremony in Baidoa. An artillery exchange between insurgents and presidential palace troops killed at last 16 people in Mogadishu. Five people were […]

At least 12 people were killed in fighting during the night between insurgents and African Union peacekeepers in Mogadishu. Fighters from Shabaab and Hizbul Islam claimed responsibility in a statement, saying that they had assaulted “the strongholds of the enemies of Allah.”

One person was killed and four others, including the governor of the Sool region in Somaliland, were wounded in a roadside bomb attack that targeted the governor’s car. Djibouti said it planned to send 450 troops to support the African Union mission in Mogadishu.

A Shabaab suicide bomber wearing an explosive jacket disguised himself as one of the patients and targeted the Halane clinic inside an African Union base in Mogadishu™s airport, killing seven people; the initial report indicated the explosion was caused by a mortar. At least five people were killed in fighting between insurgents and the Ahlu […]

Shabaab fired a mortar shell into a hospital inside an African Union base in Mogadishu, killing a soldier and several Somali civilians. Insurgents attacked a second African Union base in Mogadishu with mortars and heavy machine guns.”

A court in Garowe, the capital of Puntland, has sentenced to death a man who confessed to be a Shabaab operative planning to carry out attacks in Puntland and the breakaway republic of Somaliland. He also confessed that he was a photographer and used his profession to smuggle explosives in the regions. Shabaab recruited about […]

Shabaab and Hizbul Islam have captured the strategic town of Beledweyne after battling with the pro-government militia Ahlu Sunnah Wal Jama™a, and have looted the offices of the UN health agency WHO and Save the Children. A bomb blast targeted the center of Bosasso in Puntland while the police were conducting search operations in the […]

Shabaab denied it threatened to attack Kenya and said a recording posted on the Internet was a fake. At least eight people were killed when insurgents from Hizbul Islam and Shabaab took Beledweyne town in central Somalia from pro-government militia Ahlu Sunna Wal Jama™a. A kidnapped British couple said pirates set a “deadline” for their […]

Shabaab top leader Ahmed Abdi Godane threatened to attack neighboring Kenya following a crackdown on Somalis in the capital Nairobi. Kenya has arrested 2,000 Somali immigrants in Nairobi, including two army generals, 11 members of parliament, and other officials of the Transitional Federal Government, and has deployed more troops near the border between the two […]

At least six people were killed in fighting between pirates over a ransom in the coastal town of Harardere. A Puntland lawmaker was killed by a gunman in Bosaso. Hizbul Islam plans to start operating a port and an airport in the out of the capital Mogadishu.

Eleven people were killed and 10 more were injured in heavy shelling in Mogadishu. The government demanded Kenya release 16 Somali members of parliament who were detained after protests in Nairobi over the deportation of a radical cleric. Shabaab and Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula are swapping fighters.

Two civilians were killed during fighting in Mogadishu; an aid worker was also executed. Government troops and African Union troops reportedly clashed at Mogadishu Airport. Shabaab had a man accused of rape stoned to death. Shabaab praised the Islamist protests in Kenya but denied any involvement.

Ten Somalis were killed in mortar exchanges between government forces and Islamist fighters. A senior Hizbul Islam leader denied that he defected to Ahlu Sunna Waljama™a. Unidentified gunmen attacked a police station in Las Anod in Somaliland; three policemen were wounded.

The pro-government Ahlu Sunnah Wal Jamaa militia drove Shabaab from the village of Wabho; 16 people were reported killed. Ahlu Sunnah Wal Jamaa also battled Hizbul Islam in Beledweyn; 10 people were killed. Ahlu Sunnah Wal Jamaa claimed a top Hizbul Islam leader defected.