Shabaab fighters pursued and attacked the remnants of Hizbul Islam forces that were routed and fled Kismayo. Preeminent Hizbul Islam leader and former government official Sheikh Aden Abdisalam Abdi was shot and killed in Beledweyne. The anti-Shabaab Islamist organization Ahlu Sunna Waljama conducted security operations in Galkayo. Gunmen released three foreigners who were seized for […]
Senior Shabaab and Hizbul Islam leaders were killed during yesterday’s heavy fighting in Kismayo, including the commander of Anole fighters, Ali Said, and Shabaab™s top commander for the Jubba regions, Aden Dhagoweyne. A Hizbul Islam convoy of battle wagons led by former governor Sheik Abdirahman Ibrahim Ma’ow regained control of Beledweyne and imposed a curfew. […]
Shabaab and Hizbul Islam are acting quickly to curb the internecine war between their fighters in the port town of Kismayo in southern Somalia. At least 30 people have been killed in more than five hours of fighting after Shabaab launched a predawn raid against Hizbul Islam-held neighborhoods in the northern part of the city. […]
Shabaab attacked Hizbul Islam in the seaport of Kismayo city at dawn. At least 25 people have been killed and thousands of civilians fled the area. Shabaab was assisted by foreign fighters, residents said. A convoy of armed trucks led by Sheikh Hassan “Turki,” deputy commander of Hizbul Islam, left Mogadishu to reinforce Hizbul fighters.
Shabaab declared war on Hizbul Islam for control of the port of Kismayo town. “We will fight al Shabaab everywhere in Somalia if they so much as fire a pistol in Kismayu,” Sheikh Ismail Adow, spokesman for Hizbul’s executive council, said. Twelve civilians were killed after AMISOM troops and Somali insurgents exchanged mortar fire. The […]
Government and Ethiopian troops routed Hizbul Islam fighters from the central town of Beledweyne. Insurgents attacked the base of Burundian troops in south Mogadishu. Five civilians were killed by mortars in Mogadishu’s central Bakara market. A Shabaab firing squad executed two alleged “CIA spies” before hundreds of witnesses in northern Mogadishu™s Maslah market. The seaport […]
Shabaab plans to launch suicide attacks using small planes against Somali government and AU bases in Mogadishu. The group has withdrawn from the seaport city of Kismayo after Hizbul Islam and the Ras Kamboni Brigade poured in with armed trucks and after Hizbul™s deputy leader Sheikh Hassan Turki went to Mogadishu to discuss the situation […]
The governor of central Hiran region quit the Mogadishu government and declared his loyalty to Hizbul Islam. “Our fighters and weapons are now part of Hizbul Islam,” he told reporters. Businessmen in Mogadishu asked Shabaab to reopen roads that lead to the crucial Bakara Market, saying they would stop their financial support if the roads […]
Eritrea says terrorism focus not working in Somalia
The front line in Somalia
Five civilians were killed after Hizbul Islam attacked an AMISOM base on the Makka al Mukarama road, which connects the Presidential palace and the airport in Mogadishu. Soldiers killed a sixth civilian in Dharkeynley district when a roadside bomb targeted them. Seven pirates were killed by AU peacekepers after they boarded a merchant ship and […]
A website affiliated with Shabaab celebrated a Somali-American from Seattle as one of the suicide bombers who conducted a complex assault against the African Union peacekeeper base in Mogadishu last week. The suicide bombers easily entered the AMISOM military compound while driving two white vehicles with United Nations markings. “We thought they were real UN […]
A Shabaab website celebrated an American from Seattle as one of the suicide bombers who killed 21 peacekeepers in Mogadishu last week. Hizbul Islam rejected Shabaab’s administration over Kismayo. “There should be mediation before there is bloodshed,” said Sheikh Hassan Turki, Hizbul’s deputy leader and the commander of the Ras Kamboni Brigade. Both sides are […]
Al-Shabaab terrorists ‘living in Australia’
Twelve civilians were killed in Mogadishu after Somali insurgents fired mortars at the presidential palace and attacked African Union bases. Shabaab conducted security operations against bandits on the main road that links Mogadishu to Km50 and signed a “total peace” agreement with the Daud clan in the middle region of Shabelle in southern Somalia. Uganda’s […]
Abu Mansur al Amriki (standing, background) at the Abu Suleim camp in Somalia. Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera has some interesting news on the covert raid conducted by US Special Forces, dubbed Celestial Balance, that targeted an al Qaeda leader in Southern Somalia on Sept. 14th. According to a local stringer for the newspaper, […]
Shabaab has proclaimed its allegiance to Osama bin Laden in a video entitled “At your service, Osama” distributed in Mogadishu, where a public screening was also organized. In the video appears Abu Mansour al Amriki, an American citizen in charge of military training for Shabaab. Six civilians were killed in Mogadishu after insurgents and government […]
Video: Somali crowds vow allegiance to bin Laden
Shabaab seized control of Yeed town on the border with Ethiopia from government forces after clashes that killed at least 17 people. Militiamen of the Ethiopian rebel group the Ogaden Liberation Front (OLF) crossed the border and helped the Somali insurgents. Shabaab fighters shot dead two demonstrators protesting the arrest of three religious leaders in […]
“Use suicide attacks to kill them,” al Qaeda-linked Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys said during a sermon, referring to African Union troops.
A top Islamist leader, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, called for more suicide attacks against African Union peacekeepers. Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage, talking at Nasrudin mosque in Mogadishu, has warned schools not to use textbooks provided by the United Nations. A second senior Shabaab official addressed thousands of people in the football stadium of […]
The United Nations is investigating the use of its vehicles by suicide bombers who killed 17 African Union peacekeepers at their main base. Shabaab overran UN compounds in Jowhar and Baidoa in May and July, which has given rise to speculation that the vehicles were captured then. Gunmen have killed the secretary of the influential […]
AU urges more weapons for Somalia
Shabaab fighters have six more stolen United Nations vehicles primed as suicide bombs, the government said. The death toll from twin suicide car bombings at the African Union’s main base in Somalia rose to 21 Friday, including 17 peacekeepers. It was the deadliest attack on AU peacekeepers since 2007. France said Friday it has evacuated […]
Two Shabaab suicide bombers drove cars with UN markings into an AMISOM compound in Mogadishu and detonated their explosives as senior African Union and Somali leaders met.
Two Shabaab suicide bombers killed the deputy African Union commander and eight others in an attack on a base in Mogadishu. Shabaab took credit for the attack. Shabaab issued terms to the French that would ensure the release of a captive security official.
Somali rebels call for foreign reinforcements
Nabhan fires a rifle in a videotape produced by al Qaeda’s media arm. Image by Nick Grace. Click to view. Daniele Raineri, an Italian journalist who writes for Il Foglio and a friend of The Long War Journal, passed along a tip about the commando raid that resulted in the death of Saleh Ali Saleh […]
US special operations forces have conducted four other such strikes in Pakistan, Syria, and Madagascar since 2006.
Elite US forces kill top al Qaeda fighter