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Tag: somalia

  • Libya Strike Ends 15-Year Hunt for Abu Anas al-Libi

    “Members of al-Qa’ida and other terrorist organizations literally can run but they can’t hide,” Secretary of State John Kerry said in reference to this weekend’s US military raids aimed at al-Shabaab militants in Somalia and Libyan, Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, a.k.a., Abu Anas al-Libi.

    Al-Libi was wanted for his involvement in the 1998 bombings of US Embassies in Kenya (right) and Tanzania (left), in which over 220 were killed and 5,000 injured. Considering the span of 15 years since the bombings, predating the al-Qa’ida attacks of 11 September, Kerry said, “We hope that this makes clear that the United States of America will never stop in the effort to hold those accountable who conduct acts of terror.”

    1998 Bombings

    Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said in a statement today that al-Libi is currently in US custody after his capture, echoing Kerry’s comments that the US, “will spare no effort to hold terrorists accountable, no matter where they hide or how long they evade justice.” Hagel praised the US military personnel involved in both operations.

    The Libyan extremist was indicted in 2000 by a New York court for planning the East Africa bombings and other attacks aimed at US interests. Executive Order 13224 designates al-Libi as a global terrorist through his involvement in designated terrorist organizations and the UN has included him on its al-Qa’ida sanctions list.

    According to al-Jazeera, Tripoli is asking for US “clarifications” on the capture and while not wishing to affect a strategic relationship with Washington, the Libyan government affirms that Libyan nationals should be tried in their home country.

    A brother of al-Libi, Nabih al-Ruqai, reported to the Associated Press that al-Libi was parked outside of his house in Tripoli following Saturday morning prayers when he was captured by personnel in three vehicles that surrounded him, smashed the car window, grabbed his gun and him and left.

    [Images via Wikimedia Commons.]

  • Navy SEALs Somalia Assault Raises Strategic Questions

    Yesterday, Navy SEAL Team Six raided an al-Shabaab HQ in Barawe, Somalia. Although none of the SEALs were killed in the assault, a series of conflicting reports about the raid’s target were released, some of which claiming the individual was captured while others were claiming he died in the firefight. The raid was aborted as a failure.

    Despite conflicting reports, the SEAL team leader decided that the fighting was too hot, and after 20 minutes of gunfire, the SEAL team swam away. Somali intelligence officials have claimed, according to CBS News, that the SEAL team was targeting the leader of the al-Shabaab Islamist faction in Somalia, Mukhtar Abu Zubeyr AKA Ahmed Godane; however, an al-Shabaab official by the name of Sheikh Abdiaziz Abu Musab said via audio message that the raid had failed in its goal.

    The strike in Somalia by Navy SEAL Team Six was a part of a coordinated response to the Nairobi Westgate Mall attacks. The failed raid was part of a two-pronged response, with the second staged in Libya just hours after SEAL Team Six pulled out. The Libyan strike was targeting an al Qaeda leader associated with the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.

    The Libyan raid, unlike the Somali one, was considered a huge success. Navy SEAL teams surrounded a house in Tripoli containing Anu Abas al-Liby, the al-Qaeda leader who claimed responsibility for the Embassy bombings. Liby had previously been indicted for his role in the bombings.

    The CS Monitor noted an interesting dichotomy: until recently, the Obama administration’s primary method of fighting terror abroad was authorized drone strikes. Having conducted hundreds of drone strikes during his presidency, Obama sought to decrease their frequency. Whereas 2010 saw 117 drone strikes in Pakistan alone, this year has seen only 46 Pakistani strikes while Yemen only endured 10 strikes this year. With these recent Navy SEAL raids, is the Obama administration changing tactics in the War on Terror?

    Obama recently acknowledged the deep resentment felt by the international community with regard to U.S. drone policy: “To say a military tactic is legal, or even effective, is not to say it is wise or moral in every instance,” Obama said in a speech at the National Defense University. “For the same human progress that gives us the technology to strike half a world away also demands the discipline to constrain that power – or risk abusing it.”

    [Image via a KTN YouTube news report of the raids]

  • Al-Shabaab Refuge Raided by US Navy SEALs

    In the early dark of Saturday, a US Navy SEAL strike in southern Somalia failed to obtain the intended target, Associated Press reports. The objective, an unidentified leader of the militant group al-Shabaab, is connected to the late September mall attack in Nairobi, Kenya.

    US military officials, speaking to AP, have confirmed the raids but released little other information so far and the Pentagon apparently declined to comment. The raid in Barawe, a town on the southern Somali coast about 150 miles south of Mogadishu, hit before morning prayers and had as its intended, “high-profile,” targets.

    No Americans were killed in the strike. Early reports on the raid indicated the al-Shabaab leader may have been killed in raid gunfire but little has surfaced since to confirm that, and the team is said to have been forced to withdraw before his status could be verified. Confusion also surfaced about what nations contributed fighters to conduct the attack in the small fishing town. The firefight lasted for more than an hour, drawing on aerial support from helicopters. A Somali government official says that his government, “was pre-informed about the attack.”

    This same town was the scene of a SEAL raid four years ago in which a high value al-Qa’ida operative named Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan was killed.

    Al-Shabaab has claimed responsibility for the mall attack two weeks ago in which over 60 people were killed. The group has committed to other violence against neighboring Kenya which placed troops in Somalia two years ago in an effort to thwart al-Shabaab intentions to enforce strict Islamic law in the tormented nation.

    Since 2011, the group has mostly withdrawn from Mogadishu, finding refuge in towns like Barawe. The New York Times records a US security official as stating that the raid, “was planned a week and a half ago,” confirming that it was in response to the violence in Nairobi.

    A spokesman for al-Shabaab reported that one of its members was killed in the raid but says the militants beat back the SEALs.

    [Image via CIA World Factbook and YouTube.]

  • Black Hawk Down: 20 Years Since Military Disaster

    The twentieth anniversary of one of the U.S. military’s greatest botched missions, “Black Hawk Down,” was yesterday. In celebration, the US government recently released the classified footage of the operation. The video above contains some of that footage, and 60 Minutes will probably air even more.

    2001’s blockbuster film Black Hawk Down (dir. by Ridley Scott) famously dramatized the events of October 3-4, 1993, when a U.S. military force of combined arms flew into Mogadishu’s Bakara Market to take down militant leaders associated with tribal chief Mohamed Farrah Aidid. Aidid’s militias were hoarding hijacked food at the time and refusing to allow UN peacekeepers to render international aid.

    In the battle, referred to by military historians as the Battle of Mogadishu or by Somali locals as ‘The Day of the Rangers,’ Aidid’s civilian militias shot down two UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters during the initial assault, and what was meant to be a sixty minute operation became a 12 hour running gun battle throughout Mogadishu between a couple hundred Rangers and several thousand armed civilians. When the team finally managed to exfiltrate the battle zone, 18 U.S. soldiers had been killed.

    The AFP reported yesterday that, in honor of the recent anniversary, president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud of Somalia gave a speech commemorating the dead on both sides of the conflict, and lauding the progress of the country. “Somalis have known nothing but conflict and suffering for two decades, today we have at last emerged from the ashes of war,” he said. “As we celebrate our recovery we also mark with sadness and respect the lives lost on both sides in the madness of that conflict and we say firmly, never again.”

    Since Mohamed Aidid usurped Somalia’s previous government in 1991, the UN refused to recognize Somalia as legitimately governed until the administration of Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. “Many people around the world know Somalia only through the distorted lens of ‘Black Hawk Down.’ Yet, Somalia has moved on into a new chapter with a recognized government that is healing the wounds of war,” he said of his country’s efforts.

    Although the book and film adaptation made little attempt to study the tribal conflict or the civilian militia who participated, indictments charging Osama bin Laden in connection to the events of the Battle of Mogadishu have surfaced. Allegedly, al-Qaeda commanders traveled to Somalia under bin Laden’s orders to train soldiers. Some of those soldiers participated in the violence of October 3-4 and potentially had a hand in its disastrous outcome. Because of allegations regarding the involvement of al-Qaeda, the battle is now being called one of the first in America’s War on Terror.

    [Image via a brief YouTube 60 Minutes video of the footage]

  • Omar Hammami, American Jihadi, Reported Dead

    Omar Hammami, better known as Abu Monsoor Al-Almriki (“the American”), has reportedly been shot dead in the southern bay area of Somalia. Hammami has been reported dead on numerous occasions, but close contact and terrorism expert J.M. Berger believes that reports of Hammami’s death this time are accurate.

    Hammami left his hometown of Daphne, Alabama in 2006 to pursue a life as a self-proclaimed terrorist in Somalia in 2006. There, Hammami joined the al-Qaeda linked terrorist group al-Shabab. While Hammami did help organize military operations and actively fought for the rebels, he served mainly as a recruiting tool to pull foreigners into al-Shabab, mainly through his use of rap and social media. Hammami’s online presence gave him the nickname the “Rapping Jihadist”:

    Hammami had been fearing for his life for months now, after falling out with the leaders of al-Shabab. In April of 2012, Hammami tweeted that he had been shot in the neck by assassins sent by Godane, al-Shabab’s leader. Leaders of al-Shabab were upset with Hammami due to his criticism concerning their use of tax money collected from Somalis and Hammami’s criticism that Godane was oppressing Muslims in order to simply win control of Somalia . Those factors, coupled with growing antagonism toward foreign militants, are perhaps what led to al-Shabab hunting Hammami down and killing him.

    Hammami has been on America’s Most Wanted Terrorists list since March and had a $5 million reward for information leading to his whereabouts. Along with Adam Gadahn, a former bin Laden spokesman in Pakistan, Hammami is considered the most dangerous Americans in a jihad group due to his wide sphere of influence and connections.

    Earlier this month, Hammami appeared to make positive steps by denouncing his ties with al-Shabab and al-Qaeda. However, when asked if he would be willing to talk to US officials, Hammami said the following: “I’m openly not from Shabab, I’m openly not from al-Qaida, but I’m definitely a terrorist, so they’re just going to end up changing my sentence from being affiliated with al-Qaida to being affiliated with terrorism, so it doesn’t really matter whether I speak or not.”

    In an interview with Voice of America, Hammami was also asked whether or not he would ever return to the US. Hammami replied “that is not an option unless it’s in a body bag.” It looks like he is going to get his wish.

    Image via YouTube

  • Somalia Suffers World’s Worst Polio Outbreak

    Less than 24 hours ago, the AP reported that a polio epidemic of “explosive” proportions had struck Somalia. The African country famed for its piracy and tribal conflicts may now claim it has more polio cases than the rest of the world’s countries combined.

    Although most countries in the world consider polio eliminated, it is considered endemic in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria, and until very recently, India. Figures released on Friday illustrate over 100 cases with an extra 10 popping up in a Kenyan refugee camp. The outbreak initially started this past May, and campaigns to vaccinate the Somali people have reached about 4 million. Somalia was removed from the endemic list in 2001.

    Areas of the country are still heavily controlled by the al Shabaab child militia network, and health workers are having trouble reaching children in those areas, 7 out of 10 of whom are not properly immunized against polio.

    Oliver Rosenbauer, a spokesman for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative at the WHO in Geneva, said that “It’s very worrying because it’s an explosive outbreak and of course polio is a disease that is slated for eradication… In fact we’re seeing more cases in this area this year than in the three endemic countries worldwide.”

    Polio is one of computer magnate Bill Gates’ pet issues, and through his foundation he personally devotes millions of dollars to the effort. Rosenbauer is optimistic that the polio outbreak will not affect continued efforts to eliminate the disease.

    “The only way to get rid of this risk is to eradicate in the endemic countries, and there the news is actually paradoxically very good,” Rosenbauer said in a phone interview with the AP on the subject of eliminating polio in endemic nations.

    The AFP notes that the outbreak could not have come at a more inconvenient time for Somalia. Apart from the al-Qaeda associated al Shabaab Islamists, rival warlords and the Somali national army are all clashing for control of the country.

    A clear indicator as to the problems facing doctors who operate in Somalia was the notice that Doctors Without Borders is pulling out of Somalia after 22 years of lending aid. The nonprofit cited attacks on its staff members, although the organization was not participating in the polio campaigns.

  • Pirate Attack Fought Off By EU Navy

    The European Union Naval Force this week fended off Somali pirates, saving 14 Indian sailors.

    According to the EU Navy, an Indian cargo ship sent out a distress call on the morning of June 5. Twelve pirates had attacked the ship and taken control of the vessel.

    The Royal Swedish Navy warship HSwMS Carlskrona and the Dutch warship HNLMS Van Speijk responded to the distress call, and arrived to counter the attack. Using a helicopter launched from a Carlskrona, the EU forces pressured the pirates to release their Indian hostages as the ship moved closer to the Somali coast. By late night, EU naval forces received word from the Indian commander of the cargo ship that the pirates had abandoned the vessel in the dead of night. None of the crew was injured in the incident.

    The thwarted pirate attack is part of Operation Atalanta, the EU’s counter-piracy mission that has been active since early April.

    “What is important is that fourteen Indian sailors are now safe and able to return to their families, after what must have been a terrifying ordeal,” said Rear Admiral Bob Tarrant, operation commander of the EU Naval Force. “This latest attack once again shows that the threat from piracy is real. We must all remain vigilant.”

  • Somali Insurgents on Twitter

    Al-Shabaab, a Somali terrorist group, is using a Twitter account as a war strategy in their battle against the Kenyan Army. Below is the latest tweet from the HSM Press, the name the group uses in media accounts.

    @HSMPress
    HSM Press Office    Cutting off telecommunication links to El Adde highlights the level of #KDF despondency; a measure of desperation & despondency intertwined 2 days ago via web · powered by @socialditto

    The mere fact that this group has a Twitter account may seem surprising to those who may have viewed this small, Islamic militia as being unsophisticated. That is exactly the point. War analysts think that al-Shabaab is trying to change perceptions others may have of them as being like cavemen.

    One analyst says, “Al-Shabaab is using Twitter as a platform to help amplify its victories, downplay its defeats and show that it has a bead in modern technology”.

    Will Oremus of Slate Magazine, claims that the U.S. government is taking this Twitter account seriously enough to attempt to shut it down.

    Although al-Shabaab is obviously using the account as war propaganda, many Americans – who are not terrorists – may be following the account for educational purposes.

    Students, educators, and journalists are among the many who are intrigued by the move all different groups are taking towards social media as a means of battle.

    The fact that the tweets are in clear, concise English suggests that al-Shabaab is attempting to convey to the world that they are a modern force, and not afraid to battle with words.