Deadly Suicide Bombing Strikes Somalia's Capital

A suicide bomber has detonated a vehicle near the Presidential Palace in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, killing at least ten people.

Terror in Somalia: Islamisten greifen Vereinte Nationen an
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Kämpfer der radikalen Shabab-Miliz haben das Gebäude der Vereinten Nationen in der somalischen Hauptstadt Mogadischu gestürmt und 15 Menschen getötet. Truppen der Afrikanischen Union schlugen die Islamisten zurück.

Mogadischu - In der somalischen Hauptstadt Mogadischu haben Islamisten das Gebäude der Vereinten Nationen angegriffen. Die Polizei berichtete, ein Attentäter habe sich am Eingang zum Uno-Entwicklungsprogramm (UNDP) in die Luft gesprengt. Anschließend hätten mehrere Männer in Militäruniformen das Gebäude gestürmt und um sich geschossen. Bei dem Angriff seien 15 Menschen getötet worden, darunter vier ausländische Mitarbeiter des UNDP und vier somalische Sicherheitskräfte, sagte Innenminister Abdikarim Husien Gulled. » | tob/dpa/Reuters/AP/AFP | Mittwoch, 19. Juni 2013

Mogadishu Suicide Bomber Attacks Somalia Government Compound
A suicide bomb attack on a government compound in Mogadishu killed four government soldiers, narrowly missing the senior army commander. A wave of roadside bombings have hit Mogadishu this week, killing at least seven people, in incidents that police and residents have blamed on al-Qaida-affiliated al-Shabaab militants

Forget Secular Education: Somali Militant's Message Before Suicide Attack

THE GUARDIAN: Man responsible for huge blast in Mogadishu that left 100 dead said young people should focus on jihad

The suicide bomber who killed more than 100 people, including students seeking scholarships, in an attack near Somalia's education ministry was a school dropout who had declared that young people should wage jihad and forget about secular education.

Bashar Abdullahi Nur, who was to blame for the huge explosion on Tuesday that covered the capital, Mogadishu, in dust up to half a mile away, gave an interview before the attack.

"Now those who live abroad are taken to a college and never think about the hereafter. They never think about the harassed Muslims," he said in the interview broadcast on Wednesday by a militant-run radio station. "They wake up in the morning, go to college and studies and accept what the infidels tell them, while infidels are massacring Muslims." » | Associated Press in Mogadishu | Thursday, October 06, 2011

'At Your Service, Osama' - the African Bin Laden Behind the Uganda Bombings
THE TELEGRAPH: As Somalia's al Shebab militants claim responsibility for bombings in Kampala, the Telegraph profiles their spiritual leader, accountant-turned-jihadi Ahmed Abdi Godane.

Al-Shabaab fighters provide security during a demonstration in Suqa Holaha neighborhood in Mogadishu, Somalia. Photo: The Telegraph
As befits a man who fears he has a US missile with his name on it, Ahmed Abdi Godane knows the importance of keeping a low profile.

The leader of Somalia's al-Shebab militant movement, he prefers to be heard rather than seen, ranting away in radio broadcasts from his group's strongholds in northern Mogadishu. Thanks to his fatwahs against pop music, foreign films and even televised football, he already has a captive audience - as of last week, though, he made the rest of the world take notice too.

"What happened in Kampala was just the beginning," he warned in his latest broadcast, gloating over Sunday's twin suicide bombings in the Ugandan capital, in which Shebab-backed "martyrs" slaughtered 76 people as they watched the World Cup final. "If Uganda and Burundi do not withdraw their troops from Somalia, there will be more bombings like these."

Delivered with the same fiery rhetoric with which he recently declared himself "at Osama bin Laden's service", Godane's warning confirmed what many outside Somalia have long dreaded: that the Shebab, which has imposed a Taliban-style regime across much of the anarchic, war-torn land, would one day begin exporting its brand of Islamist violence to the wider world.

Last Sunday's attacks, designed to punish both Uganda and Burundi for providing troops to support Mogadishu's shaky Western-backed provisional government, marked the first time the group had struck outside its own borders. Now, having proved the Shebab's credentials as the world's newest international terrorist group, security officials fear it is only a matter of time before Godane, also known as Abu Zubayr, orders similar attacks against the West.

"This is a move into a different league altogether, and will put Godane and al Shebab on the world map," one Nairobi-based security official told The Sunday Telegraph. "He is very much of the international jihads mindset, and wants Islamic rule across the world, from Somalia to Alaska." >>> Colin Freeman and Mike Pflanz in Nairobi | Saturday, July 17, 2010

Insurgents Attack Palace in Somalia
THE NEW YORK TIMES: MOGADISHU, Somalia — At least 14 people were killed and more than 25 were wounded on Sunday in heavy fighting between government troops and insurgents who attacked the presidential palace with mortars, witnesses and officials said.

At least six mortar shells landed near the palace, witnesses said, but the president, Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, was in Turkey at a United Nations conference called to help Somalia.

“Our army withdrew from the front lines, and we have lost neighborhoods,” said Sheik Yusuf Mohamed Siad "Indha Adde", Somalia's state minister for defense. “But the prime minister is responsible for the defeat,” he added.

The fighting led to what witnesses called the biggest surge in refugees in months. Civilians poured into the streets carrying household goods packed onto donkey carts and into wheelbarrows. Others crammed into minibuses and old Fiat trucks. Refugee camps in several neighborhoods here were evacuated.

“I fled with my children, and I don’t know where I am heading,” said Jija Abdirahman, who was trying to escape with her three children and a wheelbarrow full of luggage. “These are merciless fighters. I have no hope that it will finish soon.” >>> Mohammed Ibrahim | Sunday, May 23, 2010

Africa: Al-Shabaab Bans Use of Prayer Beads
SUNDAY NATION: MOGADISHU – Al-Shabaab and Hizbu Islam, the two Islamist groups vehemently opposing the Transitional Federal Government in Somalia, have prohibited the use of prayer beads in the areas controlled by the movements.

They assert that the practice of using beads is bid’a (new introduction to Islamic ways).

Although never declared, residents in areas ruled by Al-Shabaab and Hizbu Islam admit that hundreds of people were apprehended, warned or harmed for having and using the device. >>> Abdulkadir Khalif Nation Correspondent and Agencies | Sunday, May 23, 2010

Violent Extremists Calling Fighters to Somalia


CNN: Mogadishu, Somalia -- In Somalia's enduring chaos, militant groups have for years come and gone. Today's most powerful -- Al Shabaab -- are much more menacing, say those in Mogadishu.

In Arabic, Al Shabaab means 'the youth', but it is too far-reaching to be just a rabble of youngsters. It controls much of central and southern Somalia and large parts of the capital Mogadishu.

And after years of pledging allegiance to al Qaeda, Al Shabaab formalized the relationship in February. Since then, the Somali government says there's been an influx of foreign fighters.

"With regard to the fighting that's going on in Afghanistan, in Pakistan and in Yemen, some people are looking for a place to hide and Somalia is a good candidate for that," said Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, who leads the weak, U.N.-backed Transitional Federal Government (TFG).

Ahmed was once a senior, moderate figure in the Union of Islamic Courts -- an alliance that included Al Shabaab and which held power in Somalia for six months in 2006 before being overthrown by Ethiopian forces.

The Ethiopians remained until early 2009 when the TFG took tentative control, clinging to a small part of Mogadishu, and protected by African Union (AU) peacekeepers mainly from Uganda and Burundi.

A quiet figure, President Ahmed sits in his office at the palace grounds while government troops outside fire warning shots to prevent people from venturing too close.

"We used to estimate the number of foreign fighters to be between 800 and 1,200 but that number seems to have been growing," he said.

Al Shabaab has reached out to Somalis living in the West, radicalizing young Muslims via the Internet and encouraging them to move back to the country to join the Jihad. >>> Jane Ferguson, for CNN | Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Islamists Order Mogadishu Radios to Stop Playing Music
AFP: MOGADISHU — A hardline Somali Islamist group issued a 10-day ultimatum Saturday to Mogadishu-based radio stations to stop playing all kinds of music or face unspecified penalties, an Islamist leader said.

The Hezb al-Islam group, which controls patches of the war-riven Somali capital, said playing music on radio stations was evil.

"We call on the local radio stations to stop broadcasting the songs and all music as well. We give them a 10-day deadline and any radio station found not complying with the orders... will face sharia action," said Moalim Hashi Mohamed Farah, a senior Hezb al-Islam official, referring to Islamic law.

"We also issue orders banning the local media from using the word 'foreigners' to refer to our Muslim brothers coming from outside the country to help us fight against the enemy of Allah," he told reporters. >>> | Saturday, April 03, 2010

Somalia: ‘The Religion of Love and Peace and Compassion and Mercy’ Has Been at It Again!
TIMES ONLINE: Seven people accused of renouncing Islam and spying for the Government were beheaded in Somalia yesterday in a move that underlined the growing authority of the country’s Islamist insurgents.

The extremist al-Shabaab group is battling the interim Government in Mogadishu and has implemented a strict interpretation of Sharia in the parts of the country that it controls.

“Al-Shabaab told us that they were beheaded for being Christian followers and spies,” a relative said after the killings. A witness described seeing the decapitated bodies in the back of a lorry in the town of Baidoa.

The killings were the largest number to take place at one time. They were the latest in a series of beheadings, amputations and stonings to death ordered by al-Shabaab, which is accused of having links to al-Qaeda and is listed as a terrorist organisation by the US.

In areas that al-Shabaab controls, including most of southern Somalia and much of Mogadishu, numerous others accused of collaborating with the Government or committing crimes such as adultery, rape, theft or murder have been publicly executed, flogged or had amputations ordered in recent weeks. Seven Somalis beheaded by extremists for 'spying for government' >>> Tristan McConnell in Nairobi | Saturday, July 11, 2009

Somalia Sinks Deeper into a State of Total Disintegration
THE GUARDIAN / OBSERVER: Millions have fled their homes in terror; a raped 13-year-old has been stoned to death for 'adultery'; aid workers have been murdered by Islamist militias. While the world's attention is on the pirates off its coast, the failed African state is being ripped apart by violence.

Zam Zam Abdi fled Mogadishu after being threatened with death by the hardline Islamist militia - the Shabab. The message from the armed group once allied to the Union of Islamic Courts, the coalition that briefly seized power in 2006, was simple: if she continued working for her women's rights organisation in the Somali capital, she would be killed. The warning was posted on her office gates. But it is what happened to a friend and colleague, working for another organisation, that persuaded her to escape. He was shot dead and the same note left on his body.

'Most of us had to leave,' she said. 'We had emails and phone calls telling us to stop working. They used an expression famous in Somalia: Falka aad ku jirtid maka baxeeysa. May ama haa? It means - "Stop what you are doing or we will act. Yes or no?" Then someone spoke on the radio - a local leader called Sheikh Mahmoud - delivering the same warning.'

Zam Zam, 28, separates the chaos and violence that has pervaded her country since the overthrow of President Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 into 'ordinary Mogadishu' and 'not ordinary'. 'Ordinary', in Zam Zam's definition, describes her country's persistent clan warfare, even the heavy fighting in the city that drove her to leave before with her daughter when Ethiopian troops - supporting the internationally recognised government - shelled her neighbourhood in 2006 to drive the Islamic Courts out after six months in power.

In the ordinary violence and chaos, Zam Zam and her colleagues could still work, negotiating with the clan warlords. In common with the UN, Zam Zam believes that what is happening now is something else. Something terrible, exceeding perhaps even the bloodsoaked chaotic days of the early 1990s when Somalia was last plunged into anarchy.

It is Mogadishu that symbolises what is happening. A large proportion of its population - already jobless, hungry and surviving on aid - has fled the fighting in the city between the Shabab and the forces of the country's weak and rapidly imploding government, backed by its Ethiopian allies. The streets are stalked by assassins, kidnappers and suicide bombers. And the Shabab is threatening to overrun the country's south and centre. >>> Peter Beaumont | November 23, 2008

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