04 Nov 2011 – Morning headlines
Key Headlines:
- TFG Kenya troops seize control of rebel positions in Gedo region
- Unknown gunmen gun down Somali soldier in Mogadishu
- Al Shabaab steps up beheadings recruitment
- Somali rebels push for ‘endless war’
- Somalia: Sierra Leone to send troops
- Kenya army to enforce no-fly zone over Baidoa
- Kismayo residents forced to bear arms
- Somali rebels arm Kismayu against Kenyan assault
SOMALI MEDIA
TFG, Kenya troops seize control of rebel positions in Gedo region
03 Nov – Source: Radio Bar-kulan, Radio Mogadishu – 137 words
Somali troops backed by Kenyan forces yesterday seized several rebel bases in Gedo region without any confrontation, officials said.The allied forces briefly rumbled into rebel held areas between El-wak, Beled-hawo and Garbaharey in efforts to flush out rebel fighters.
Unknown gunmen kill Somali soldier in Mogadishu
03 Nov – Source: Shabelle – 103 words
Unidentified men armed with pistols shot and killed a Somali government soldier in Mogadishu. Reports say the soldier had come under attack while he was involved in robbing activities in Mogadishu’s Dharkenley district.
http://www.shabelle.net/
Mass displacement after Kenya threatens to strike Somalia towns
03 Nov – Source: Radio Kulmiye – 140 words
Hundreds of people began to displace from neighborhoods since the threat emerged from the Kenyan ministry of defense, there are truck loads heading to Mogadishu. Al Shabaab are trying to prevent the people to reach in Mogadishu or elsewhere and ordered to stay in their homes.
Somali nationals facing hurdles in Libya
03 Nov – Source: Radio Shabelle, Kulmiye – 97 words
Somali citizens in Libya are reportedly facing hurdles and some of them are stranded in Libyan neighborhoods. Abdi-Aziz Qorane Mohamed, a Somali national in Libya said that young Somalis are facing very bad living conditions after escaping the twenty year old conflict in Somalia. Mohamed said that children, women and old people from the horn of African nation are now stranded in Tripoli, the capital of Libya.
http://www.shabelle.net/
Al Shabaab steps up beheadings, recruitment
03 Nov – Source: Radio Mogadishu,Somalia Report – 22 words
The beheaded bodies of four businessmen were found in Elasha Biyaha, outside Mogadishu, yesterday morning, with al Shabaab believed to be responsible.
REGIONAL MEDIA
Somali rebels push for ‘endless war’
03Nov – Source: Daily Nation, AFP – 318 words
Al Shabaab rebels said yesterday they were building defences that would plunge Kenyan forces battling them into an “endless war.” Kenyan soldiers and tanks pushed into al Shabaab-controlled southern Somalia last month to fight the insurgents and curtail their ability to launch cross-border attacks.
Al Shabaab vows war against Kenya
03 Nov – Source:New Vision – 27words
Somalia’s al Shabaab rebels vowed on Thursday to fight Kenya after its troops entered the Horn of Africa nation and called on sympathisers to carry out major attacks. “The time to ask Kenya to stop war has passed. The only option is to fight them. Kenya, you have started the war and so you have to face the consequences,” al Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Muktar Robow Abu Mansoor told a demonstration near Mogadishu.
http://www.newvision.co.ug/
Kismayo residents forced to bear arms
04 Nov – Source: Daily Nation – 500 words
Resident of al Shabaab stronghold tell media that they have been blocked from fleeing, given weapons by force and ordered to defend the port city against Kenyan troops preparing to invade.
Kenya army to enforce no-fly zone over Baidoa
04 Nov – Source: The Star – 350 words
The Kenya Defence Forces yesterday imposed a no-fly zone in the South Somalia region of Baidoa after an unidentified plane overflew their positions. This comes a day after three planes – suspected to have been from Eritrea – delivered weapons for use by al Shabaab.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Somali rebels arm Kismayu against Kenyan assault
03 Nov – Source: Reuters – 583words
Somali militants mounted weapons on roofs, dug trenches and armed students in the port of Kismayu against attack by Kenyan troops, warning the “Kenyan invasion” would lead to “cataclysmic consequences”. Kenya’s army has warned Somali civilians to stay away from al Shabaab militant bases in 10 towns to avoid being hurt in imminent strikes.
http://in.reuters.com/article/
Sierra Leone to send troops
03 Nov – Source: New York Times – 113 words
Sierra Leone will send 850 soldiers to an African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia, a military official said Thursday. The official, Lt. Col. Ronnie Harleston, Sierra Leone’s military attaché to the United Nations, said the troops would deploy in the middle of next year. They will join approximately 9,000 peacekeepers from Uganda and Burundi, who are currently trying to secure the Somali capital, Mogadishu, from Islamist rebels.
CULTURE / OPINION / EDITORIAL / BLOGS
A message from al Shabaab
03 Nov – Source: The Star (Canada) 640 words
An alarming call recently arrived from Somalia. The intended audience was Somali youth — like me — living in Canada. According to CBC News, al Shabaab has released an audiotape calling for terrorist attacks in a host of countries — including Canada. A suicide bomber, believed to be an American citizen, urges young people to rise up and murder non-Muslims.