March 11, 2016 | Daily Monitoring Report
Hand Grenade Attack Kills Four And Injures Two Others In Garbaharey Town
11 March – Source: Goobjoog News – 119 Words
At least four people were confirmed dead and two others injured in a hand bomb attack at a restaurant in Garbaharey town in Gedo region on Thursday evening. Government officials in Garbaharey town said that Al-Shabaab hurled a hand bomb at a restaurant in the town which caused the death of four people and injured two others. Noor Mohamed, one of government officials said, “ A woman who was selling tea was among those killed as two others were wounded in the hand bomb attack, the security forces are investigating the incident.” “Al-Shabaab has geared their battle toward social gathering areas as they were defeated in the war and they increased such coward attacks,” added Mohamed.
Key Headlines
- Hand Grenade Attack Kills Four And Injures Two Others In Garbaharey Town (Goobjoog News)
- Somalia Militants Execute Man Over Alleged Army Membership (Hiiraan Online)
- Somalia Signs Air Transport Deal With Saudi Arabia (Goobjoog News)
- Somali Militant Denies He Was Killed In US Airstrike (Hiiraan Online)
- Imam Arrested In Italy Suspected Of Planning Rome Terror Attack (Religion News)
- Judge In San Antonio Sends Somali Accused Of Terror Links To Prison For Lying (My San Antonio)
- Another View: United States Should Abandon Unsuccessful Effort In Somalia (Press Herald)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Somalia Militants Execute Man Over Alleged Army Membership
11 March – Source: Hiiraan Online – 192 Words
Al-Qaeda linked extremist group in Somalia executed a man for allegedly being a member of Somalia’s army, the latest in a series of executions by the group which continues deadly guerrilla attacks in large parts of the south and central Somalia. The Somali man Kun’il Mahad, was executed by a firing squad in Buqaqable, a rural village in Hiiraan region on Friday after an ad-hoc court run by Al-Shabaab convicted him of being a soldier in the Somali army.
An Al-Shabaab judge read the verdict at an open ground in the town, as a crowd gathered to watch the execution. Reading the verdict, the judge declared that the convicted admitted all charges, and immediately sentenced him to death by firing squad. Human rights groups often criticize Al-Shabaab’s justice system, saying that suspected persons arrested by the group don’t usually get access to lawyers, an action they said violated their basic rights.
Al-Shabaab which is fighting Somali government and the African Union forces carried out multiple executions in Somalia in recent years, however, officials often accuse the group of executing innocents without evidence to substantiate charges presented against them.
Somalia Signs Air Transport Deal With Saudi Arabia
11 March – Source: Goobjoog News – 109 Words
A delegation led by Somali Minister for Transport Ali Jamaa Jangili was on Thursday received in Jeddah town by President of the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) Sulaiman Alhamdan. The meeting discussed ways and prospects of improving cooperation between the two countries in the field of air transport. The sides signed a memorandum of understanding after a round of negotiations between them. Capt. Abdulwahid Ahmed of Somalia and Capt. AbdulHakeem Albdur, assistant to the GACA president side signed the agreement. According to the MOU, the national carriers of each side will start regular passenger and cargo flights between the two countries to destinations to be determined later.
Somali Militant Denies He Was Killed In US Airstrike
11 March – Source: Hiiraan Online – 283 Words
An official with the Al-Qaeda linked Al-Shabaab group denied claims by Somali government that he was among 150 fighters the United States claimed killed in an airstrike in central Somalia last week. Somali government announced that Mohamed Mire, the militant group’s governor for Hiiraan region was among the fighters killed in the airstrike which the Pentagon said targeted a group of fighters who were preparing to leave a training camp and posed an “imminent threat” to American and African forces.
“The claim by the enemy that I was killed in that attack is false- You can see me alive here,” he told a crowd who gathered to watch the execution of a man the militant group accused of being a member of Somali army. “Therefore, the enemy continues to unleash fabricated statements against Mujahideen which is something they are familiar with.” He said in an audio released by pro Al-Shabaab media. No comment could be reached from Somali officials on the development.
The United States government which killed dozens of Al-Shabaab leaders including the group’s spiritual leader Ahmed Abdi Godane in airstrikes in Somalia in recent years heightened pressure on the group which it designated as a terrorist group in recent weeks. Somali and American commandos in helicopters raided Awdhegle, a rebel-held town in the Lower Shabelle region on Wednesday night, killing at least 10 fighters, according to officials. However, an Al Shabab spokesman who acknowledged the attack only confirmed that the group lost one fighter during the raid which he called ‘foiled’ by fighters. US officials also confirmed the involvement by US forces in the raid; however, they declined to give further details about the raid.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Imam Arrested In Italy, Suspected Of Planning Rome Terror Attack
11 March – Source: Religion News Service – 194 Words
A Somali imam has reportedly been arrested in Italy on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack in Rome. The 22-year-old imam, who was not named, was arrested Wednesday (March 9) in the southern Italian city of Campobasso after a two-month police investigation. Authorities believed he was about to leave a migration center where he was living while seeking asylum and travel to the Italian capital to carry out an attack.
His intended target was reportedly Rome’s main train station; authorities have previously said Pope Francis and the Vatican could be high-profile targets for extremists, but Vatican officials say sufficient precautions have been taken. The imam attempted to convert fellow asylum seekers to Islam and preached extremist messages, prompting some people to walk out of prayer meetings, according to the Italian daily Corriere della Sera.
The Somali reportedly praised terrorist groups such as the so-called Islamic State (ISIS), al-Qaida and al-Shabab. He also allegedly praised the November terrorist attacks in Paris, in which gunmen killed 130 people. As part of their investigation, police installed a hidden camera in the suspect’s room, which captured him watching videos with images of attacks, Corriere reported.
Judge In San Antonio Sends Somali Accused Of Terror Links To Prison For Lying
11 March – Source: My San Antonio – 617 Words
A Somali man who admitted lying during immigration proceedings and a terrorism investigation was sentencedThursday in San Antonio to eight years in prison, as he steadfastly denied any link to a suspect in bombings in Uganda six years ago that killed more than 70 people. Abdullah Omar Fidse has never been charged with terrorism but the FBI says it has tied him to al-Shabab, an Islamic militant group in East Africa aligned with Al Qaeda.
Prosecutors said a phone number agents found in Fidse’s cell phone’s memory card link him to Mohamed Suleiman, a suspect facing trial in Uganda over the deadly, simultaneous bombings that took place in that country in July 2010 during the World Cup final. Militants with al-Shabab took responsibility for the attack, which also killed and injured Americans.
In December 2012, Fidse pleaded guilty to lying on an asylum application he submitted after he and a woman he traveled with were detained at the Hidalgo port of entry on the Texas-Mexico border in January 2008. He also pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents who were investigating his alleged affiliation with terrorists.
The terrorism investigation was opened after one of Fidse’s fellow inmates at an immigration jail in Pearsall told the feds that Fidse had made statements supportive of terrorists and saying he had paid for a $100,000 armed “technical” vehicle for al-Shabaab that was destroyed in a 2006 battle in Somalia. So-called “technicals” are often pickups mounted with a machine gun. He was later recorded “advocating for global jihad against infidels,” prosecutors claim.
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“The effort to prop up Somalia has cost American taxpayers a lot of money, including the millions needed to maintain what’s become a major U.S. military base in neighboring Djibouti.”
Another View: United States Should Abandon Unsuccessful Effort In Somalia
11 March – Source: Press Herald – 271 Words
A U.S. aircraft and drone attack at Raso, Somalia, last Saturday killed a claimed 150 members of the militia group al-Shabab. Administration officials said the strike was conducted in anticipation of an al-Shabab assault on U.S. interests or the African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia, which the United States finances and advises.
Americans should be troubled by the deadly attack for several reasons. Although the Pentagon claims that all of the victims were Islamic militants, that is hard to believe. The U.S. military acknowledged that the attack on the al-Shabab training camp occurred during a graduation ceremony. Were any civilians there? Who knows?
The assault is the latest U.S. military strike in a decades-long failed effort to install a sustainable government after the collapse of authority in Somalia in 1991. The collapse triggered a humanitarian crisis that led to many deaths from hunger and disease. Somalia now has an unelected government, protected by 21,500 foreign troops including U.S. Special Operations forces, that is under constant attack by al-Shabab.
The effort to prop up Somalia has cost American taxpayers a lot of money, including the millions needed to maintain what’s become a major U.S. military base in neighboring Djibouti.
Finally, and perhaps what should be the biggest concern for Americans, is that such a major attack on al-Shabab militants risks provoking a revenge assault on the United States If these concerns are sound, the next questions have to be: Why was last Saturday’s attack carried out, and why is the U.S. still involved in an expensive, unsuccessful effort in Somalia?
TOP TWEETS
@GenvisecInfomap : #Somalia Garbaharey town in Gedo region. Al-Shabaab militants threw a bomb into a restaurant, killing one woman and injuring two others.
@RadioErgo : #Somalia Listen @RadioErgo‘s latest livestock price from the link.http://bit.ly/1UXL8zh @faoinsomalia@OCHASom
@Riskmapintel: #Somalia: Land Mine Blast Wounds Policeman In Bardere City http://dlvr.it/KlfNDt
@MarkC_Anderson : #Somalia says its troops were led by US forces & helicopters in raid on #AlShabaab base that killed 19 militants http://nyti.ms/1Xd4UFq
@mohamedsom94 : #SomeOneTellOurYouth #Soomaalinimodoesn’t mean # tags,selfies in hotels, Somali flag baati or meaningless applause 4 plunderers. #Somalia
@Dhulkayga_Hooyo : A new exam on good-governance,ethics & accountability for all presidential candidates must be legislated in #Somalia
@warganenews : #Somalia: Time for #USA to let go of Somaliahttp://wargane.com/2016/03/11/
IMAGE OF THE DAY
Ongoing installation of Solar Street Lights in Warsheikh, Middle Shabelle
Photo: @stability_fund