March 9, 2016 | Daily Monitoring Report
Unidentified Helicopter Gunships Bombard Al-Shabaab Bases In Southern Somalia
09 March – Source: Goobjoog News – 220 Words
Unidentified helicopter gunships struck training camps used by Al-Shabaab fighters killing 11 in Somalia’s southern Lower Shabelle region on Tuesday night, a local official has said. The official said the planes pounded a training camp used by the militant group, which also hosts some offices in Awdhiigle town.
Mohamed Aweys Abukar, Awdhegle mayor who lives in a nearby town since the militants seized Awdhegle, said 11 Islamist fighters were killed: “Eleven Al-Shabaab fighters were confirmed dead in the raid that also destroyed key militant cells in the region according to insiders.” He was, however, unclear on which country the helicopters came from.
A resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Goobjoog News that the aircrafts attacked Al-Shabaab camps on the outskirts of the town of Awdhegle late Tuesday, with explosions and gunfire lasting about an hour: “The helicopters hit bases in the vicinity which fall under the Al Shabaab controlled Awdhegle town. The Al Shabaab fighters responded with anti aircraft missiles.”
Al-Shabaab’s military operations spokesman admitted the attack took place. He said the two helicopters landed on the banks of the River Shabelle and commandos from the aircraft advanced on the base. “They were masked and spoke foreign languages which our fighters could not understand,” Abu Musab told Reuters.
Key Headlines
- Unidentified Helicopter Gunships Bombard Al-Shabaab Bases In Southern Somalia (Goobjoog News)
- Somaliland Wants To Resume Talks With Somalia (Hiiraan Online)
- Somalia Says Weapons Seized By Australian Navy Headed For Militants (Hiiraan Online)
- Al Shabaab Attacks Kismayo With Mortar Fire (Shabelle News)
- Car Bomb Kills 4 Outside Police Academy In Somali Capital (Associated Press)
- Five Al Shabaab Top Commanders Among 140 Fighters Killed In US Strike Somali Official Confirms (The Star)
- Abyan Reports Being ‘Scared’ After Chris Kenny’s Nauru Visit Immigration Emails Reveal (The Guardian)
- Is Islam Violent? (Daily Times)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Somaliland Wants To Resume Talks With Somalia
09 March – Source: Hiiraan Online – 214 Words
The breakaway northern Somalia republic of Somaliland wants to resume talks, which collapsed last year, with Somalia after the two sides maintained hardened positions. Officials point out that this is what complicated mediation efforts by the Turkish government.
The latest development comes few months after Somaliland shunned Turkey’s offer as mediation host, demanding a more ‘neutral’ venue for the talks with Somalia: “We want to see the talks between Somaliland and Somalia resume and conclude fruitfully,” Saad Ali Shire, Somaliland’s Foreign Minister said in a speech he delivered at the Somaliland’s Upper House on Tuesday. The minister has not, however, identified a “neutral venue” for the talks.
In addition, the minister had underlined that Somaliland’s ‘independence’ would remain out of touch during the talks as opposed to Somalia’s efforts to convince the enclave to reunite with Somalia, an approach long dismissed by Somaliland. By the time of going to the press, no official comment had come through from the Somali government. Since breaking away from Somalia and declaring self-independence in 1991, Somaliland has been seeking an international recognition. However, the United Nations is yet to do so.
Somalia Says Weapons Seized By Australian Navy Headed For Militants
09 March – Source: Hiiraan Online – 275 Words
Somali government says a large weapons cache seized from a fishing boat headed for Somalia by an Australian warship was meant for use by the Al Shabaab group, which is fighting the government and the African Union forces.
The HMAS Darwin, a guided missile frigate, was carrying out counterterrorism operations in the Middle East when it intercepted a fishing boat 300 kilometers (190 miles) from Oman to conduct a flag verification boarding, the Defense Department said in a statement, according to The Associated Press (AP) news agency.
Abdirizak Omar, Somalia’s security minister said on Tuesday that the operation by the Australian navy marked a new turning point and opened a new chapter for working relationships between the two countries: “We have established with a hundred percent certainty that the arms’ cache was meant for Al Shabaab.” He said without giving further details, as result of an ongoing investigation which is expected to establish further information.
Al Shabaab Attacks Kismayo With Mortar Fire
09 March – Source: Shabelle News – 113 Words
At least six unarmed civilians were wounded during an overnight mortar attack by Al Shabaab on the southern coastal city of Kismayo, located some 500 kilometers south of Mogadishu, Somali capital. The mortar rounds hit Gulwade and Farjano villages in Kismayo, where the six civilians were seriously injured after their houses were struck by mortar shells. Conflicting sources indicate the six may have been killed. The mortars were fired from an undisclosed location outside the town by Al shabaab fighters who are fighting to unseat the UN-backed federal government of Somalia. The city had been under Al Shabaab control for almost seven years before Somali and Kenyan troops successfully pushed the militants out of the strategic town in Lower Jubba region.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Car Bomb Kills 4 Outside Police Academy In Somali Capital
09 March – Source: Associated Press – 106 Words
A Somali police official says three police officers and one civilian have been killed in a car bombing outside a police academy in the Somali capital. Gen. Ali Hersi Barre said on Wednesday that a suicide car bomber detonated an explosives-laden vehicle outside a cafe near the academy.
There was no claim of responsibility for the blast, but it bore the hallmarks of the Islamic extremist group Al-Shabaab. The attack comes after a U.S. airstrike on a training camp killed more than 150 Al-Shabaab memberson Saturday. Despite being ousted Mogadishu and surrounding regions, Al-Shabaab continues to launch guerrilla attacks across the Horn of Africa country.
Five Al Shabaab Top Commanders Among 140 Fighters Killed In US Strike, Somali Official Confirms
09 March – Source: The Star – 261 Words
Five top Al Shabaab commanders were among at least 140 fighters killed in a US drone strike on Saturday, a Somalia official has confirmed. The United States struck Raso training camp located some 120 miles north of Somalia capital Mogadishu after weeks of monitoring, sources said.
Abdiaziz Durow, commissioner of the nearby Buloburte district confirmed the deaths of the commanders and “140 newly trained fighters’ on Wednesday. Durow, who spoke on a local radio station, did not give names of the commanders but said smoke continued to rise from the bombed area on Tuesday. The US is yet to give details of those killed in the attack that the Pentagon said followed reports of a planned “large-scale attack” against AU forces in Somalia.
African Union troops captured Buloburte from the militants in March 2014. Somalia’s intelligence agency gave the US information on the camp after the terror group waged attacks that left several innocent civilians dead. The US used manned aircraft and unmanned MQ-9 Reaper drones to carry out the strike.
Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said: “The removal of these fighters degrades al Shabaab’s ability to meet the group’s objectives in Somalia, including recruiting new members, establishing bases, and planning attacks.” But the terror group told Reuters the number of deaths in the strike had been exaggerated.
Abyan Reports Being ‘Scared’ After Chris Kenny’s Nauru Visit, Immigration Emails Reveal
09 March – Source: The Guardian – 919 Words
The Somali refugee and alleged rape victim known as Abyan reported feeling “harassed” and “scared” after Chris Kenny, an associate editor at the Australian, and a photographer approached her accommodation on Nauru, immigration officials said in correspondence obtained by Guardian Australia.
Emails obtained through freedom of information requests show top immigration officials from the two countries discussing the welfare of Abyan, who was reportedly upset after the journalists “caused some issues” with her after she returned from Australia: “She advised [service provider] Connect she is unable to stay at her house as the journalists were ‘camped outside’,” one official says. Written approval was given for Abyan to be moved elsewhere, following the approach from the journalists.
An officer from the Nauruan government responds that he or she was unaware of the incident and was “sorry to hear that”. The Nauru official adds that the article in the Australian has just been seen. “We have advised [redacted] on the implications of publishing photos of asylum seekers.” The correspondence also shows senior officials in the Australian immigration department – including at least two first assistant secretaries and a deputy commissioner – were aware of Kenny’s presence on the island and that he was pursuing Abyan.
The journalists were Kenny – the first journalist in 18 months to be granted a visa to visit Nauru – and photographer Kelly Barnes. When asked by Guardian Australia in October 2015 how he obtained a visa to report from Nauru, Kenny said: “If my public support for strong border protection measures helped sway Nauru’s decision, so be it.”
Abyan – who says she was raped by an unknown assailant in July 2015 – had just returned to Nauru from Australia, where she had been seeking an abortion. Kenny had flown into Nauru to report on conditions, and arrived as news about Abyan was breaking so he decided to try and get an interview with Abyan, he later wrote. In another email an official confirms Abyan will be placed in a secure place “for a period of time due to two journalists approaching her about 10.30am this morning at her residence”.
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“Overwhelmingly, Muslims are a peaceful people, less prone to war than Christians and Jews. But for some, violence is in their inheritance” – Jonathan Power, Foreign Affairs columnist for the International Herald Tribune for 20 years
Is Islam Violent?
09 March – Source: Daily Times – 778 Words
Is Islam violent? ISIS in Syria and Iraq. In Pakistan, there is the Lashkar-e-Taiba, and the attempted murderer of the schoolgirl, Malala Yousafzai. Immigrant Moroccan men roughly pushing women and fondling them in the crowd in Cologne. Murderous bombs in Paris. Ayan Hirsi Ali, a Somali female author who was raised a Muslim, writes, “Violence is inherent in Islam — it’s a destructive, nihilistic cult of death. It legitimates murder.”
The late Harvard professor, Samuel Huntington, argued that in the later years of the last century and the early years of this one an uncannily high percentage of the world’s violent conflicts took place between Muslims and non-Muslims: Turks versus Greeks, Russians versus Chechens, Bosnian Muslims and Albanians versus Serbs, Armenians versus Azeris, Uighurs versus Han Chinese, Indian Hindus versus Muslims, and Arabs versus Jews.
Yet most Muslims do not commit acts of violence. If Islam is intrinsically violent then roughly a billion believers either do not understand their own religion, or are too cowardly or unfaithful to follow its precepts. That is my sarcasm but, indeed, this is what violent Islamists say.
Westerners have a tendency to create myths about the teachings of Mohammed (pbuh) in the Koran. An outrageous one is the claim that an adulterous woman should be stoned. But the only teaching in any of the world’s major religions advocating stoning can be found in the Jewish Old Testament. (Paradoxically, the Jews have not practised this for millennia but Saudi Arabia does today.)
Scholars like Huntington have given the impression that Islam is a much more violent religion than Christianity, but another point of view is Professor John Owen’s. He writes in his book Confronting Political Islam: “A broad view of the history of the Middle East suggests that Islam is much like other religions. It is marked by times and places of conquest and brutality, but also by times and places of peace… Christendom has had its sustained spasms of violence, both to outsiders with the Crusades and fellow believers, as in the Counter Reformation and the Inquisition.” And we should add as in World War I and II. We shouldn’t forget that Mohammad Khatami, a former president of Iran, repeatedly condemned the 9/11 attacks and declared that suicide bombers would not go to heaven.
In total contrast Christians submitted themselves to lions rather than fight and not until the Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity some 300 years after Jesus’ death did Christianity take on the role of running a state with all its well-embedded military traditions.
It came as a great surprise to me and to others that in the months after 9/11 that President George W Bush said that Islam was a peaceful religion. Moreover, the religious scholar, Karen Armstrong, writes in her book The Battle For God: “The Koran condemns all warfare as abhorrent and permits only a war of self-defence. The Koran is adamantly opposed to the use of force on religious matters.”
TOP TWEETS
@OCHASom:A woman in #Somalia has a 1 in 11 lifetime risk of dying from pregnancy or child birth. #SomaliWomenMatter
@Hamza_Africa:Today’s #AlShabaab base raid in Awdhegle comes after US airstrikes hit on Saturday a training camp run by the group in Hiiraan. #Somalia
@USIP:Terrorist organizations work together for mutual purposes –@mfraserrahim on #Somalia attack http://cbsn.ws/1RQeQU0
@eu_echo:”Every girl dreams of graduating from university and helping her family,” says Amal from #Somalia
@Gobanimodoon:I greet the #Somalia women on the occasion of Int’l Women’s Day. I wish them every success and happiness in life.
@somaliadev:Honoring Hawo Tako, a Somali women who resisted Italian colonialism in south #Somalia. #IWD16
IMAGE OF THE DAY
Participants at an UNSOM event to mark International Women’s Day
Photo: UNSOM.