September 24, 2013 | Morning Headlines.

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Westgate mall attack has roots in Kenya’s intervention in Somalia

23 Sept- Source: The Guardian-389 Words

The situation at the Westgate mall in Nairobi is the latest manifestation of the increasingly tangled ties between Kenya and its anarchic Horn of Africa neighbour Somalia. Somalia has been without a recognised central government since 1991, when President Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown. The country has since splintered under the control of various groups, including transitional federal institutions and the Islamic Courts Union – which at one point controlled much of south and central Somalia.

Key Headlines

Land mine explosion targets government troops in Afgoye (Radio Shabelle)
Prime Minister sends condolences to people and government of Kenya (OPM)
Somali President condemns killing of Somali MP (Radio Bar-kulan)
Man held over mall attack (Star)
Soldier killed in Kismayo over blood feud incident (Kismaayo Online)
The battle to secure Somalia (BBC)
Mogadishu residents condemn terrorist attack at Nairobi shopping mall (KeydMedia)
Pressure piles on Obama to strike al Shabaab (Daily Nation)
Kenyan forces claim upper hand in siege at mall (shanghaidaily)
Somalis in Kenya fear revenge attacks (Aljazeera)
Westgate mall attack has roots in Kenya’s intervention in Somalia (The Guardian)
Somalia Asks Barclays to Review Closing Money-Transfer Account (Bloomberg)
Members of Minnesota’s Somali community condemn deadly attack on Kenya mall (StarTribute/AP)

PRESS STATEMENT

Prime Minister sends condolences to people and government of Kenya

23 Sept- Source: Prime Minister’s Media Office -279 words

His Excellency Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon today sent his personal condolences to the people and government of Kenya.

“Our hearts and prayers are with the innocent victims and their families. We share their grief and pain. We know from personal experience of the suffering caused by these fatally misguided killers. We stand resolute with our Kenyan friends and partners in this ongoing fight against our common enemies.”

“The first thing to say is that the attackers in Westgate are not Muslims. They are a complete dishonor to the faith. Tragically they have been brainwashed into destroying innocent lives, theirs included. What they regard as a glory to the faith only damages it. I draw attention to the recent fatwa issued by 160 of Somalia’s most distinguished religious scholars denouncing al Shabaab categorically and declaring it was a religious duty not to protect them but to turn them into the authorities. Be under no illusion: these men and women are without religion.”

The Prime Minister said Somalia would, with the support of its friends, fight the terrorists in a comprehensive campaign drawing on military resources, education, economic recovery and communications. “We will only defeat these killers and their ideology of hatred by standing shoulder to shoulder with our Kenyan friends and other international partners,” the Prime Minister said. “We must prosecute the fight against our enemies on all fronts. We need to educate our youth, make sure they can find employment and do not fall into the arms of the terrorists, we must communicate loud and clear that al Shabaab’s ideology is completely deluded, defunct and doomed to failure.”

SOMALI MEDIA

Land mine explosion targets government troops in Afgoye

23 Sept- Source: Radio Shabelle- 119 words

Reports from Afgoye town in the lower Shabelle region of Somalia say that a land mine explosion targeted Somali force vehicle. Witness told Shabelle radio that the explosion damaged the vehicle completely and caused several injuries to the troops on board. Government officials in the region confirmed that three government soldiers sustained injuries but other reports say that at least 6 soldiers were brought to Mogadishu’s Madina hospital. The vehicle was travelling to Marka, the capital of the region. No group has claimed the responsibility of the land mine attack.

Somali President condemns killing of Somali MP

23 Sept- Source: Radio Bar-kulan/Radio Mogadishu- 171 words

Somali president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has strongly condemned the killing of Hussien Abdinasir, a member of the Somali Federal Parliament who has been shot dead in the Somali capital, Mogadishu on Sunday night. Mr Mohamud sent sincere condolence to the families, friends and the Somali people over the killing of Hussein. “He was a hard working man who has done a lot for the Somali government, he always wanted Somalia to be back to its old days, we loved him and we will never forget him,” said president Mohamud. He ordered the Somali security troops to detain the criminals who had carried out Hussein’s and bring them to the justice. Unidentified gunmen have last night killed Hussein in Mogadishu’s Wada-jir district and immediately managed to escape from the scene. Targeted killings and suicide bomb attacks had been rapidly increasing in the Somali capital since the UN-backed AU peacekeeping forces dislodged the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab militant group from the bullet-ridden Somali capital, Mogadishu in 2011.

Soldier killed in Kismayo over blood feud incident

23 Sept- Source: Kismaayo Online- 81 words

A soldier from Interim Jubba Administration was on Monday afternoon killed in the port city of Kismayo, the administrative capital of the Interim Administration. The motives behind the killing is said to have been related to a blood feud and the assailant is at large in the city. Kismaayo has learned that the assassin was not a fellow soldier as reported earlier. Security officials are yet to comment on the incident.

Mogadishu residents condemn terrorist attack at Nairobi shopping mall

23 Sept- Source: KeydMedia- 384 words

Mogadishu residents have Monday expressed condolences to the families of the victims of the attack against a shopping centre in Nairobi, Keydmedia Online reports. On Saturday, between 10 to 15 gunmen burst into Westgate shopping centre, a popular destination for expatriates, throwing grenades and summarily executing shoppers. The militant group al Shabaab has since claimed responsibility for the attack. The deadly attack drew condemnation by some Somalis in Mogadishu, who described it as a cowardly act of terrorism:
Mohamed Hassan, 56, taxi driver said “I am concerned about the loss of life and consider this an act of terrorism. Al Shabaab is harmful to all East African countries and poses a threat to all of humanity.”

REGIONAL MEDIA

Pressure piles on Obama to strike al Shabaab

23 Sept- Source: Daily Nation- 332 words

Some lawmakers and analysts in the United States are urging President Obama to launch strikes against al Shabaab with the aim of preventing more terror attacks in Kenya and possibly the United States. ”We’re talking about very significant terrorist groups here which are showing a capacity to attack outside of their borders and actually recruit people from here in the United States,” Republican Congressman Peter King, a member of the House of Representatives’ Intelligence Committee, said on US television on Sunday.

Somalis in Kenya fear revenge attacks

23 Sept- Source: Aljazeera- 193 words

Omar Abdirahman admits his moods have been swinging from bad to worse. The 28-year-old lives in fear for his life, but also says his more affluent friends have it worse than he. “Since I heard about this tragic incident, I have felt really bad,” he said. “You cannot be in any good moods when such tragic incidences involving such loss of lives, property and lapse of security happen.”

Man held over mall attack

23 Sept- Source: Star (Kenya)- 803 words

A 33-year-old recent Muslim convert from Meru is being held following the Westgate mall attack. Identified as Ali Hassan Gitonga from Gikurumene village in Meru, police say Gitonga is part of sleeper terrorist cell based in Eastleigh’s Majengo area. He is alleged to have travelled to Somalia for training with al Shabaab sometime in 2011 and returned home late last year after the Kenya Defence Forces moved in to kick out the the militia group. He has been living in Eastleigh Section Three since then and was a frequent visitor to the Riyadha Mosque.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

The battle to secure Somalia

23 Sept- Source: BBC-02:01mins

The Somali Islamist al Shabaab movement has said it carried out an attack on a shopping centre in Nairobi in retaliation for Kenyan military operations in Somalia. African Union forces have been trying to stop fighting between different factions within Somalia, but the situation in the country remains highly volatile, as the BBC’s Mark Doyle reports.

Westgate mall attack has roots in Kenya’s intervention in Somalia

23 Sept- Source: The Guardian-389 Words

Somalia Asks Barclays to Review Closing Money-Transfer Account

23 Sept- Source: Bloomberg-392 Words

Somali Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon Saaid asked Barclays Plc (BARC) to reconsider its decision to close the accounts of the nation’s money-transfer services. “It will directly affect millions of entirely innocent Somalis for whom remittances from overseas are absolutely vital,” Shirdon wrote in the letter to Barclays Chief Executive Officer Antony Jenkins today. “This is how they feed their families, clothe their children and treat their illnesses.” Barclays said in May it would close the account Dahabshiil Holdings Ltd. uses to send money back to Somalia, citing the lack of “strong anti-laundering governance structures.” That date was moved fromJuly 10 to Aug. 12 and then to Sept. 30, after British lawmakers lobbied the London-based lender.

Members of Minnesota’s Somali community condemn deadly attack on Kenya mall

23 Sept- Source: StarTribute/AP-352 Words

Members of Minnesota’s large Somali community on Monday condemned the deadly attack by Somali terrorists on a Kenyan shopping mall, while waiting anxiously to see if any Somali-Americans had a hand in the violence. The Minneapolis-St. Paul area has the largest Somali community in the United States, and it’s been a recruiting ground for al Shabaab, the armed Islamic group linked with al Qaeda that carried out the attack on the Westgate Mall in Nairobi. Since 2007, at least 22 young men have left Minnesota to join al Shabaab. Some have died, some remain at large and others were among those prosecuted in what the FBI has said is one of the largest efforts to recruit Americans to a foreign terrorist organization.

Kenyan forces claim upper hand in siege at mall

26 Sept- Source: shanghaidaily- 526 words

Kenyan officials said security forces were in control of nearly all of an upscale mall yesterday, two days after it was seized by members of a Somali terrorist group who invaded with guns blazing, killing at least 62 people. Four thunderous explosions reverberated through a Nairobi neighborhood in the morning, raising fears for the lives of any remaining hostages still being held by al Shabaab, a Somali armed Islamic group linked with al Qaeda, in the Westgate Mall.

SOCIAL MEDIA

CULTURE / OPINION / EDITORIAL / ANALYSIS / BLOGS/ DISCUSSION BOARDS

“The seemingly inevitable martyrdom of the gunmen in a shopping centre will win al Shabaab more respect among Islamist radicals. For them, “Boko loco” has the advantage that its practitioners are in it to the death.”

At Westgate, a New Model of Terror for al Shabaab?

23 Sept- Source: New Yorker Blog-1088 Words

The ongoing siege at the Westgate shopping mall, in Nairobi, by al Qaeda’s al Shabaab fighters, in which at least sixty-two people have been shot dead, is close to its denouement. The Kenyan military has begun retaking the mall, and has started a final push to capture or kill the dozen or so gunmen still hiding in the building. (The Kenyans may also be getting advice or help from American and Israeli special forces or private contractors, which some reports suggest are on the scene.) The gunmen are burning mattresses to afford some cover and, probably, the privacy to say final prayers. However it ends, the attack will have lasting implications far beyond Kenya. Just as the 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi was the opening salvo in the global war on terror, so this attack marks a decisive evolution of extremists away from the pyrotechnics of al Qaeda and toward butchery as practiced by Nigeria’s Boko Haram, a group that claims to fight for Sharia law by murdering civilians and soldiers. If Islamist Twitter accounts are to be believed, some of the gunmen may be (have been) Americans and Swedes of Somali extraction, as well as the usual frontline jihad assortment of Arabs, Chechens, and Uzbeks. The presence of local Muslims is more significant. If the madness, what might be called the “Boko loco,” can take hold among youth in Kenya, with its strong tradition of concord between religions, it will be harder to contain elsewhere.

“If the Westgate attack shows us anything it’s that al Shabaab remains organised and dangerous and Kenya’s Somalia problem is nowhere near solved.”

Westgate attack demonstrates Kenya’s continuing ‘Somalia problem’

23 Sept- Source: African Arguments-858 Words

Most visitors who have spent any length of time in Nairobi have been to the Westgate Centre. This US-style mall complex, situated in the wealthy Westlands region of the city, has profited in recent years from the plentiful expat and middle class Kenyan shilling. However, it’s not a place I have much love for – the clear delineation of Nairobi’s haves and have-nots is marked out by the rich folk who enter up its steps and the poor street-hawkers who hang about in the parking lot and try to sell you stuff. However, I can’t deny that during trips to the city I become part of this dynamic and, like most, I’ve spent time in the air-conditioned comfort of Art Cafe (a posh Nairobi chain of coffee shops) using the free wifi and, when I was there during March’s general election, filing a couple of pieces. That such a violent and abhorrent act should take place in Westgate was no accident – it was carefully chosen by people who knew how they could have the greatest impact on Kenya and get the most coverage internationally: strike where the rich and the foreign hang out.