“The secret of all victory lies in the organization of the non-obvious.” -Marcus Aurelius
Recent attacks in Nairobi and Mombasa have been blamed on Somali militantsA blast has killed at least six people on a crowded minibus passing through a suburb of Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, that has a large Somali population.
A grenade was thrown into the vehicle in the Eastleigh area, police said, ripping the roof and sides off the bus.
Muslim ‘student’ in the US found ‘guilty on all 5 counts’ and operating a “terror pipeline”
Prepare yourself. An American elected politician who isn’t afraid of the truth.
H/T SDMATT
An original translation by Michael Laudahn
TRAINING: A mali soldier instructing new recruits at a training camp of the FNL movement, the liberation movement for northern Mali.
The US will support ‘well planned and equipped african-led forces’ that can assist in forcing islamists out of northern Mail, according to american government agencies.
‘Sooner or later, military action will become necessary to force the al Qaida-related rebels of the islamic Maghreb out of northern Mali’, says american top diplomat Johnnie Carson. He emphasises, however, that such forces must be under the Mali army’s command, and that Mali’s neighbouring countries must agree to the formation of these forces.
Last week, Mali, France and several west-african countries argued for the establishment of african-led forces, which can support Mali authorities to chase the islamist rebels from the country’s northern parts, which they assumed control of in march.
A group of younger officers seized the power in the country and overthrew president Amadou Touré, protesting the fact that the official army got too few ressources to combat islamists in the northern parts of the country. Paradoxically enough, this coup led to the islamists taking over larger parts of northern Mali, where they have introduced a strict sharia regime.
By David Blair World Last updated: October 1st, 2012
On the retreat: Somalian Islamists
Step by step, al-Shabaab is being rolled back in Somalia. The al-Qaeda affiliate appears to have been compelled to abandon Kismayo, the last big town under its control. That matters a lot because Kismayo is also a significant port and the extremists were making plenty of money by shipping charcoal and other goods out and weapons in. If they have lost Kismayo, they will have been deprived of perhaps their most important source of revenue.
Only a year ago, al-Shabaab controlled almost all of southern Somalia including most of Mogadishu. When I visited last December, they were still clinging to some enclaves of the capital. Today, they have been kicked out of Mogadishu altogether and reduced to a largely rural insurgency.
H/T Michael Laudahn
The church lies next to the Eastleigh quarter, nicknamed “little Mogadishu”
NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 30 – A grenade attack killed one child and wounded nine others in a Nairobi church on Sunday, a day after Islamist fighters abandoned their last bastion in neighbouring Somalia in the face of an assault by Kenyan and other troops.
The blast occurred during a service for young children at the Anglican St. Polycarp church, which lies in Pangani on the outskirts of the Kenyan capital.
Blood-stained children’s jackets and shoes lay scattered on the floor, surrounded by remnants of metal walls that were broken and twisted by the force of the explosion.
“One child has died and three others have been seriously injured,” Nairobi police chief Moses Nyakwama said. “We suspect it was a grenade.”
A church official said nine children had been wounded.
“The children who attend this service are aged between six and 10… we usually divide them according to their ages,” said Livingstone Muiruri. “They had just started the morning session when the explosion occurred.”
“We were in the main church so we all ran there to assist the kids,” he said. “We have nine children admitted to hospital.”
Janet Wanja was just entering the church when the blast shook the building.
“I heard a loud explosion and then heard kids screaming,” she said. “I am traumatised by what I saw, kids with injuries and blood all over. “Why are they attacking the church?”
Police were also investigating the possibility that the blast was a result of a bomb that had been placed in the building earlier, Haed of Police Operations in Nairobi, Wilfred Mbithi said.
The church lies next to the Eastleigh quarter, nicknamed “little Mogadishu” because most residents are either Somali refugees or Kenyans of Somali origin.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, the latest in a string of grenade attacks, shootings and bomb blasts that have rocked Kenya since it sent troops into southern Somalia in October 2011 to crush bases of Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab fighters, who have vowed revenge.
The Kenyan intervention came in retalitation for suspected Shabaab attacks on its soil
H/T Softly Bob
Members of al Shabab who surrendered in Mogadishu on September 24By Sam Kiley, Defence and Security Editor
Somalia’s violent Islamist movement has been driven out of its headquarters in the southern port city of Kismayo.
It was the first amphibious assault by African troops since independence in the 1960s.
A Kenyan task force bombarded Kismayo then landed troops from seven ships, locals said. They then battled the al Shabab which rushed troops to the city’s port and its beaches three miles to the north.
Joined by Somali government troops, the Kenyans squeezed al Shabab from the north and with an attack from the south – which had followed months of painstaking operations – Kenyan forces inched forward against the Islamists, who claim allegiance to al Qaeda.
Tuesday 28th August 2012 – A lady has been beaten and left for dead for wearing jeans by Rogo’s protestors as they continue to cause mayhem in Mombasa.
The violence is so intense that Equity Bank next to Barclays at the Baroda roundabout has been broken into by rowdy youths who took the riots as an opportunity to loot. The youths have been engaging the police in running battles since the early morning.
Kisauni MP Hassan Ali Joho has urged the protestors and all Kenyans for peace and order as we approach these issue within the legal frame work.
“’Violence only worsens the situation,’’ he said.
Many businesses shut down in the port city of Mombasa following protests by irate youths who are opposing the killing of Aboud Rogo.
Police who were deployed to contain the riots were overwhelmed by hundreds of youths who used stones and barricaded roads by burning tires.
A GSU officer was injured among dozens others injured in the scuffle.
Several anti riot police are camping at Salvation Army Church after angry youth threatened to burn down the church. Romour has it that PCEA church Kisauni is up in flames but journalist cannot get near there so we will confirm later.
Riots have rocked Kenya’s second-largest city for a second day. The violence was triggered by the killing of a Muslim cleric accused by the United States of aiding Islamist militants in Somalia.
Police battled stone-throwing youths on Tuesday, firing tear gas and warning shots as the rioters barricaded streets with burning tires in Majengo.
The district is a predominantly Muslim neighborhood in Mombasa, Kenya’s second-largest city. Looting was also reported.
In support of the rioters, Islamist militant group al-Shabaab called on Kenyan Muslims to “take all necessary measures” to defend their religion.
“Muslims must take the matter into their own hands, stand united against the kuffar (unbelievers) and take all necessary measures to protect their religion, their honor, their property and their lives from the enemies of Islam,” the group said in a statement posted on Twitter. Al-Shabaab is considered a terrorist organization by the European Union and the US.
This is a twist. According to these news items, Somalis are being intimidated into leaving a Swedish town. Video below. I will add an article or two as I am able below as well.
All translations are by Michael Laudahn with much thanks.
Somalis advised to move away after threats
Abuse and stones thrown: A gang of youngsters puts fear in somali families in Forserum and now the somali association advises all somalis to move away.
Three weekends in a row, stones were thrown through the windows of the somali association’s local. When SVT [state tv] Jönköpingsnytt goes there, we have to report about abuse of one of the association’s members, children beaten, instilling fear and persecutions, and now somalis have had enough.
Now the Forserum Somali Association recommends its members to move from this town. Tuesday, no somali children went to school or kindergarden.
‘Police arrive to take names and witness declarations, then they leave and nothing happens. Most people in Forserum are good, but this little group makes it hard to stay’, reports Abdula Abdi Dhinbil.
According to the somalis, it is a gang of youngsters of some 10 persons, of which there is a core gang of 4 individuals, which has managed to put fear into the around 60 somalis living here.
A year ago, 160 somalis lived in Forserum. 95 have moved away from town during the last year, because of the threatening mood.
‘We fled from a war-torn country, and then we are being exposed to this here in peaceful Sweden,’ says Abdula Abdi Dhinbil.
Eksjö police say to SVT that there are reports about abuse and damages. They will look closer on the issue and come back on wednesday.
Rich Stanek, sheriff of Hennepin County Minnesota, testified at a House hearing on July 25, 2012 about the growing threat of Somali gangs in his state. (CNSNews.com/Penny Starr)
(CNSNews.com) – The sheriff of Hennepin County, Minn., told the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security on Wednesday about the threat of Somali gangs in his jurisdiction.
“I have been asked to testify today about the specific emergence of Somali gang-related issues we are having in my county,” Rich Stanek said in his prepared testimony.
Stanek represented the National Sheriffs’ Association at the hearing on “America’s Evolving Gang Threat.” He also serves on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s inter-agency Threat Assessment and Coordination Group and is president of the Major County Sheriffs’ Association.
Stanek said Minnesota is a “designated U.S. Refugee Resettlement Area,” with a Somali population ranging from 80,000 to 125,000 in the state. As a result, Stanek said, while the African population in the U.S. as a whole is about four percent, 18 percent of the Minnesota population is African because of the large Somali presence.
By Graham Smith
PUBLISHED: 16:11 GMT, 1 August 2012 | UPDATED: 16:19 GMT, 1 August 2012
A comedian well-known for poking fun at Al-Qaeda linked Shebab insurgents has been shot dead in Somalia.
Abdi Jeylani Malaq Marshale, thought to have been 43, was killed in Mogadishu late last night.
He was targeted minutes after leaving Kulmiye radio station, where he worked as drama producer and performer.
Funnyman: Abdi Jeylani Malaq Marshale, thought to have been 43, was killed in Mogadishu, Somalia, late last night
‘Two men shot and seriously injured Marshale… the comedian was later pronounced dead,’ said police lieutenant Mohamed Gaal, adding that ‘unfortunately the assailants escaped’.
The shooting of Marshale, who also worked for the London-based Universal TV station and who reported having received death threats on several occasions, is the latest in a string of apparently targeted killings against media workers.
The SITREP below is a much more accurate reflection of Islam and its month of Ramadan than is the ABC report a couple of posts below:
Islamist militant group al Shabaab has threatened to carry out attacks in Kenya during Ramadan, the Nairobi Provincial Police chief said July 20, Shabelle Media Network reported. The police chief urged the public to remain vigilant. A police source said security has been intensified in Nairobi, Mombasa and in some border towns.