Free Republic

A US military member was killed and two others were wounded in Somalia when they were attacked while on a mission advising Somali National Army forces, US Africa Command confirmed Friday. The US service member killed in action was a Navy SEAL, a US defense official told CNN. The incident occurred Thursday during an operation against local al Qaeda affiliate al Shabaab 40 miles west of Mogadishu near the town of Barii. The wounded are receiving medical attention, another US defense official told CNN. The troops came under small arms fire.

Al-Shabaab, the Somali jihadist group responsible for yesterday’s deadly attack on a prominent Mogadishu hotel, has released a graphic new video showing executions of unarmed civilians – identified as Christians by the AhlulBayt News Agency – at an unnamed location on the Somali coast. Some of victims in the video titled ‘In Remembrance 2,’ are forced to kneel at the ocean’s edge before being shot to death from behind. Others are marched out into the sea, with jihadists standing on an elevated sand dune at the beach’s edge firing automatic weapons at them in the distance. Water splashes as bullets...

MOGADISHU, Somalia – Seven Al Qaeda-linked militants on a suicide mission attacked the U.N. compound Wednesday with a truck bomb and then poured inside, killing at least 13 people before dying in the assault. At least three foreigners were slain during the raid in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, where the United Nations expanded its presence this year, about 18 months after Islamic insurgents were pushed from the seaside city. The militant group al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack, calling the U.N. "a merchant of death."

Your Taxi Driver Might Be A Terrorist!!! Somali Americans Become National Security Problem!!! By Paul L. Williams, Ph.D. thelastcrusade.org A group affiliated with al Qaeda could strike the United States in the near future. That’s grim assessment of FBI Director Robert Mueller, who spoke this week at a meeting of the Senate Homeland Security Committee. Mueller’s remarks represent the first time a senior law enforcement or intelligence official has stated on the record that the al-Shabaab, a Muslim terrorist group with ties to al Qaeda, is no longer content to strike within the East African nation of Somalia. During...

This week, we celebrate the Navy SEALs’ rescue of American ship captain Richard Phillips. Their action, from the night airdrop that delivered them to the waiting warships to the split-second action in which three of the pirates were killed, was what we expect from our best special operations troops. But while we praise their skill, let’s not lose sight of who Phillips’ captors were. His Somali pirate captors are Islamic jihadists, dedicated to the same goals as Osama bin Laden and other jihadists around the world. In August 2008, when the pirates became especially active off the Horn of Africa,...

Al-Qaida is nothing if t opportunistic. Its leadership watches the news carefully. It tracks how stories play. It adapts its tactics. Now, counterterrorism experts are worried that al-Qaida and its affiliates will be inspired by Somali pirates. "Potentially, piracy is a platform for their activities," says Robert D. Kaplan, a fellow at the nonpartisan Center for a New American Security. "There are already al-Qaida affiliates in Somalia. If they can make contact with pirate federations, then al-Qaida can use piracy as a form of terrorism." In recent months, al-Qaida has strengthened its ties with a Somali terrorist group called al-Shabab....

MOGADISHU, Somalia Apr 12 (Garowe Online) - Rebel leaders in southern Somalia associated with Islamist factions have hailed recent pirate attacks off the coast of the Horn of Africa region, Radio Garowe reports. In separate comments, Al Shabaab spokesman Muktar Robow “Abu Mansur” and Ras Kamboni Brigade leader Sheikh Hassan Abdullahi “Turki” have hailed ship-hijackings by Somali pirates. In Baidoa, capital of Bay region, Abu Mansur told reporters that the pirates are “protecting the Somali coast.” "Foreign powers want to divide the country [Somalia] and the pirates are protecting the coast against the enemies of Allah [God],” Abu Mansur said.

In Somalia, Islamist fighters loyal to the Islamic Courts Union have taken control of several bases vacated by Ethiopian troops in the Somali capital. Mogadishu remains tense amid fears that militant al-Shabab fighters could launch attacks against moderate Islamists and African Union peacekeepers for control of the city. Residents in the capital, Mogadishu, say the Islamic Courts Union militia have tightened security and are now in charge of most positions in the city. The ICU took over six bases on Thursday, as Ethiopia pulled the last of its forces out of the capital and ended its two year-long mission to...

Fears are growing that this lawless area, bordering Kenya and Ethiopia, could become a stronghold for terrorists with possible links to al-Qaeda. Somalia's weak official government, the 14th in the last 17 years, depends entirely on the presence of Ethiopian troops, who are deployed in and around the capital, Mogadishu. They invaded in December 2006, mounting an American-supported operation which overthrew an earlier Islamist regime, styling itself the Islamic Courts Union. But Ethiopia has pledged to withdraw its troops at the end of December. When they leave, the official government is likely to fall - or be forced to evacuate...

NAIROBI, Kenya — Somalia’s transitional government looks as if it is about to flatline. The Ethiopians who have been keeping it alive for two years say they are leaving the country, essentially pulling the plug.

The Somali community in the Metro has become fearful after reports that one of their own was a suicidal bomber. Federal sources say Shirwa Ahmed blew himself up in a suicide bombing in northern Somali last month. They also believe he was a recruiter in the Twin Cities for a terrorist network. Government sources believe that as many as 40 young men who knew Ahmed, recently left Minnesota without telling their families. 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS talked to Ahmed's family. They said they have not heard from him in weeks. The report was the talk of this busy Somali market on...

WASHINGTON, March 3, 2008 – Defense Department officials today confirmed an attack against an al Qaeda terrorist in Somalia yesterday. “On March 2, the United States conducted an attack against a known al Qaeda terrorist in southern Somalia,” Bryan Whitman, Pentagon spokesman, said. “As we have repeatedly said, we will continue to pursue terrorist activities and their operations wherever we may find them,” he said. Whitman said the United States works closely with partners in the region in the conduct of military operations. “We share common goals with respect to fighting terrorism,” he said. “We will continue to seek out,...

  Make Comment View Comments Printable Article Font Columbus' Hometown Jihad By Patrick PooleFrontPageMagazine.com | July 11, 2007 Last Monday, Ohio freshman US Senator Sherrod Brown (D) probably had no idea that when he met with a group of Columbus-area Somali leaders that they were being led by one of the most vocal Western supporters of the Somali al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group, the Islamic Courts Union (ICU). That oversight is forgivable, considering that Abukar Arman, one of my Hilliard, Ohio neighbors, regularly operates among the political elite of the state of Ohio, though as I discovered in my extensive investigation,...

Eight foreign Muslim fighters have been killed during fighting with government forces in Puntland, a remote, mountainous northeastern Somali area, according to a senior official. Hassan Dahir Mohamoud, Puntland's vice-president, said on Saturday that there were no civilian casualties because the area is uninhabited. At least one US warship late on Friday shelled the area where the fighters had set up a base after they clashed with government forces. Speaking from Garowe, Puntland's capital, Mohamoud said security forces are pursuing another five foreign Muslim fighters. He said the government knew the nationalities of five of the foreigners: Britain, Eritrea, Sweden,...

US Navy attacks Somali militant base. Written By:james Rono/bbc , Posted: Sat, Jun 02, 2007 Caption: US blames militants for the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. A US Navy warship has carried out a missile attack on a Somali village where Islamist militants are reported to have set up a base. Somali officials said a remote village in the Puntland region was bombarded, days after foreign militants arrived. US reports suggest the target was an al-Qaeda operative suspected of involvement in the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The strike would be at...

Somalis wary of 'Bin Laden' tape Bin Laden was giving an opinion, the Somali leader said The powerful Islamist movement in Somalia has distanced itself from comments about Somalia attributed to al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden. An internet audio recording warned the West not to send troops to Somalia. But a leader of the Union of Islamic Courts, which has taken control of the capital, Mogadishu, said they did not rely on any outside group. The US has accused one Islamic leader, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, of links to al-Qaeda and involvement with terror. Mr Aweys denies the US allegations,...

MOGADISHU, Somalia - A fundamentalist Muslim who is listed by the U.S. State Department as a suspected al-Qaida collaborator was named Saturday as the new leader of an Islamic militia that has seized control of Somalia's capital. The militia, which changed its name Saturday from the Islamic Courts Union to the Conservative Council of Islamic Courts, said in a statement it had appointed Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys as its new leader. The Bush administration says Aweys was an associate of Osama bin Laden in the early 1990s. The Islamic militia seized control of the capital Mogadishu and much of southern...

The chairman of the Islamic Courts Union, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, left , has talks with the ambassador of the Arab league to Somalia, Abdalla Mubarak,Wednesday, June 21, 2006 in Mogadishu. MOHAMED SHEIKH NOR MOGADISHU, Somalia - For a Mogadishu port worker, an Islamic group's takeover of most of southern Somalia means he can haul cargo without fear of rampaging militiamen. At the other end of the economic scale, a Coke executive is just as eager to grasp a chance at normalcy in a country that has known little but violence for more than a decade. The Islamic militia's victory...

NAIROBI (Reuters) - A new group of al Qaeda-linked "jihadis" or "holy warriors" has won a foothold in Somalia and though small may flourish if stable rule does not return to the anarchic Horn of Africa nation, a report said on Sunday. The "new, ruthless independent jihadi network" is run from the capital Mogadishu by a militia boss trained in Afghanistan and has already killed several foreign aid workers, the International Crisis Group (ICG) think-tank said. "Ultimately, the threat of jihadi terrorism from Somalia can only be addressed through the restoration of stable, legitimate and functional government," added the ICG...

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - Ethiopia's prime minister warned on Thursday of the danger posed by a "very active al-Qaida cell" in Somalia's capital and said a stable government is the best way to eliminate the terrorist threat in the chaotic Horn of Africa country. Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, in an interview with The Associated Press days ahead of an election in which he is seeking a third consecutive term, said his government supported the Somali transitional government formed in neighboring Kenya last year and would do everything possible to help it take power and eliminate the terrorist threat. "Wherever there...