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MOGADISHU (Reuters) - A U.S. Air Force AC-130 gunship has launched a second air strike against suspected al Qaeda operatives in southern Somalia, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday, citing unidentified U.S. officials. No confirmation of Monday's reported attack was immediately available in the region and a Pentagon spokesman declined to comment. The newspaper said there was no information on the results or the specific targets of the strike. An AC-130 gunship two weeks ago attacked what Washington said were al Qaeda agents fleeing with Islamist forces defeated by Somali government and Ethiopian troops late last month. It was the...

Cairo, Asharq Al-Awsat- Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, one of the most important leaders of the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) in Somalia, surrendered to the Kenyan authorities three weeks after his movement's defeat at the hands of the Ethiopian and Somali forces. Official and diplomatic Kenyan sources said that Sheikh Sharif and three other Somalis have been detained by the police since Sunday at the Hulugo border post between Kenya and Somalia. A Western source confirmed to Agence France Presse that "Sheikh Sharif is in Kenya." Somali Government sources stated to Asharq Al-Awsat: The official announcement of the arrest of...

January 22, 2007: The defeat of the Islamic Courts has not improved clan politics. Everyone wants more than the other clans are willing to concede. The fighting between clans, often over ancient disputes, has resumed. The only thing a Somali can depend on is his clan. Clan leaders with particularly good leadership skills become warlords, and make themselves, and their followers, wealthier via looting and extortion. This is accepted, especially by those doing the taking. In Mogadishu. Ethiopian and Transitional Government troops fired on demonstrators, killing three of them. The troops were seeking to arrest Islamic Courts leaders. The neighborhoods...

The U.S.-supported Ethiopian invasion of Somalia has an unsettling resemblance to the British-supported Ethiopian incursions in the early years of the 20th century. In both cases, the Western powers became involved because of perceived strategic considerations, while their proxy, Ethiopia, went to war as a result of Somali resistance to Ethiopian domination of the ethnic-Somali Ogaden region. Last December's invasion succeeded in bringing the Ethiopia-friendly Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmad to power in Mogadishu. Although the Islamists have been dispersed for the moment, there are signs that a guerrilla campaign is in the making. Like the...

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Kenya has sent about 30 prisoners shackled hand-and-foot on a plane to Somalia after arresting them near the border on suspicion of belonging to an ousted Islamist movement, their representatives said on Sunday The deportees, who a lawyer said included one Canadian and three Eritreans, were among scores of suspected Islamist fighters and supporters rounded up by Kenyan forces after a war that ended the movement's six-month rule of south Somalia. Somali government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari said they included some senior officials of the former Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC). "We thank the Kenyan government and other...

MOGADISHU, Somalia, (AP) - The last major warlord in Somalia surrendered his weapons and 200 militiamen to the army on Saturday, while an Islamic leader claimed responsibility for a string of guerrilla attacks and promised there would be more until the government agreed to talks. In a major step toward helping the fledgling government consolidate power, one of the most feared warlords in Somalia, Mohamed Dheere, gave the army chief 23 trucks mounted with heavy weapons and ordered 220 of his fighters to report for retraining at government camps. The handover took place during a ceremony in Dheere's stronghold of...

Eritrea warned the United States on Friday that its involvement in Somalia would "incur dangerous consequences" following a U.S. air strike in the Horn of Africa nation targeting al Qaeda suspects. Eritrea has in a matter of years gone from being a U.S. ally to one of its staunchest opponents, analysts say, because of what Asmara perceives as Washington's support for rival Ethiopia in a long-standing border dispute. "President Isaias Afwerki underlined that the turmoil being created in ... Somalia by the U.S. administration through its mercenary agent (Ethiopia) would incur dangerous consequences," a statement on the Information Ministry Web...

Spotted by Predator drone aircraft and sprayed with high-calibre bullets by an U.S. Air Force AC-130 gunship, the U.S. military is hunting al Qaeda operatives in the southern toe of Somalia, according to CBS News. Special Forces Command (or SOCOM) has yet to confirm that the terrorists responsible for the August 7, 1998 embassy bombings—which killed 12 American diplomats and some 211 Africans—were slain in today’s strike. If the gunship’s rounds were on target, it is a major setback for al Qaeda in Africa. Following last year’s sweep by the Kenyans and activities in the Coromos Islands (off the coast...

After holding Mogadishu for six months, Somalia's Islamists have been swept from power, ousted in a blitzkrieg attack by the Ethiopian military. The nature of the emerging political order in Somalia remains profoundly uncertain, with the retreating Islamists threatening to wage an Iraq-style insurgency, and the internationally recognized Somali government facing doubts about its popular legitimacy, internal cohesion, and ability to ensure even basic security. Still, the battlefield gains of the past two weeks have created a rare window of opportunity in this long-suffering corner of the Horn of Africa, as well as in the broader war on terror. The...

MOGADISHU, Somalia — Somalia's interior minister said Thursday that thousands of Islamic fighters still pose a threat in the capital, while a Somali government spokesman said government troops, backed by Ethiopian soldiers, are fighting about 600 Islamic militiamen in the south. Government forces have surrounded the Islamic militiamen "from every direction" in the southwestern district of Badade, near the Kenyan border, Somali government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari told The Associated Press. "The fighting is going on," Dinari said. "We hope they will either surrender or be killed by our troops." In the past 10 days, Ethiopian-backed government forces have driven out...

As fighting began to flare Sunday around Kismayo, in southern Somalia, the final redoubt for the country’s diminished Islamic movement, elders within the city demanded that the Islamists go. Muhammad Arab, a leader of the Ogaden subclan, said 36 elders of various clans and subclans met over the weekend with Islamist leaders and tried to persuade them that resistance against the huge Ethiopian-backed force heading toward them was futile. "We told them that they were going to lose," Mr. Arab said, "and that our city would get destroyed." Kismayo, a scenic harbor town along the Indian Ocean that was once...

Djibouti City, Djibouti- When a handful of Marines show up at a school in this African city equipped with tools, paintbrushes and building materials, their mission is clear: help the children. Servicemembers stationed in Djibouti as part of the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa routinely take part in community outreach programs to help the local citizens. Their endeavors often involve schools and orphanages, but they help improve other aspects of Djiboutian life as well. Many volunteers work during their free time, and it can be a very rewarding experience. "I had never done humanitarian work before," said Lance Cpl....

Somalia's prime minister entered the capital Friday, a day after an Islamic movement's fighters retreated ahead of his Ethiopian-backed troops, and was welcomed by thousands of cheering residents of the battle-scarred city. While the visit was meant to symbolize the government's victory, fighting was likely to continue. Clan divisions, hatred of Ethiopia and religious fundamentalism remain problems for the government to tackle. Ali Mohamed Gedi drove into the southern part of the city in a heavily armed convoy of 22 vehicles, then toured Mogadishu's seaport amid tight security. Trucks fitted with loudspeakers roamed the city, blaring patriotic music. Mogadishu for...

Rome, 27 Dec. (AKI) - As Ethiopian forces on Wednesday drew closer to the Somali capital, Mogadishu, a second division of light infantry was present in the northern Guldug region, its sights set on the town of Beledwein, the director of Rome-based Globe Research think tank, Nicola Pedde, told Adnkronos International (AKI). "Its task is to divide the country in two. The aim is to capture Beledwein and prevent supplies reaching the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) from it," he said, citing unnamed sources. "They are afraid of two things - of outside aid reaching the Islamists and of possible...

December 26, 2006: As expected, Ethiopian troops drove Islamic Courts fighters from several towns around Baidoa. The Islamic Courts can harass the Ethiopians, but they cannot stop them. The Islamic Courts don't have an army, but rather a collection of warlord and tribal militias. They also ahve several hundred foreign Islamic radicals. Some of these guys have military training, and they are much more motivated. Actually, many Somalis are motivated to resist Ethiopian invasions, but in a straight up fight, the Somalis are at a disadvantage. The Ethiopians are better trained, armed and led. While the Somalis have a reputation...

MOGADISHU, Somalia, (AP) -Ethiopian fighter jets pounded several Somali towns held by a powerful Islamic militia, a sharp escalation in violence that threatens to engulf the volatile Horn of Africa in widespread violence. Ethiopia confirmed the attacks, the first time it has acknowledged that its troops were fighting in Somalia, though witnesses have reported their presence for weeks. The airstrikes hit the strategic town of Belet Weyne on the Ethiopian border and surrounding villages up to 12 miles away, said Sheik Mohamoud Ibrahim Suley, an official with Somalia's Council of Islamic Courts. A resident of Belet Weyne — Ayanle Husein...

WASHINGTON, Dec 13 (Reuters) - A new U.S. military command for Africa, meant to strengthen America's defense against potential threats from the continent, is expected to be created within two months, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Wednesday. Rumsfeld, presenting awards to Pentagon employees, praised Theresa Whelan, deputy assistant secretary for African affairs, for her work on the proposal to create Africa Command. In response, Whelan said the request had been made to President George W. Bush. "The memo is on the president's desk, sir," Whelan told Rumsfeld at the awards event. The U.S. military assigns responsibility for specific parts...

BAIDOA, Somalia - A top official of Somalia's Islamic militia vowed Tuesday to launch a "major attack" within a week unless troops from neighboring Ethiopia leave this chaotic Horn of Africa country. The announcement comes amid mounting tensions between the militia and Somalia's official government, which has the support of Ethiopia but has struggled to assert control. The Islamic group already has hundreds of combatants within striking distance of the government base in Baidoa. "If the Ethiopians don't withdraw from Somalia within seven days, we will launch a major attack," Sheik Yusuf Indahaadde, national security chairman for the Islamic group,...

Hardline Islamists ruling much of Somalia reacted with fury yesterday when the United Nations approved a call for foreign peace-keepers to prop up the weak, Western-backed transitional government.The 15 members of the UN Security Council voted unanimously late on Wednesday for a force of African-only troops to be sent to Somalia, where radical Islamists have seized control of much of the country in recent months. Elements in Mogadishu's Islamic Courts Union (ICU) said such troops would be an "enemy invasion". "The decision to bring foreign troops will spark a new crisis in Somalia," Sheikh Abdurahim Muddey, an Islamist movement spokesman,...

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union experts say the United States is pushing to get a regional peacekeeping force deployed in Somalia and this could trigger a wider war in the Horn of Africa, European Commission sources said on Tuesday. The EU executive's department for African development has warned the bloc's governments that such a deployment could give cover for a larger military operation against the Islamists who control Mogadishu. The stark warning given to envoys of the 25 EU states said a peacekeeping operation without the consent of all sides would be seen as an "invading force" and exacerbate the...