Howdy fellow 502d:
Here's another white al Qaida story to go with this one:
BACKGROUNDER: Compiled by Bill Gertz
'White man' training Al Qaida terrorists in wilderness camp near Kenya
Al Qaida linked Islamist terrorists have set up a training camp in southern Somalia, near the Kenya border, according to eyewitness reports in the local press.
The Nairobi East African Standard newspaper reported last week that Kenyan border guards are aware of the camp, which is a 20-minute boat ride from the underwater park at Kiunga, a border region.
The Islamists at the camp are being trained with the help of a "white man sporting a thick moustache and believed to be of Eastern European extraction, presumably Yugoslavia," the newspaper reported.
The camp at Ras Kiamboni is being used to recruit and train Islamist extremists linked to the Al Ittiyad, a Somalia based group linked to Al Qaida.
According to the report, Al Ittiyad terrorists transit the Kenyan border with arms and equipment. The camp is said to employ turban-wearing sentries armed with AK-47 rifles.
The terrorists are told that they would be sent to fight alongside Islamists in Chechnya. The fighters are part of the global "jihadist" or holy warrior movement that includes Al Qaida.
The accented trainer has been identified only as "David."
The report said fighters who were killed in friendly fire accidents are buried in the camp.
The facility is hidden in a thicket in the wilderness area of Somalia and is defended by a large caliber gun mounted on the coast targeted against approaching ships or boats.
An official in the Kenyan counterterrorist agency said the camp is supported by a Garissa, Kenya businessman and a series of lodges in the Majengo area of Mombassa.
Kenya agents visited the camp in May, June and July and obtained valuable details about its operations in an area almost 45 square miles in size.
The camp is inhabited by families of the jihadists and includes local police and courts.
The terrorists also have cells in Kenya and are supported by the Kenyan businessman. "He is the key financier of the group. Funds to bankroll the suspect activities of the outfit are channeled to the businessman from different banks in Kuwait," the official was quoted as saying.
Based on that info, I'd say he's "presumably" from Chechnya--although, we really don't know--we've had "white al qaeda" from Australia, the USA, and Germany as well.
OK, "war" story. In May 93 I was in the QRF in Somalia. A UN plane tried to land at a small strip in western Somalia (Garbheery)and got shot up. This was an Islamic fundamentalist area, but the US UNITAF had not gone out there as there was no violence or problems with famine, food distribution, etc.
However, the UN (who had just taken over) had the nation-building task and was extending its reach past the areas we already controlled. After the plane incident, we sent an SF team to recon the area. They got in a several hour running gun-battle before they began running out of ammo and had to break contact. We found that Somali Islamic fundamentalists were controlling much of the the Jubba River valley up around the Somali-Kenya-Ethiopia border junction. They didn't want any UN interference (not sure I blame them for that!), but the UNOSOM mandate was to extend control over the whole country.
The UN forces in the area were Botswanans further south in a town called Bardera. Lots of will, but no capability to travel sixty miles up river and take these guys on. The QRF task was to respond to military threats in excess of the capabilities of UN forces, so off we went.
Initial objective was the small town & airstrip where the plane was shot up. We staged forward to Bardera and announnced we were doing joint patrols with the Botswanans to the south and then did so for two days. After dark on the third day two infantry companies were landed via helicopter out of sight and sound behind a helicopter out of sight and sound about 12 kilometers south of Garbheery in the lee of a high ridge. The 10th Mountain light fighters spread out and infiltrated cross-country by platoons into positions immediately around the town, arriving just before dawn. At sunrise, the battalion commander with a truck mounted Infantry Company and a military police platoon converged in on the roads leading from Bardera and Baidoa. Units moved to blocking positions or directly to the known locations of the enemy. One platoon captured a technical and another pounced on a twin-barreled 40mm anti-aircraft gun positioned to cover the airfield. A quick search rounded up a few more weapons and their suspicious owners. Our interpreters said that surprise was complete. We turned the detainees over to the Botswanans for interrogation and headed back to Mogadishu to plan for subsequent ops. Shortly after, the Paks got hit hard in Mogadishu and from that point on we were tied to the big city.
Although that fundamentalist-controlled corner of Somalia remained on the "to do" list, we were overcome by other events and never got to it. It was only much later that we realized the connection between those guys and Aideed.
Personally, although my info is now dated, I'd be a little surprised by an Islamic encampment at the location described. First, that area of Somalia was simply not a fundamentalist area and the clan leadership there was pro-western and fought on our side agaisnt the Aideed militias. Second, we now have some forces in Djibouti whose only job is to look for places like that and take them out--I doubt we'd let an encampement like that survive unless its something other than what Gertz describes.