Posted on 12/31/2006 6:13:09 PM PST by blam
Army prepares to oust Somali fighters
By Mike Pflanz, East Africa Correspondent
Last Updated: 12:19am GMT 01/01/2007
Fighting erupted late yesterday in southern Somalia as government troops prepared their final onslaught against Islamist forces who, until last week, controlled most of the country.
Fearful residents in the southern town of Jilib reported hearing artillery and gunfire.
Thousands have fled to the fields as the Islamists began what is likely to be their last stand against their rivals and their Ethiopian allies.
After being pushed out of their stronghold in Mogadishu, an ultra-loyal rump of 3,000 fighters of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) have regrouped in Jilib and the coastal city of Kismayo, 90 miles north of Somalia's border with Kenya.
Ethiopian fighter jets yesterday flew reconnaissance missions over the city, as soldiers dug into positions near Jilib. Opposite them, Islamist fighters bulldozed trenches and re-armed their front-line soldiers.
Mohamed Ali Gedi, Somalia's prime minister, said government troops were hunting three al-Qa'eda terror suspects who are wanted in connection with the 1998 bombings of US embassies in east Africa that killed more than 250 people. He said Islamic militants in Kismayo, Somalia's third-largest city, were sheltering accused bombers Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan and Abu Taha al-Sudani.
"We would like to capture or kill these guys at any cost," Mr Gedi said. "They are the root of the problem."
The ICU has been roundly neutralised by the superior firepower of the Ethiopians, and it is unlikely that they will be able to hold out against this widely expected final on-slaught.
Officials from Somalia's weak transitional government, which now holds sway over Mogadishu, said they would leave open the offer of peace talks with the ICU providing that they surrendered.
"We are contacting them for dialogue. We have repeatedly asked them to come to Mogadishu to talk," Mr Gedi told reporters, adding that the foreign fighters now constituted 65 per cent of the Islamist force.
However, Sheikh Mohamed Ibrahim Bilal, the Islamist commander, said: "This is something that will never happen. Our country is under colonisation and we cannot accept any offer of negotiations as long as Ethiopians are in our territory.
"This is not a time of peace. It is a time of liberation and we are going to liberate our country from the enemies."
"This should be rubbed in the face of every anti war liberal in America.."
The anti-war Americans have known this all along but their goal is to destroy their country and rebuild it in their own ugly image. They are not anti war but anti American.
"..can't live on Planet Earth on Planet Earth's own terms, will be DEAD."
There won't be any Muslims left if they follow your plan.
Be careful there, that's hitting pretty close to home.
Our minimalist Iraq war is about the same isn't it?
Muskies Last Stand. That has a pleasant ring to it.
Oh, I think there will be plenty of Muslims still left, when, after my scenario, which as I said could go on for many years and simply weary the rest of the world so much that the "Leaders" of Islam (ever notice how there are still dozens if not hundreds of warring would-be "leaders" but no one comparable, say, to the Pope) will be forced to finally hold a "Conference" overseen by SOME international body to finally DEMAND that Islam define some general rules, regulations, standards of conduct, even some basic agreed-upon interpretation of the Koran. Only then , after maybe 5%-10% of the most ardent Muslims, the Jihadists, are dead, are the "leaders" going to see there is no future in Jihad. That is why they are waging it on all fronts, and why , in Europe and the West in general, they are working extra hard to infiltrate politically ("good cop") over and against the Jihadist warriors ("bad cop")
The really frightening thing is watching the inroads still being made politically by resident Muslims in the West, who SEEM to be offering themselves as an "alternative" to the Jihadists. The Jihadists make the people like CAIR look preferable, as if it's "either/or" for us .The Jihadists count on CAIR's powers of intimidation and political wrangling to keep everything in delicious tension. My feeling is they are both going to lose, and it could end in a matter of weeks if we wanted it to, but apparently we can't make the necessary decisions to get this thing settled at least provisionally.
"..we can't make the necessary decisions.."
Spell it out - we are afraid.
It has been a long time coming.
Now, we know they were breathing as of last month, and IF they are in the area of operations they will be captured or killed.
There is also the possiblity that the Somalis are pulling the HVT card for their own purposes, and those guys hit the freeway long ago.
They can run, they can hide.
But we will still get them.
"We would like to capture or kill these guys at any cost," Mr Gedi said. "They are the root of the problem."
We may have just found our next Republican presidential nominee.
The political handlers may want to buff up his name from Mohamed to Mike and from Ali to Al and change Gedi to Gideon. Michael Alan Gideon for president.
You have hit on the seminal point of the last century. The peace movement killed more folks by preventing victory in several wars.
I am researching a book about this very theme, the numbers killed after the peace movement intervened is staggering.
RW
Ethiopia is doing a good job!
Amen. God bless our troops.
I hope the liberation of Sudan will be next.
True, to a degree. Yet the good guys have been routing and killing bad guys, in quantity, for some time now.
In my opinion, part of the problem is the fact that we don't fight wars as a nation any more. There have always been those opposed to war but they didn't have the time to march in the streets because we used to have a massive industry to support our wars.
The Somali army is by far the most professional in the area with training and support from the US. I don't know how extensive it is to date but one can rest assured it is providing results.
And we'll be seeing more of it soon enough. :)
I meant the Ethiopian army, sorry.
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