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Somali Clan Elders Urge Islamists to Leave Stronghold
New York Times ^ | January 1, 2007 | JEFFREY GETTLEMAN

Posted on 12/31/2006 8:48:11 PM PST by bd476

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 part of the East African spice empire, has been spared the fighting so far.

But the Islamists, Mr. Arab said, did not care. "These guys are bent on war," he said.

The fighting started around 5 p.m., with the Ethiopian-backed forces unleashing an artillery barrage against Islamist troops dug in near Jilib, a town about 30 miles north of Kismayo. As the shells began to rain down, residents said, clan militias within Kismayo turned on the Islamists.

That set off running gun battles across the city, with several people reported killed. It also accelerated the exodus from Kismayo, with thousands of residents hastily gathering a few belongings and joining the stream of people fleeing the fighting in southern Somalia.

It is hard to predict what is going to happen next. Local support for the Islamists in Kismayo is obviously evaporating, just as it did last week in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, when clan elders decided that the Islamists were a losing cause and pulled their troops and weapons out of the movement.

That led to the city falling much faster than anyone expected into the hands of Somalia’s transitional government, which has used Ethiopian troops and airpower to reclaim much of...

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; US: Washington; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: africa; ethiopia; fifthfleet; hornofafrica; jtfhoa; somalia; usnavy
US Naval Forces Central Command U.S. Fifth Fleet


The Fifth Fleet is present and accounted for (click here)

The photos are much too large to post here but it is well worth
the click over to see the Fifth Fleet.





Also see:

Somali Troops, Allies Prep for Showdown


1 posted on 12/31/2006 8:48:14 PM PST by bd476
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To: Cindy; cripplecreek; norwaypinesavage; TADSLOS; Valin; randog; AD from SpringBay; CottShop; ...
The elders of Kismayo (also Chisimayu) have courage asking the Islamic terrorists to make foot bail Ping.

2 posted on 12/31/2006 8:57:59 PM PST by bd476
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To: bd476

Commence Operation Cat Box!


3 posted on 12/31/2006 8:59:44 PM PST by endthematrix (Both poverty and riches are the offspring of thought.)
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To: bd476
It would impress me more if they simply shot them.
4 posted on 12/31/2006 9:01:54 PM PST by JasonC
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To: bd476

It does take courage bd476, but the battle is on -- everyone needs to pick a side and the elders just picked theirs.


5 posted on 12/31/2006 9:05:15 PM PST by Cindy
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To: bd476

Bump for next year.


6 posted on 12/31/2006 9:10:40 PM PST by Valin (History takes time. It is not an instant thing.)
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To: bd476
>>>"Mr. Arab said, "and that our city would get destroyed."<<<

In Somalia...hardly likely! Reminds me of someone that once said "a good carpet bombing could only improve things"!!

7 posted on 12/31/2006 9:27:38 PM PST by HardStarboard (Give Pelosi and Reid Enough Rope to Hang Themselves.)
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To: bd476
"The fighting started around 5 p.m., with the Ethiopian-backed forces unleashing an artillery barrage against Islamist troops dug in near Jilib, a town about 30 miles north of Kismayo. As the shells began to rain down, residents said, clan militias within Kismayo turned on the Islamists."

Good news. I think some Islamist are about to bite the dust.

8 posted on 12/31/2006 9:57:51 PM PST by blam
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To: bd476
Army Prepares To Oust (Islamic) Somali Fighters"


9 posted on 12/31/2006 10:00:17 PM PST by blam
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To: bd476

I thought these guys were surrounded, yet I am reading stories about them "dissapearing." How can they dissapear if theyre surrounded? By putting on burkas and pretending to be women? I doubt the Ethiopians would fall for that.


10 posted on 12/31/2006 10:15:53 PM PST by wingsof liberty
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To: wingsof liberty
wingsof liberty wrote: "I thought these guys were surrounded, yet I am reading stories about them "dissapearing." How can they dissapear if theyre surrounded? By putting on burkas and pretending to be women? I doubt the Ethiopians would fall for that."

Pick one of the following:

11 posted on 12/31/2006 10:34:12 PM PST by bd476
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To: bd476
We could learn a lot from the Ethiopians. They have been fighting Islamofascists for a thousand years, and they know how to do it. The Islamofascists are scared to death of them. Rightly so, traditionally the Ethiopians earned the moniker " Conquering Lions of Judah."

Tenastaling!

12 posted on 12/31/2006 11:27:14 PM PST by Candor7 (Into Liberal flatulance goes the best hope of the West, and who wants to be a smart feller?)
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To: bd476

Muhammad Arab? That's like "John Doe". :')


13 posted on 01/01/2007 12:18:32 AM PST by SunkenCiv (It takes a village to mind its own business. https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: SunkenCiv
Muhammad Arab?

Now that's what I call "truth in advertising"...

14 posted on 01/01/2007 3:33:40 AM PST by dirtbiker (I've tried to see the liberal point of view, but I couldn't get my head up my a$$....)
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To: wingsof liberty

They are not yet quite surrounded. As the reports indicate, their last bastion has fallen and they are moving to the Kenyan border with the remants left that survived the Ethiopian attack from the north.

The US 5th Fleet is patroling offshore to the east and the Kenyans are at their border to the south waiting to engage.

The hammer is about to drop.


15 posted on 01/01/2007 9:57:26 AM PST by romanesq
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To: bd476

No mercy
No quarter
No Sympathy.


16 posted on 01/01/2007 11:04:44 AM PST by NickatNite2003 (From the Man from Hope" to the wife who snarls "Abandon All Hope!")
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To: romanesq

I see. Several thoughts come to mind - shore bombardment, MOAB, carpet bombing.....why not all 3?


17 posted on 01/01/2007 2:05:23 PM PST by wingsof liberty
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To: wingsof liberty

The US prefers effectiveness over anything overt. If need be, the task force will take out any boats coming or going. No resupply of arms and other Arab fighters will occur.

And it works for me.


18 posted on 01/01/2007 2:06:55 PM PST by romanesq
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To: bd476

thanks for the good news ping!


19 posted on 01/01/2007 4:35:56 PM PST by Fred Nerks (MEDIA + ENEMY = ENEMEDIA!)
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