Armed Americans arrest arrest al-Qaeda suspect in Somalia: witnesses

On al-Itihaad, from Rohan Gunaratna’s “Inside al-Qaeda,” it pretty much sums up everything we know:

“Somalia is a ‘failed state’ that has no central government and is divided into three parts, each ruled by local warlords. Despite denials from Somali political leaders, al-Qaeda has been transporting men and material through its vast, unguarded coastline for many years. It is also suspected that al-Qaeda has established an operational base and training camp on the remote island of Ras Komboni. Reports that Somalia might offer a hiding place for Osama bin Laden prompted the American government to consider searching for al-Qaeda bases there in the wake of 9/11.

“As the Islamist vanguard it was incumbent on al-Qaeda to manifest Muslim displeasure at the US intervention in the Horn of Africa and beginning in early 1992 al-Qaeda established a network in Somalia. Al-Qaeda’s then-Deputy Emir for military operations, Mohammed Atef, was entrusted with the mission, and frequently visited Somalia in 1992 and 1993. In early 1993 al-Qaeda foremost training instructor, Ali Mohammed, came to Somalia to train several attack teams drawn the finest fighters of al-Itihaad al-Islamiyyah (Islamic Unity), formerly known as the Somali Muslim Brotherhood, an associate group of al-Qaeda. On October 3-4, al-Qaeda fighters attacked US forces in Mogadishu, killing eighteen US personnel. The blame focused on General Mohammed Farah Aideed, but Osama bin Laden was in fact behind this operation. Although the world’s attention was drawn to the deaths of American soldiers and the subsequent humiliating US withdrawl, Somali al-Qaeda fighters killed Belgian and Pakistani peacekeepers too. On the Somalia operation, referring to Osama bin Laden’s role in the attacks, the CIA later stated: ‘Information from our sources confirms his involvement.’

“According to Indian intelligence’s interrogation of Maulana Masood Azhar, the then-Secretary-General of Harakat ul-Ansar and now head of Jaish-e-Mohammed (both al-Qaeda associate groups in Pakistan), a number of Arab mujahideen who trained and fought in Afghanistan moved to Somalia at the orders of Osama bin Laden. In the early 1990s international concern at mujahideen involvement in terrorism forced Pakistan to expel many foreign fighters from its soil. As many Arab countries were hardly keen to accept them, most traveled to Sudan to join Osama bin Laden and as many as 400 went to Somalia, where they joined al-Itihaad al-Islamiyyah in 1993. Some of their number kept in touch with Azhar and with Maulana Fazalur Rahman, the leader of Harakat ul-Mujahideen, another al-Qaeda associate group in Pakistan. As Azhar explained:

“The Pakistani troops under the UN have been placed at central trouble spots, while Indian troops were placed near borders where mostly the non-Muslim populations lived. This placed Pakistani troops in vulnerable positions guarding the life and property of Americans. When an American vehicle moved, it was guarded by the Pakistanis. The mujahideen wanted to engage the American troops, the greatest enemies of Islam, but due to the presence of Pakistani troops the mujahideen faced a dilemma. In the attack against Aideed’s radio station, many Pakistani troops lost their lives. The Pakistanis who were till now champions of Islam found the tide turned against them and found themselves unwelcomed.

“To increase the pressure on Pakistan to withdraw its contingent of UN-commanded troops from Somalia, Azhar published some of these letters in Arabic and in Urdu translation in Sadah-e-Mujaheed, a magazine he had established in Karachi in 1991 at the request of Maulana Fazalur Rahman. Furthermore, Masood Azhar visited Nairobi in December 1992 where he met al-Itihaad al-Islamiyyah’s leaders and two mujahideen commanders from the UAE who urged him to keep up the pressure on the Pakistani government. A week later, Masood Azhar returned to Nairobi with journalists from the Weekly Zindagi, Jang, and Urdu Digest publications, as well as a representative of the All Pakistan Newspaper Malikan Association. On their return home the Pakistani press condemned the role of Pakistani troops in Somalia and Masood Azhar printed 5,000 copies of a booklet on the same theme.

“As of early 2002, al-Itihaad al-Islamiyyah had consolidated its hold over the ports of Merka, Kismayo, and the inland center of Luuq, which its 3,000 fighters had dominated and used as a staging area into Ethiopia and Kenya until the mid-1990s. Ethiopian military intervention since August 1996 had meantime depleted its strength, but al-Itihaad al-Islamiyyah has established a presence in northeastern Somalia, operating from the semi-autonomous region known as Puntland. Through its port at Bosaso, al-Itihaad al-Islamiyyah is reported to have sent volunteers to fight with al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.”

Now, as to your other questions:

"So the majority of the Al-Qaeda were either Egyptians or ALgerians, any others?"

It seems there was some Pakistanis as well, per Gunaratna. Al-Qaeda has a semi-official hierarchy of nationalities to it that you may well have noticed:

Saudis (or any rich Gulf state for that matter) = leaders
Egyptians = military and operations planners
Yemenis/Caucasus = first-tier middle management
Southeast/Central Asians = second-tier middle management
South Asians = third-tier middle management
North Africans/Other Middle Easterners = cheap cannon fodder

That's why whenever Saudis or Egyptians are involved in a terrorist operation, you know it's a big one. It's not that the group is inherently racist but rather, barring some exceptions, that the arrangement listed above is simply how things work out.

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