Final Islamist Collapse In Somalia
Ed Morrissey
The final organized base of the Union of Islamic Courts fell to Ethiopian and Somali forces last night, completing the lightning rout of what had been an ascendant radical Islamist force. Ras Kamboni had been the last organized redoubt for the UIC, and now they have fled into to forests on the Kenyan border:
Somali government troops backed by Ethiopian soldiers have captured the last stronghold of the Union of Islamic Courts, the defence minister says.
Col Barre Aden Shire said the town of Ras Kamboni, in south-eastern Somalia, fell after several days of fighting. Remnants of the militia are now reported to be hiding in dense forest along Somalia's border with Kenya. ...
Somalia's jihadis backed by Eritreans?
By See-Dubya
Pajamas Media's Daveed Gartenstein-Ross says Eritrea sent 2,000 troops into Somalia to back up the Al-Qaeda linked Islamic Courts Union. Eritrea and Ethiopia hate each other and fought a nasty war from 1998-2000, so I can see the logic of supporting a proxy war against your enemy. But when that proxy is an Al-Qaeda stalking-horse, you're walking on the fighting side of Uncle Sam.
And now Eritrea is threatening us.
One Somali official told Gartenstein-Ross that
the Eritreans “were in full combat” alongside the Islamic Courts, including firing on Ethiopian and Somali forces. Jibreel called for sanctions against the Eritrean government, saying, “I think they should be sanctioned because they were helping terrorists.” ...
