Saturday, 13 January 2007
 

War? -- What War?
Victor Davis Hanson

Reader Responses

I have learned a great deal reading the responses to these essays, and often try to predicate the next entry on the concerns of the readers.

So one reoccurring topic is the controversy over just how serious is the threat of radical Islam. I get a great deal of furious mail, suggesting that Bush & Co. for a variety of reasons (fill in the blanks: oil, Halliburton, etc.) have created a bogeyman out of a few ragtag terrorists, and dangerously and gratuitously set us on a path of war in the Middle East.

Such critics are emboldened by the luxuries of relative world peace. Remember, we enter into year six without an attack on the United States homeland comparable to September 11. That fact, taken together with the absence of a clearly-identified enemy nation state, has suggested to many that there is hardly a present threat comparable to dangers posed by Nazis, fascists, Japanese imperialists, or Soviet and Chinese communists of the past.

But how true is that really?

I. -Isms and –Ologies Are More Deadly

Global ideologies pose greater threats than particular bellicose states. Nazism, for example, was more dangerous than Prussian militarism because it much more easily appealed across national boundaries.

The same was true of communism versus, say, Japanese militarism that was predicated on unique thoughts about racial superiority rather than Pan-Asian communitarian solidarity. Bushido appealed to few non-Japanese.

Jihadism, however, resonates with Muslims in Pakistan, the Arab World, the Philippines, or Indonesia. Race, language, landscape, or nationality are not always predictable in our enemies, only a certain shared derangement guided by the idea that the West and its modernization have eclipsed Islam and are in some way responsible for radical Muslims’ current sense of inferiority and lost entitlement.

II. A Dirty Bomb Versus a Salvo or Air strike? ...

Contributed by Bill Faith on January 13, 2007 at 11:51 PM in Africa, Iran, Iraq, Islamism Delenda Est, Lebanon, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Somalia's jihadis backed by Eritreans? (Updated, bumpoed)

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. ...

*** Update and bump. Original timestamp 13:40

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.” ...

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See also: Al-Qaeda On The Run

Contributed by Bill Faith on January 13, 2007 at 10:59 PM in Africa, Islamism Delenda Est | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Wednesday, 10 January 2007
 

Got A Big One!

See previous: U. S. attacks al Qaeda in Somalia -- Again

Official: Bomb Suspect in Somalia Killed
Somali Official: Top al-Qaida Suspect Killed in U.S. Airstrike

MOGADISHU, Somalia Jan 10, 2007 (AP)— The suspected al-Qaida militant who planned the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in east Africa was killed in an American airstrike in Somalia, an official said Wednesday.

"I have received a report from the American side chronicling the targets and list of damage," Abdirizak Hassan, the Somali president's chief of staff, told The Associated Press. "One of the items they were claiming was that Fazul Abdullah Mohammed is dead."

Mohammed allegedly planned the attacks on the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 225 people.

He is also suspected of planning the car bombing of a beach resort in Kenya and the near simultaneous attempt to shoot down an Israeli airliner in 2002. Ten Kenyans and three Israelis were killed in the blast at the hotel, 12 miles north of Mombasa. The missiles missed the airliner.  ...

Rest in pieces, asshole. Warm enough for you?

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Allahpundit has more here.

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Captain Ed comments here.

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Didn't get him. Damn!

Contributed by Bill Faith on January 10, 2007 at 04:18 AM in Africa, Islamism Delenda Est | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Tuesday, 09 January 2007
 

Somali government says most
Islamist funding comes from … the UK
Allahpundit

Steven Simon once called London the “Star Wars bar scene” of Islamic fundamentalism, where throat-slitters from every corner of the Muslim galaxy rub shoulders and compare scimitars.

I like to think of the Somalis as Greedo.

British and American nationals are fighting with Islamist militias in Somalia and the fundamentalist movement is being chiefly funded by sympathisers in the UK, it has been claimed.

The Deputy Prime Minister of the country’s transitional government accused Britain of being the main source of money and men for the fighters of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU)…

Contributed by Bill Faith on January 9, 2007 at 11:47 PM in Africa, Islamism Delenda Est | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

U. S. attacks al Qaeda in Somalia -- Again

Somali official: U.S. attacks al Qaeda terrorists

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) -- U.S. helicopter gunships attacked suspected al Qaeda terrorists hiding in Somalia on Tuesday, a Somali official said.

The operation came a day after U.S. Special Operations forces launched at least two air attacks against suspected al Qaeda members in this restive Horn of Africa country.

The attack helicopters were trying to kill Islamic extremists, said a defense ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak.

Earlier, Somalia's president had said the U.S. was hunting suspects in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. Embassies in East Africa, and had his support.  ...

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Somali Official Reports Another U.S. Airstrike on Al Qaeda Members

MOGADISHU, Somalia  —  U.S. helicopter gunships attacked suspected Al Qaeda terrorists hiding in Somalia Tuesday, a Somali official said, a day after U.S. Special Operations forces launched at least two air attacks against suspected Al Qaeda members in this restive Horn of Africa country.

Earlier, a U.S. military official said 'at least a couple' of Al Qaeda suspects were taken out in an airstrike conducted by Special Operations forces in southern Somalia. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the operation's sensitivity.

The attack helicopters were trying to kill Islamic extremists, said a defense ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak. Earlier, Somalia's president had said the U.S. was hunting suspects in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. Embassies in East Africa, and had his support.

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PJM: U.S. forces operating in Somalia since last month
Allahpundit

CIA, Special Forces, and Marines — all part of the first group in, according to a senior military intelligence official. Not a shock, but reassuring to know.

Pajamas Media previously reported that Ethiopia’s use of helicopter gunships capable of targeting the Islamic Courts Union’s ground forces was a decisive factor in the army-to-army fighting against the ICU. A senior military intelligence source says that some of the gunships earlier described as Ethiopian were in fact U.S. aircraft. This has been confirmed by Dahir Jibreel, the transitional government’s permanent secretary in charge of international cooperation, who said that U.S. planes and helicopters with their markings obscured have been striking targets since December 25.

This part seems sketchy, but here you go:

Pajamas Media has learned that there have been high-level communications between ICU affiliates in Ras Kamboni and al-Qaeda’s central leadership. A senior military intelligence officer told Pajamas Media that Ayman al-Zawahiri’s January 5 tape calling for his followers to flock to Somalia to fight alongside the ICU was a result of a plea by a well-connected terrorist figure in Ras Kamboni, most likely Abu Talha al-Sudani, the head of al-Qaeda’s East Africa operations. ...

There's more. Read the whole thing.

Contributed by Bill Faith on January 9, 2007 at 10:50 AM in Africa, Islamism Delenda Est | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Monday, 08 January 2007
 

CBS: U.S. Strikes Al Qaeda In Somalia

I was just reading about this on Hot Air when 1stCav emailed to make sure I knew about it. Go Air Force! Give 'em hell!

U.S. gunship attacks Al Qaeda in Somalia
Allahpundit

The left gets a new root cause, the rest of us get that rush of well being that invariably comes with payback. Everybody wins.

The targets included the senior al Qaeda leader in East Africa and an al Qaeda operative wanted for his involvement in the 1998 bombings of two American embassies in Africa, Martin reports. Those terror attacks killed more than 200 people.

The AC-130 gunship is capable of firing thousands of rounds per second, and sources say a lot of bodies were seen on the ground after the strike, but there is as yet, no confirmation of the identities…

Once they started moving, the al Qaeda operatives became easier to track, and the U.S. military started preparing for an air strike, using unmanned aerial drones to keep them under surveillance and moving the aircraft carrier Eisenhower out of the Persian Gulf toward Somalia. But when the order was given, the mission was assigned to the AC-130 gunship operated by the U.S. Special Operations command.

If the attack got the operatives it was aimed at, reports Martin, it would deal a major blow to al Qaeda in East Africa.

Update: If we got the people we’re hoping we got, you’ll see one or more of these names in the news very shortly ...

Update: The USS Eisenhower has been sent to Somalia in case jets are needed for further strikes.

1stCav also notes:

I feel pretty sure that the CBS boy got their nomenclature wrong on the 'thousands of rounds per second'. S/B 1,000's/minute

He's right, of course.  Still sorta tough to outrun. Yeee-haw! 

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Breaking: Reports of U.S. airstrikes on al-Qaeda in Somalia

U.S. Strikes al-Qaeda in Somalia

Austin Bay's tracking the situation here. 

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And if there were trains, they would have run on time.
See-Dubya

Writing in the Times of London, columnist Martin Fletcher would like you to quit being so deuced smug about the routing of Somalia's Union of Islamist Courts. After all, just like the Taliban did for Afghanistan, they brought order and security to Somalia.

Their leadership included extremists with dangerous intentions and connections. But for six months they achieved the near-impossible feat of restoring order to a country that appeared ungovernable.

This was not done by “suppressing, with draconian punishments, what remained of personal freedoms” — unless you count banning guns and the narcotic qat, which rendered half Somalia’s menfolk senseless. The courts were less repressive than our Saudi Arabian friends. They publicly executed two murderers (a fraction of the 24 executions in Texas last year), and discouraged Western dancing, music and films, but at least people could walk the streets

I don't know Mr. Fletcher's politics--the Times is, after all, a Rupert Murdoch publication--but he's advocating a new vision of the Left very well. Liberty stops at the water's edge. Human rights be damned; order and security are now in vogue all around the world. Even if it is an Al-Qaeda-linked terror regime that brings it.

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You Can Run But You Can't Hide, The Extended Dance Mix
Ed Morrissey

Perhaps al-Qaeda figured that the US had focused so much on the 9/11 attacks that it had forgotten about one of its earlier attacks on American assets. If so, the terrorists have just discovered that both elephants and donkeys have long memories in America. The US Air Force has attacked the UIC remnants fleeing the Ethiopian Army in southern Somalia, targeting at least two AQ leaders that masterminded two suicide-bombing attacks on American embassies in 1998:

A U.S. Air Force gunship has conducted a strike against suspected members of al Qaeda in Somalia, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports exclusively.

The targets included the senior al Qaeda leader in East Africa and an al Qaeda operative wanted for his involvement in the 1998 bombings of two American embassies in Africa, Martin reports. Those terror attacks killed more than 200 people.

The AC-130 gunship is capable of firing thousands of rounds per second, and sources say a lot of bodies were seen on the ground after the strike, but there is as yet, no confirmation of the identities.

The gunship flew from its base in Dijibouti down to the southern tip of Somalia, Martin reports, where the al Qaeda operatives had fled after being chased out of the capital of Mogadishu by Ethiopian troops backed by the United States.

The Ethiopians did us a big favor by dislodging the Islamists from Mogadishu. Once on the run, the US could bring all of its technological assets on line to track them, and the Air Force waited long enough for all of them to run into the trap. The Navy positioned the USS Eisenhower in the waters nearby Somalia just in case it finds even more targets to strike.

That hasn't stopped the Ethiopians, either. Their forces have surrounded an al-Qaeda base and may have overrun it by the time you read this post. Between the three forces, including those loyal to the Somalian transitional government, AQ in Africa is about to take a huge blow, perhaps even a fatal defeat. ...

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Bush Finishes Clinton’s Unfinished Job
A J Strata

It seems George Bush is making good on Clinton’s promises to bring those who bombed our US embassies in Africa to justice. First, Clinton’s unfinished promise from 1998:

Following military strikes on a suspected terrorist camp in Afghanistan and an alleged chemical weapons plant in Sudan, the Clinton administration declared that it intends to wage war against international terrorism.

Bombing empty aspirin factories at night and taking down a few empty tents in the desert were not what any non-liberal would call ‘waging war’ - but then Democrats are afraid to wage war, as is seen in their desparation to surrender Iraq.

Bush, on the other hand, is serious about bringing justice to people who kill Americans and innocent people, and wastes no time lauding the bombing of some factory closed for the night. He gets to the terrorists themselves: ...

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Gateway Pundit has good coverage here.

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Don Surber: "I hope no one was hurt. I hope every single target was killed instead."

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Kim Priestap: "I hope we got the SOBs."

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Flopping Aces: Payback In Somalia

Contributed by Bill Faith on January 8, 2007 at 07:28 PM in Africa, Islamism Delenda Est, US Air Force | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Friday, 05 January 2007
 

Al-Qaeda Backed Into A Corner

See previous: Jihadis crumble as Ethiopians advance (Updated and bumped, again -- jihadis abandon Mogadishu), Somali jihadis continue to crumble, Somali jihadis continue to crumble -- Update, Somali jihadis continue to crumble -- Update 2, Somali jihadis continue to crumble -- Update 3

Zawahiri getting a wee bit anxious about Somalia
Allahpundit

We’re not the only ones worried about manpower and defeatism. It’s all couched in jihadi bravado about patience and the inevitability of victory, of course, but the remnants of the mujahedeen army are dug in by the coast with Ethiopians in front of them and the U.S. Navy at their back and a final assault on the way. Where, wonders the good doctor, is the cavalry?

I also appeal to my Muslim brethren everywhere to respond to the call for jihad in Somalia. I appeal to the lions of Islam in Yemen, the state of faith and wisdom, I appeal to my brothers the lions of Islam in the Arab Peninsula, the cradle of conquests, and I also appeal to my brothers the lions of Islam in Egypt, Sudan, the Arab Maghreb, and everywhere in the Muslim world to rise up to aid their Muslim brethren in Somalia through offering sacrifices, money, opinion, and expertise so as to defeat the slaves of America that it sends to death on its behalf…

I urge them not to listen to any defeatist calls that would prevent them from taking part in supporting their brothers who are being attacked. I call on my brothers, the young men of the Islamic groups, to keep in mind that they only joined these groups so that such groups could help them obey God.

He’s been talking like this for weeks ...

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Flopping Aces: Al-Qaeda Backed Into A Corner

Contributed by Bill Faith on January 5, 2007 at 12:04 PM in Africa, Islamism Delenda Est | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Thursday, 04 January 2007
 

Jihad in Somalia

Contributed by Bill Faith on January 4, 2007 at 10:15 AM in Africa, Islamism Delenda Est | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Tuesday, 02 January 2007
 

Somali jihadis continue to crumble -- Update 3

See previous: Jihadis crumble as Ethiopians advance (Updated and bumped, again -- jihadis abandon Mogadishu), Somali jihadis continue to crumble, Somali jihadis continue to crumble -- Update, Somali jihadis continue to crumble -- Update 2

Navy patrolling Somalian coast to pick off fleeing jihadis 
Allahpundit

Not only that, but according to Debka, U.S. Special Forces are on the ground hunting down the three embassy-bombing suspects who are presumed to be with them. Plus, the khat is back.

It’s the feelgood story of the year. ...

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Ban on booty lifted in Mogadishu!

Contributed by Bill Faith on January 2, 2007 at 10:38 AM in Africa, Islamism Delenda Est | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Monday, 01 January 2007
 

Somali jihadis continue to crumble -- Update 2

See previous: Jihadis crumble as Ethiopians advance (Updated and bumped, again -- jihadis abandon Mogadishu), Somali jihadis continue to crumble, Somali jihadis continue to crumble -- Update

Islamoutta Here
Jules Crittenden

Islamists hightailing it out of Kismayo for Kenyan border. ...

Love that title, Jules.

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Somali Islamists flee stronghold

KISMAYO, Somalia (AP) -- Somali government troops backed by Ethiopian tanks and MiG fighter jets have captured the last major stronghold of a militant Islamic movement, the prime minister said Monday.

Ali Mohamed Gedi also offered an amnesty to hundreds of Islamic fighters fleeing south toward the Kenyan border, 160 kilometers (100 miles) away if they gave themselves up, but offered no amnesty for leaders of the Islamic group.

"I can confirm to you that our forces have captured Kismayo," Somalia's Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi said following a 13-day onslaught against the Islamic forces by government troops backed by Ethiopian tanks and MiG fighter jets.

He also ordered a countrywide disarmament that comes into effect Tuesday, an immense task in Somalia which is awash with weapons after a 15-year civil war.

"The warlord era in Somalia is now over," Gedi said at a news conference in the recently captured capital, Mogadishu, giving a three-day deadline for the handover of all weapons.

The prime minister told journalists that Somalia's infamous warlords and clan militias must also abide by the order to give up weapons.

"If they fail to heed the orders of the government, the government will forcefully extract weapons from them," he added.

Islamic forces have promised to wage an Iraq-style guerrilla war if defeated.

Among those sought were three al Qaeda suspects wanted in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies who the government said were being sheltered by the Islamic group. The government hoped to catch them before they slipped out of the country.

The United States has also been asked to provide air and sea surveillance to prevent suspected extremists from escaping, Somali officials said.

Meanwhile ...

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Somali Troops Close In on 3 Wanted for U.S. Embassy Bombings

KISMAYO, Somalia  —  Fighting erupted Sunday on the outskirts of the last remaining stronghold of Somalia's militant Islamic movement, as thousands of residents streamed from the area ahead of the feared battle with Ethiopian-backed government troops.

Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi said the militants in the coastal city of Kismayo were sheltering three men wanted in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed more than 250 people.

"If we capture them alive we will hand them over to the United States," Gedi said. ...

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Somali Islamist Cowards Flee Kismayo
See-Dubya

Just like they fled from Mogadishu when the Ethiopians approached, the Islamic Courts Union forces are hightailing it out of their last stronghold of Kismayo. Now they’re blustering about starting an insurgency. Whatever. They had vowed to stand and fight it out, but as I noted here, they learned it’s a lot harder to fight trained men with guns instead of women and children.

I expect some of the soldiers will simply desert and blend back in to society. As for the runners, where are they going? If you imagine Somalia shaped like a big number 7, they are now down in the very bottom of the 7 and have no place to go but Kenya:

Residents of Kismayo said the remaining Islamists were heading toward Ras Kamboni, a small town on the Kenyan border which western intelligence officers say has been used as a terrorist hide-out before. ...

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More here and here.

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Ed Morrissey:

... The collapse of their hold in Somalia has punctured the myth of invincibility of these supposed holy warriors and exposed as lies their pledges to fight to the death to hold the ummah. Now that they have shown their true colors, the armies of Kenya and Ethiopia will have little trouble wiping up what's left of the terrorist and tyrranous Arab and South Asian militias.

Once again, this shows the West how to properly square off against Islamist forces. Only by conducting a true war with massive, overwhelming force will these terrorists be destroyed.

Contributed by Bill Faith on January 1, 2007 at 04:45 AM in Africa, Islamism Delenda Est | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Sunday, 31 December 2006
 

Somali jihadis continue to crumble -- Update

See previous: Jihadis crumble as Ethiopians advance (Updated and bumped, again -- jihadis abandon Mogadishu), Somali jihadis continue to crumble

Somali Islamists Shelled near Kismayo
See-Dubya

The residents are fleeing in droves, but the hard-core crazies are staying to fight.

Good reporting from the New York Times on this war, by the way.

New Sisyphus put up a quote from General Sherman the other day that I think appropriate:

“War is the remedy our enemies have chosen, and I say give them all they want.”

The Somali Islamists have chosen war as their remedy. ...

Contributed by Bill Faith on December 31, 2006 at 06:20 PM in Africa, Islamism Delenda Est | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Saturday, 30 December 2006
 

Somali jihadis continue to crumble

See previous: Jihadis crumble as Ethiopians advance (Updated and bumped, again -- jihadis abandon Mogadishu)

Ethiopians Take On Last
Somali Islamist Stronghold
See-Dubya

NYT says they’re chugging along toward the city of Kismayo, where the Islamists seem ready to make their stand. They are still in full Baghdad Bob mode:

Sheilk Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, a high-ranking cleric, vowed not to go down without a fight.

“I want to tell you that the Islamic courts are still alive and ready to fight against the enemy of Allah,” Mr. Ahmed told residents of Kismayo in a speech today. “We left Mogadishu in order to prevent bloodshed in the capital, but that does not mean we lost the holy war against our enemy.” ...

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See also: Hunt for Al-Qaeda men in Mogadishu

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Ethiopia Advances on Somali Islamists’ Last City

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, Dec. 30 – A phalanx of Ethiopian tanks and armored personnel carriers chugged toward the last city occupied by Somalia’s diminished Islamist movement, witnesses said today, setting the stage for one final major battle.

According to residents along Somalia’s coast, the Ethiopian troops, along with soldiers from Somalia’s transitional government, were preparing to seize Kismayo, a port city near the Kenyan border where the Islamist leaders have holed up.

Sheilk Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, a high-ranking cleric, vowed not to go down without a fight.

"I want to tell you that the Islamic courts are still alive and ready to fight against the enemy of Allah," Mr. Ahmed told residents of Kismayo in a speech today. "We left Mogadishu in order to prevent bloodshed in the capital, but that does not mean we lost the holy war against our enemy.” ...

Just two days ago, in a stunning reversal of fortune, Somalia’s transitional government, with the muscle of the Ethiopian military, reclaimed Mogadishu, driving out the Islamist movement which had ruled large swaths of Somalia. More than a thousand people have been killed in the fighting and Somalia’s leaders now face the daunting task of trying to piece together a country that has not had a central government for 15 years. ...

Contributed by Bill Faith on December 30, 2006 at 05:32 PM in Africa, Islamism Delenda Est | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Thursday, 28 December 2006
 

Jihadis crumble as Ethiopians advance
(Updated and bumped, again -- jihadis abandon Mogadishu)

Jihadis crumble as Ethiopians advance on Mogadishu
Allahpundit

Can we get a few battalions of Ethiopians in Iraq?

Islamist forces in Somalia beat a hasty retreat today to their stronghold in Mogadishu, Somalia’s battle-scared capital, crumbling faster than anyone expected after a week of attacks by Ethiopian forces…

The Islamist fighters, who had seemed invincible after taking Mogadishu in June, now seem powerless to stop the steady advance of the Ethiopian-backed forces of the transitional government…

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See also: Me No Understand Somalia Advice

*** Update and bump. Original timestamp 2006.12.26.16.51

Somali Islamists Still Getting Butts Kicked
See-Dubya

Ethiopia’s trying to beat Israel’s six-day record. Their army is fifteen miles from Mogadishu, and the Islamists are turning tail:

The young fighters of the Shebab, the backbone of the Islamists’ army, whose name comes from the Arabic word for youth, are deserting in droves.

“We can’t resist,” said Musa Abdullahi, 18, who quit his unit after half his comrades were cut down by Ethiopian helicopter gunships. “We thought this fighting would be like the others. It’s not.”

It’s hard when there are armed men with guns shooting back at you instead of women and children running away, Musa.

And here’s one for the “war never solves anything” crowd:

…the goodwill they [the Islamists] earned is being sapped away by their decision to attack the transitional government and declare a holy war against Christian-led Ethiopia. That provoked a crushing counterattack by the Ethiopians, who have the strongest military in East Africa and have sided with the transitional government because Ethiopia views the Islamists as a threat to its own security. ...

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Josh Trevino has an excellent related post here.

*** Update and bump. Previous timestamp 2006.12.27.18:30

Islamists withdraw from Mogadishu

MOGADISHU, Somalia (Reuters) -- A top Somali Islamist leader said on Thursday that all Islamist forces had withdrawn from the capital Mogadishu.

"We have withdrawn all the leaders and members who worked in the capital," Sheikh Sharif Ahmed told Al Jazeera television by telephone.

He said the Somali Islamists remained united and explained the move as a change in tactics in its war against Ethiopian troops, defending the weak interim government.

The retreat came hours after a joint force of Ethiopian and Somali government troops advanced to just 30 km (18 miles) from Mogadishu, threatening to besiege the capital rather than attack it. ...

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Islamic Forces Abandon Mogadishu, Clan Militia Takes Control

MOGADISHU, Somalia —  Somalia's Islamic movement abandoned the nation's capital on Thursday, and clan militiamen poured into the streets to take control of Mogadishu, as government forces approached to within 18 miles.

Gunfire echoed through the streets and hundreds of gunmen, who just hours earlier fought for Quranic rule, took off their Islamic uniforms and submitted to the command of clan elders, an AP reporter in Mogadishu said. Some began looting Islamic courts' bases and buildings belonging to Islamic courts officials, witnesses said.  ...

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The Fall of Islamist Somalia
Bryan Preston

It’s been tough over the past couple of days not to stand up and do a little dance of joy over Ethiopia’s so far masterful efforts in Somalia. Ethiopia very correctly recognized that the United Islamic Courts, the al Qaeda-backed Islamist movement that took control of Mogadishu and most of Somalia this past summer, represents a threat. So Ethiopia acted. And now Bill Roggio reports that Mogadishu has fallen to the Ethiopian and transitional Somali government forces.

Nine days after the onset of open warfare between the al-Qaeda backed Islamic Courts and the Ethiopian backed Transitional Federal Government, the Islamic Courts have surrendered. “After having crucial and urgent meeting tonight in the capital, the leaders of executive and Shura councils of Islamic Courts Union and deputy leader of executive council of ICU, Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed and Sheik Abdirahman Janaqow resigned and issued a joint press statement over the current situation in Somalia particular in Mogadishu,” reports SomaliNet.

There should be no allowance for any cease-fire talks until the Islamists are well and truly crushed. Keep the UN and the Arab League as far from this fight as possible until it’s truly finished. The Ethiopians and the transitional Somali government forces, fighting together against the Islamists in spite of a history of war between Ethiopia and Somalia, should not make the same mistake Israel and the US have made in Lebanon and Iraq and Afghanistan. They should win the fight outright and dictate terms to the surviving Islamists. Foreign fighters should either be imprisoned and tried for their crimes or, well, imprisoned and tried for their crimes. Anything less, and the Islamists will go to ground and come back with an insurgency in a few months or a year. ...

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Great related commentary here, here and here.

*** Update and bump. Previous timestamp 02:14.

Mogadipshit Taken by Ethiopia
Emporer Darth Misha

Thanks to LC Scott for informing us of this:

Triumphant Somali government forces and their Ethiopian allies marched into Mogadishu after their Islamist rivals abandoned the city.

The flight of the Islamists, who had controlled the Somali capital for six months, represents a dramatic turn-around in the wartorn nation.

How does it feel to be running like rabbits, Pisslamists? You realize that you’ll only die tired, don’t you?

Some Mogadishu residents greeted the arriving government troops, while others hid.

They probably had good reason to hide as well. But, but, weren’t you supposed to face the infidels bravely, greeting martyrdom with a smile on your lips, embracing death and your reward of 72 virgin goats? Come out of hiding, you silly fucks, come out and die. You know you want to.

Parts of the city shook with the sound of gunfire and there were outbreaks of looting after leaders of the Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) fled its base early in the morning.

“In the name of Allah, the merciful: RUN AWAAAAAY!!!” ...

Contributed by Bill Faith on December 28, 2006 at 05:36 PM in Africa, Islamism Delenda Est | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack