Somali Islamist Fighters Seize 2nd Town

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Islamist insurgents killed five government soldiers while briefly taking a strategic town in central Somalia, police and residents said, the second such seizure within 24 hours.

The attack late Thursday took place in Belet Weyne, near a critical road junction that links Somalia to the border with Ethiopia. Hundreds of troops are stationed at the junction, which is also Ethiopia's main supply route.

"They launched a surprise attack on the town from different directions, facing pockets of resistance from government forces and immediately took the control of the police station, the prison and a hotel government regional officials were using," said a police officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

The town's police chief, Col. Abdi Aden, confirmed that five government soldiers had been killed.
Local resident Duniyo Ali said the fighters had retained control of the town for about three hours before voluntarily withdrawing. The area was now calm, she said.

Also Thursday, residents said Islamists had seized Hudur, a strategic southwestern Somali town that lies along the road leading from Ethiopia into Somalia, without firing a shot.

Islamist fighters have vowed to wage an Iraq-style war on the shaky Western-backed transitional government after Somali troops supported by their Ethiopian allies chased the Islamists from power in December 2006.

The Islamists had seized control of much of the south and the country's capital, Mogadishu, which they had held for six months.

Since the Islamists launched their insurgency, thousands of Somalis have been killed. Somali government troops and officials come under daily attack and the U.N.-backed administration is viewed by many Somalis as corrupt and ineffective. The impoverished country is riven between warring clans and awash with weapons.

The U.S. has linked the militiamen to al-Qaida. On Monday, the U.S. launched a missile strike in a Somali town along the Kenyan border, targeting a suspect in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa.

Source: AP

Islamic Fighters Move Into Somali Town

By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN –
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — More than 100 masked Islamic militiamen entered a strategic town Thursday in the latest bold move by a force defeated two years ago at the hands of Somalia's Western-backed government and its Ethiopian allies.

The Islamists held the capital, Mogadishu, and much of southern Somalia for six months before they were pushed out by the Ethiopians in December 2006.

They have since waged a deadly insurgency and carried out numerous attacks in Mogadishu. They have also staged brazen raids in towns including Bur Haqaba, a hilltop town about 35 miles from the provincial capital of Baidoa in the south. The group released prisoners from jail and killed a police chief before retreating, witnesses said.

Last month, Islamic fighters briefly took over Dinsor in southern Somalia, killing nine soldiers, police said.

The U.S. has linked the militiamen to al-Qaida, and on Monday, the U.S. launched a missile strike in eastern Somalia targeting a suspect in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa.

On Thursday, the masked fighters entered Hudur, a southwestern town that lies along the road leading from Ethiopia into Somalia.

"There was not a single gunshot," said Mustaf Mahad, a well-known businessman in Hudur.
"The fighters took positions at two locations in the town, we do not know if their aim is to take over the town or not," another resident told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. He and other residents said there have been only a smattering of government troops in the town recently.

A government spokesman said he could not confirm Islamists had moved into the town and had no comment.

Thousands of Somalis have been killed in the fighting between Islamic insurgents and Ethiopian troops supporting Somalia's shaky government over the past 12 months.

Late Wednesday, a fire fight between Somali insurgents and police killed five people — four police officers and one civilian — on the outskirts of Mogadishu, witnesses said. The insurgents used machine-guns, rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles in the surprise attack, said Asho Nur, who sells tea at the site.

A spokesman for the military wing of the radical Islamic movement, Abdirahin Isse Adow, said the aim of the raid was "to cripple both the military and the economic sources of the enemy."
On Monday, fighters linked to the group overran Bur Haqaba, a hilltop town about 35 miles from the provincial capital of Baidoa in the south. The group released prisoners from jail and killed a police chief before retreating, witnesses said.

Last month, Islamic fighters briefly took over Dinsor in southern Somalia, killing nine soldiers, police said.

Source: AP

Official: Missile aimed at FBI target in Somalia

Official: Missile aimed at FBI target in Somalia
It is unclear whether Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan was killed when a U.S. submarine fired a tomahawk missile at the target, the official said Tuesday.

The FBI wants Nabhan, 28, for questioning in the 2002 suicide bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel and the unsuccessful attack on an Israeli charter jet in Mombasa, Kenya.
Ten Kenyans and three Israelis were killed when three suicide bombers detonated a car bomb outside Mombasa's Paradise Hotel.

The bombing took place within minutes of an unsuccessful missile attack on an Israeli charter jet, which was taking off with 261 passengers and 10 crew members.
Nabhan is also thought to be an associate of al Qaeda member Harun Fazul, who was indicted for the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Saalam, Tanzania, according to the FBI.

More than 200 people were killed and 4,000 wounded in the attacks, most of them Kenyans.
The U.S. military has long sought Nabhan because he is believed to be deeply involved in al Qaeda's East African operations, the senior official said.
The FBI announced in February 2006 that it was seeking information on Nabhan and any possible links to those incidents.

The Pentagon on Monday confirmed that the U.S. military struck "a target against a known al Qaeda terrorist."

The strike hit near the town of Dhoobley along the Somali-Kenyan border, a U.S. military official said Monday.

It was aimed at a "facility where there were known terrorists" affiliated with East African al Qaeda operations, the official said. Watch report on what U.S. calls a precision strike »
The strike destroyed two houses -- killing three women and three children and wounding another 20 people, said Dhoobley's district commissioner, Ali Nur Ali Dherre. Dherre said the remains of the missiles were marked "US K."
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World should stop neglecting Somalia-U.N. envoy

By Ingrid Melander
BRUSSELS, March 4 (Reuters) - The international community should stop "collectively punishing" Somalia for past errors by neglecting it, a senior United Nations envoy to the war-torn country said a day after a U.S. missile attack there.

Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the U.N. Secretary General's High Representative for Somalia, said Monday's missile strike by the United States highlighted the need to put the lawless Horn of Africa state back on top of the international agenda.

"This is not new, and the only comment I can make on it is that Somalia deserves attention," Ould-Abdallah said when asked about the two missiles fired at what Washington called "a known Al Qaeda terrorist".

"They (Somalis) have made a number of mistakes ... They destroyed their country ... They have not been cooperative with the United Nations in the 1990s, but these are not reasons for collective punishment which I think the international community is doing by ignoring their plight," Ould-Abdallah told Reuters in an interview.

In Brussels for talks with European Union ambassadors, he urged the 27-nation EU to do more than just send food aid, saying the priorities were to protect civilians and ensure there was no impunity for humanitarian crimes committed in Somalia. The U.N. Security Council has the primary responsibility to take up the divided country's future and work for a solution, he said, but the African Union, the Arab League and the EU also have some responsibility.
International organisations are not backing efforts by the Somali government to talk with the opposition, he said.

The toll from Monday's attack was not known. Hundreds of residents of Dobley, the remote town in southern Somalia hit by the missiles, staged an anti-U.S. demonstration on Tuesday. Residents said they thought the missiles were aimed at senior Islamist leaders meeting nearby.
The Islamists have been waging an insurgency against Somali government forces.
On Jan. 8, 2007, a U.S. AC-130 gunship struck Islamists in southern Somalia in Washington's first overt military action there since pulling out of a U.N.-backed peacekeeping mission in 1994 after the "Black Hawk Down" incident.

That attack, and a similar one shortly afterwards, struck Islamists fleeing Ethiopian and Somali troops who cornered them in southern Somalia during a two-week war to rout the militants.
On June 21, a U.S. Navy ship fired missiles at Islamist fighters and foreign jihadists hiding in the mountains in the northern Puntland region.
The United States accuses Somali Islamist insurgents of harbouring al Qaeda fugitives responsible for planning and executing the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. (Editing by Tim Pearce)