Somalia News Update: Al Shabaab Blamed for Scholar's Assassination

The leader of al-Shabab Sheik Mukhtar Robow Ali (Abu Mansur). The group stated that fighting in the Bakol region resulted in victory for the resistance movement. They are calling for the removal of AU forces from Mogadishu., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Somalia military court sentences 15 Al-shabab linked

6/12/2011

MOGADISHU (mareeg.com)-The Military Court of the transitional federal government of Somalia (TFG) early on Tuesday morning sentenced different punishment at least fifteen people, many of them were found guilty of connection with Al-shabab fighters.

The court said, eight of the fifteen sentenced persons have been sentenced to death penalty for committing acts against the national security, including attacks against Somali government compounds harming innocent civilians in Mogadishu.

One Somali government soldier was among the sentenced by the military court Tuesday that was charged of raping a Somali woman in Mogadishu and other crimes against the civilians.

Lieutenant Colonel Abdillahi Mohamed Keyse, Somali military court judge read out the court’s decision to the reporters in Mogadishu that a number of witnesses testified the convicted during the court proceeding and hearing today.

Mr.Keyse also noted that the seven others have been sentenced five to fifteen years of imprisonment, after they were found links to Al-shabab militants.

This is not the first the Somalia’s military court under TFG to carry out death penalty and imprisonment sentences to people found in connection with Al-shabab fighters in the capital Mogadishu

Dec 6, 2011 - 12:40:07 AM

Wararka

Somalia: Islamic leaders blame Al Shabaab for scholar’s assassination

6 Dec 6, 2011 - 12:20:46 AM

BOSSASO, Somalia Dec 6, 2011 (Garowe Online) -- Islamic leaders in Somalia have blamed Al Shabaab terrorist group for the targeted assassination of well-known Muslim scholar Sheikh Ahmed Haji Abdirahman who was killed by unknown assailants in the Puntland port city of Bossaso Monday morning, Radio Garowe reports.

Sheikh Abdulkadir Nur Farah, a well-respected Islamic scholar in Puntland, told the VOA Somali Service that the late Sheikh Ahmed Haji Abdirahman was a great scholar and a good friend.

“I send my condolences to the family of the deceased who was killed by a hand of injustice. He was a great scholar,” said Sheikh Abdulkadir, who was one of the leaders of the Al-Itihad Al-Islami (Islamic Unity) movement of Somalia in the early 1990s.

Sheikh Abdulkadir said: “Al Shabaab group is responsible for killing the Sheikh. We will not accept false reasons such as Puntland Intelligence Service (PIS) killed the Sheikh. The Sheikh's killing is linked to the conclusion of the meeting in Baidoa city.”

Another Somali Islamic leader, Sheikh Bashir Ahmed Salad in Mogadishu, told the VOA Somali Service that Al Shabaab is responsible for Sheikh Ahmed’s killing. Sheikh Bashir is chairman of Al-Ictisam group – which is made of former Al-Itihad Al-Islami members.

“The men responsible for the killing are: Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys; Hassan Mohamud Takar; Abdullahi Ali Hashi; and Abdullahi Raabi,” said Al-Ictisam chairman Sheikh Bashir Ahmed Salad in Mogadishu.

Puntland blames Al Shabaab

On Monday, Puntland President Abdirahman Mohamed Farole condemned terrorists for killing Sheikh Ahmed in Bossaso moments after the late scholar walked out of a mosque.

President Farole named several Al Shabaab leaders, including some from Puntland such as Hassan Mohamud Takar, Abdullahi Ali Hashi and Jama Abdisalam, as being responsible for the killing of the Islamic scholar in Puntland. President Farole said Al Shabaab leaders “met in Baidoa and declared to target scholars and increase the violence across Somalia.”

Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, an Islamist hardliner who is on U.S. and U.N. watch-lists, said Puntland’s leader had a “quick reaction” by blaming Al Shabaab group.

Aweys said Al Shabaab’s meeting in Baidoa was about “liberating Somalia from African invaders,” a reference to the 9,000-strong African Union peacekeeping force serving in Mogadishu.

Al Shabaab denies killing scholar

Also on Monday, Hassan Mohamud Takar, a member of Al Shabaab group who is a British citizen, told supporters that “PIS killed Sheikh Ahmed Haji Abdirahman.”

The PIS, whose name was reestablished in 2010 as the Puntland Intelligence Agency (PIA), is Puntland’s elite counter-terrorism unit that is supported by foreign intelligence services.

Takar’s son is currently serving jail time in Puntland on terrorism charges.

Takar and other Al Shabaab leaders concluded a meeting in the southern town of Baidoa last week, where they declared to bolster their war against the UN-backed TFG of Somalia and its allies, such as Puntland, Ethiopia, Kenya and the African Union.

Further, the Al Shabaab leaders said they changed the group’s name to Islamic Emirate of Somalia, vowing to establish an Islamist state in areas of southern Somalia controlled by Al Shabaab.

The Baidoa meeting excluded Al Shabaab chief Ahmed Godane and the foreign fighters, who form a sizeable component of Al Shabaab’s fighting ranks.

In 2010, Puntland security forces fought a three-month war against Al Shabaab militants in Galgala mountains which concluded after government forces overrun the militant bases. The government enacted a Counterterrorism Law and several Al Shabaab members have been jailed, sentenced or executed under the new law.

Suicide bomber hits Somali capital, dozens killed in south

Tue, Dec 6 2011
By Mohamed Ahmed and Richard Lough

MOGADISHU/NAIROBI (Reuters) - A suicide bomber struck the Somali capital on Tuesday, the latest in a wave of deadly attacks in Mogadishu, and dozens of Islamist rebels and Somali government troops have been killed in fighting in the south.

The car bomb exploded 50 meters from the recently reopened Turkish embassy, near to the Kilometer 4 (K4) junction, a busy intersection in Mogadishu's administrative district. A health official said at least three people were killed by the blast.

The suicide attack piles yet more pressure on a Western-backed government that relies on African Union troops to prop it up and fight an insurgency by Islamist militants who control virtually all of Somalia outside Mogadishu.

Witnesses told Reuters that the security forces stopped the vehicle earlier, before moving the car to a quieter sideroad.

"The troops tried to question the driver and take photographs when the suicide bomber detonated his bomb," Abdiweli Elmi, a policeman on patrol at the junction said.

Two policemen and one civilian were killed, Elmi said.

A Reuters witness said human body parts could be seen around the ripped-apart car and security forces fired into the air to disperse the crowds.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. Suspicion is likely to fall on al Shabaab rebels.

The al Qaeda-linked militants, who have fought the government since 2007, have intensified the frequency of suicide attacks in Mogadishu since withdrawing from most of their bases in the capital in August.

A Turkish government official said the target of the attack was unknown. None of Turkey's embassy staff hurt.

Turkey was the first state from outside the immediate region to open an embassy in Mogadishu.

Its interests have been the target of violent incidents since Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan visited Mogadishu in August. Erdogan was the first leader from outside Africa to visit the capital for nearly two decades.

HEAVY FIGHTING, AIR STRIKES

The rebels, who control large swathes of Somalia, are also fighting against Somali government and Kenyan troops in the rebel-controlled southern and central parts of the country. Ethiopian forces have also crossed into Somalia.

More than 40 militants and 11 Somali government troops were killed in weekend fighting in the town of Hayo, between the Kenyan border and the al Shabaab stronghold of Afmadow in southern Somalia, a Kenyan military spokesman said on Tuesday.

Emmanuel Chirchir said Kenyan jets had also launched air strikes on al Shabaab bases on Monday, and that it was too early to give an assessment of damage.

Kenya is eight weeks into an offensive inside Somalia to crush rebel networks but the military campaign has become bogged down by heavy rains and lack of clear strategy, diplomats say.

"(Kenyan) jets targeted two al Shabaab camps south of Afmadow town, killing a number of al Shabaab fighters, and destroyed technical vehicles," Chirchir said, referring to the machinegun-mounted trucks used by the militants.

A lawmaker from Somalia's Lower Juba region that borders Kenya and nearby residents said al Shabaab had only clung on to Hayo for a few hours before government troops regained control.

The Kenyan government agreed on Tuesday that its force in southern Somalia should become part of the AU peacekeeping force (AMISOM) in the anarchic country.

Earlier this month, Kenya offered to boost AMISOM, which numbers about 9,400 and is made up of troops from Uganda and Burundi. Both the AU and regional bloc IGAD said they supported the idea of integrating the Kenyan soldiers.

"The cabinet ... approved the re-hatting of the Kenya Defence Forces in Somalia to AMISOM, subject to approval by parliament," the president's office said.

"This has been done at the request of the African Union to enhance a combined strategy for the operation against al Shabaab," it said in a statement.

However, analysts said it might not be that straightforward for Kenyan soldiers to become part of AMISOM - unless Nairobi is prepared to contribute the cost of its mission in Somalia.

If Kenya wants AMISOM to help fund its operation on the ground as part of the African Union force, the U.N. Security Council would need to approve extra funding, analysts said.

The AMISOM force is also capped at 12,000 soldiers. Uganda, Burundi and Djibouti have already committed to raising troop numbers to the mandated ceiling by early next year. Raising that limit cap would require a vote at the U.N.'s Security Council.

(Additional reporting by Abdi Sheikh in Mogadishu, Sahra Abdi in Nairobi and Jonathon Burch in Ankara; Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by Louise Ireland)