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Africa Horn

Top Somali Islamist surrenders in Kenya

2007-01-22

We did this story four days ago ... Yep. None of that "last drop of blood" shit for Dishtowel head... NAIROBI A top leader in Somalia's now-vanquished Islamist movement was in the hands of authorities in neighbouring Kenya as more deadly clashes erupted on the streets of Mogadishu. Diplomatic sources said Monday that Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, head of the executive arm of the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia, was in custody under the protection of Kenyan security forces at an upscale hotel in Nairobi. Nuthin but the best for the Leaders of Jihad... Told you he was the smartest of the bunch. He wasn't the one who declared jihad for "Greater Somalia," either. "Sheikh Sharif is in Kenya," one diplomatic source told AFP on condition of anonymity. "He is in a secure place, according to the Kenyan authorities." Hell? A senior Kenyan police official said Ahmed and three other Somalis had been detained early Sunday at a small border crossing point while two diplomatic sources confirmed Ahmed was in Kenyan custody. A senior Kenyan police official said Ahmed and three other Somalis had been detained early Sunday at a small border crossing point while two diplomatic sources confirmed Ahmed was in Kenyan custody. Was he dressed in a Burqa? Ahmed is the most senior member of the Islamist movement, which took power in Mogadishu last June, to end his time on the run from the transitional Somali government and their Ethiopian allies who had pursued remnants to the Somali-Kenya border. A diplomatic source said the sheikh, one of the vanquished regime's moderates, could be a useful element in pulling fractious Somali factions together as part of efforts at national reconciliation."He is one of the people we think can promote dialogue," the source said. Sounds like a plan. A bad one... Deputy Somali deputy premier Hussein Aidid said Ahmed would be welcome back home as long as he turns his back on his old associates. "This is a government of reconciliation," he said. "We believe that that is the only way to restore peace in Somalia." Ah, yes. Peace in Somalia... The United States, which denied being involved in his capture or detention, has said it believes Ahmed could be a worthy interlocutor. US Ambassador to Kenya Michael Ranneberger, whose mandate includes Somalia, met with Ahmed in Nairobi last year after the Islamists seized Mogadishu from US-backed warlords to press moderation. Washington, which backed Ethiopia's intervention in Somalia and then launched an airstrike at suspected Al-Qaeda operatives there, has welcomed the change of regime as a chance to turn the page on a 16-year cycle of violence. Oh, look. It's the ever popular "cycle of violence", which I think was invented in Somalia... Meanwhile the International Martime Bureau voiced concerns that the ouster of the Islamists could herald a return to the seas of Somali pirates who helped shape the country's reputation for lawlessness. "Within days of their influence being removed there had been an attempted attack on an American bulk carrier in Somali waters, the first for a number of months," said an IMB report. Yarrrrrr, we be back in business...

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Africa Horn

Islamists claim victory in Somalia

2006-07-11

Abdi Hassan Awale Qeydiid, Somalia's last secular warlord in the capital Mogadishu, has surrendered to Islamic militants after a two-day battle that left at least 67 dead, militants said. Some warlord. We want our money back. The militants said on Monday that they had captured the warlord's headquarters in the south of the city and that his fighters had begun handing over their weapons. "Please form a line so you can be executed in an orderly manner..." The militants had claimed on Sunday that they had taken full control of the city after declaring victory over Qeydiid and fellow warlord and transitional government member Hussein Aidid, but heavy fighting had resumed early afternoon on Monday. Somalia's transitional government in Baidoa, about 250kms (150miles) from Mogadishu, demanded that the Islamists abandon territories they seized in Mogadishu and be excluded from peace talks with the government, expected to resume in Khartoum on Saturday.

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Africa Horn

Heavy fighting resumes in Somali capital

2006-07-10

MOGADISHU - Heavy fighting resumed on Monday in Mogadishu as Islamic militia attacked to dislodge gunmen loyal to warlord Abdi Hassan Awale Qeydiid, who repositioned his fighters after fleeing deadly weekend clashes, witnesses said. Rival sides pounded each other with heavy rounds of artillery, mortar and rocket in the south of the Somali capital, with terrified civilians fleeing the area as stray rounds landed on non-military targets, witnesses said. Residents in the nearby K4 neighbourhood said stray morter shells had landed from the battlefield in 6-Piano and Mogadishu Gaheyr University. “Two morter shells that were fired from Qeydiid position have landed in K4 area. His militia were responding to attacks by the Islamic courts who want to dislodge him,” said Ahmed Ismail, a resident in the area. “A stray round has injured one person here,” added Muslima Ali, also a resident. On Monday, hospitals and rival militia sources said at least 39 people were killed, up from Sunday’s figure of 21 dead and nearly 100 wounded. The deaths included 18 civilians, 15 Islamist militia and six warlord fighters. The Islamists, who control swathes of southern Somalia, routed US-backed warlords from the capital on June 5 and have been entrenching Sharia law. Qeydiid, alongside warlord Hussein Aidid -- also deputy prime minister in the transitional government --spurned several calls to surrender and give up their weapons, dismissing the Islamists as as a bunch of stooges paid by foreign terrorists to impose Islamic theocracy in the nation of around 10 million people.

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Africa Horn

21 killed as Islamists rid capital of warlords

2006-07-10

Somali Islamic fighters on Sunday declared "absolute" victory over the remaining warlords in the lawless capital Mogadishu after deadly clashes that claimed at least 21 lives, marking the end of the notorious warlords' rule in the Indian Ocean city. "We have absolutely won the fighting that started in Mogadishu this morning. We now control the whole city after we seized the last territory from warlord Qeydiid," said Sheikh Mukhtar Robow, the deputy secretary of defence for the Islamic courts. Fighters allied to the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia ousted their rivals loyal to warlord Abdi Hassan Awale Qeydiid, who alongside warlord Hussein Aidid had refused to surrender and handover their weapons to the Islamists, who routed the other warlords from the capital on June 5. At least 21 people were killed, including civilians, in deadly artillery duels in southern Mogadishu, while dozens were wounded and taken to the capital's Medina and Banadir hospitals, doctors, witnessess and fighters said. Witnesses said warlords' fighters fled from their positions, which they had held for many years, as Islamic fighters on battlewagons — pickup trucks mounted with machineguns — established base, marking the end of warlords’ rule in the lawless capital. Sporadic gunfire could be heard as the vanquished militiamen fled for safety led by Qeydiid himself, according to an AFP correspondent. Aidid, also deputy prime minister in the transitional administration, was in the seat of government in Baidoa, about 250 kilometres northwest of the capital. The two warlords spurned several calls to surrender and give up their weapons, dismissing the Islamists as stooges paid by foreign terrorists to impose Islamic theocracy in the nation of around 10 million people.

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Africa: Horn

Somalia's Prime Minister Escapes Attack

2005-11-07

Gunmen threw grenades and a land mine exploded near a convoy carrying Somalia's prime minister on Sunday, but the leader escaped unharmed, officials said. At least five bodyguards were killed and 14 other people wounded in the attack. The attack occurred shortly after Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi arrived for a visit to the Somali capital — a stronghold of powerful warlords-turned-Cabinet ministers and Islamic extremists opposed to his divided transitional government, according to the Horn Africa radio station. "Honey, I'm going to Mogadishu for a cabinet meeting. Don't wait dinner for me!" "Okay, dear! Wouldja drop this life insurance payment off on your way?" The explosions narrowly missed the vehicle carrying Gedi and Deputy Prime Minister Hussein Aidid. The victims were bodyguards in the car behind the leaders, said Mohamed Ali Americo, a senior official in the Somali prime minister's office. One bodyguard died at the scene. Two others inside Gedi's vehicle were also wounded in the attack, said businessman Mahamud Ahmed Ali.

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Africa: Horn

Somalis protest Aideed arrest

2004-05-24

Thousands of angry Somalis took to the streets of Mogadishu yesterday to protest Kenya’s arrest of one of their country’s most prominent warlords, who has been jailed for a month for unpaid debt. A crowd, estimated at several thousand, demanded Kenya free Hussein Aidid, who was plucked from Somali peace talks in Nairobi on Thursday on the orders of a Kenyan magistrate. “The Kenyan government should release our leader because he was a guest of the Kenyan government and its people,” said Abukar Osman a deputy chairman of the Somali National Alliance led by Aidid. SNA officials accused Kenya of humiliating Aidid, a youthful warlord who came to power upon the death of his father Mohamed Farah Aidid. “Down with the Kenyan Government because it is not respecting its guests,” some members of the crowd chanted. Aidid is accused of owing a Kenyan businessman some $180,000 over a development deal that went sour.

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