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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

Somali Islamists accuse US of sowing divisions

2006-12-16

Somalia’s powerful Islamists accused the United States on Friday of seeking to divide their movement by claiming it had been taken over by Al Qaeda militants. The Islamists, who are girding for all-out war with the weak Ethiopian-backed Somali government, said Washington was carrying out a smear campaign to split the movement and hurt its popularity. I confess. It was me. I dunnit an' I'm glad! “America wants to divide us by saying some of us are Al Qaeda operatives,” said Sheikh Abdurahim Ali Muddey, the spokesman for the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia (SICS). “We have no hardliners ... and America is just intending to derail stability in Somalia,” Muddey said. “We have only one motive and that is we want our country safe and at peace.” "No matter how many people we have to bump off..." His comments came a day after the United States blamed the Islamists for undermining efforts to avert a major conflict in Somalia and suggested that an east Africa cell of Osama bin Laden’s terror network had seized control of the movement. US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer said the development had dimmed hopes of clinching a negotiated settlement to the current crisis.

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Africa Horn

Somali Islamists vow holy war

2006-10-06

Hundreds of Muslims took to the streets of this key southern port yesterday, vowing to fight a holy war for Somalia's powerful Islamist movement against proposed foreign peacekeepers. A day after a militia allied with the country's weak government vowed to retake Kismayo from the Islamists who seized it last week, at least 400 people marched through the town to protest plans for a peacekeeping mission. And, as a UN envoy shuttled through the region to prevent Somalia's unrest from spreading through the greater Horn of Africa, the demonstrators also vowed to crush any forces sent by neighboring Ethiopia to support the government. "We will never allow any foreign soldier to set foot on Somali soil," Sheikh Adam Elmi, an official in the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia (SICS), told the crowd in Kismayo, which was taken by the movement on September 24.

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Africa Horn

Islamists tighten grip on Somalia

2006-09-22

Somalia's powerful Islamist movement has announced that it is tightening Sharia law in its territory and that it will fight the proposed deployment of foreign peacekeepers. In a series of edicts, statements and court rulings issued just days after a failed attempt to assassinate the president of the country's transitional government, the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia (SICS) moved to strengthen its grip on power. Already in control of the capital Mogadishu and much of southern Somalia, the Islamists said they would seize the port of Kismayo and close the border with Kenya to prevent an east African peacekeeping force entering the country to shore up the government's limited authority. They also sentenced two alleged murderers to be executed in public, arrested a male martial arts coach and six female students, and banned the sale and use of the popular stimulant khat during the upcoming Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Sheikh Mohamed Nur Duale, a top SICS member in the Lower Juba Valley, said the Islamists had surrounded Kismayo, about 500km south of Mogadishu, and would soon take it from a local armed group. "We will not attack our Muslim brothers in Kismayo or any other place in the region. Our objective is to defend the country from the enemies of Allah. No one should dare stand in front of this holy objective."

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Olde Tyme Religion

Somali cleric calls for pope's death

2006-09-17

A HARDLINE cleric linked to Somalia's powerful Islamist movement has called for Muslims to "hunt down" and kill Pope Benedict XVI for his controversial comments about Islam. Sheikh Abubukar Hassan Malin urged Muslims to find the pontiff and punish him for insulting the Prophet Mohammed and Allah in a speech that he said was as offensive as author Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses. "We urge you Muslims wherever you are to hunt down the Pope for his barbaric statements as you have pursued Salman Rushdie, the enemy of Allah who offended our religion," he said in Friday evening prayers. "Whoever offends our Prophet Mohammed should be killed on the spot by the nearest Muslim," Malin, a prominent cleric in the Somali capital, told worshippers at a mosque in southern Mogadishu. "We call on all Islamic Communities across the world to take revenge on the baseless critic called the pope," he said. Reached by telephone on Saturday, Malin confirmed making the remarks that were echoed in less strident form by other senior clerics in the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia (SICS). Another SICS executive member, Sheikh Ahmed Abdullahi, vented similar anger at the pope's "barbarous criticism" but stopped short of calling for his murder. "He must apologise because he has offended the most honorable person who ever lived in the world," Abdullahi said. Even old Mo' probably never existed as an actual human being and is a composite of several caliphs. The German-born leader of the Roman Catholic Church has been condemned in the Muslim world for comments he made at a Tuesday lecture, in which he implicitly denounced links between Islam and violence, particularly with reference to jihad, or "holy war." The pope also quoted a 14th-century Byzantine emperor who said innovations introduced by the Prophet Mohammed were "evil and inhuman."

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Africa Horn

Somali Islamists demand end to peacekeeping plan

2006-09-05

Somalia's powerful Islamic movement demanded that the country's weak government drop requests for foreign peacekeepers as they laid out a series of tough positions at peace talks here. The item topped a list of Islamist demands presented on the third day of Arab League-mediated negotiations, ahead of a Tuesday meeting in Kenya of leaders of potential contributor nations to the proposed force, officials said. In addition to renewing vehement objections to the proposed regional peacekeeping mission, the Islamists also insisted on the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops alleged to be in Somalia to protect the interim government. “... any deployment against our wishes will spoil everything, including the small peace in the country... ” In Mogadishu, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, the head of the executive committee of the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia (SICS), who arrived here from talks with Kenyan and UN officials, warned that a forceful deployment will send Somalia into a new round of fighting. "We discussed this issue, but we reached no agreement whatsoever. We warned them that any deployment against our wishes will spoil everything, including the small peace in the country," Ahmed told reporters after returning from a two-day visit in Nairobi. The Islamic delegates in Khartoum also demanded complete respect for Somalia's sovereignty and territorial integrity if any agreement is to be reached at the talks, which are aimed at easing tensions that threaten further chaos in the lawless nation. "We reject the sending of peacekeepers to Somalia," said a senior member of the Islamist team, describing the contents of the position paper that was distributed privately at the Khartoum hotel where the talks are underway. "The people of Somalia can restore peace in their country without the help of peacekeepers," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity. The Islamists' strong stand is not surprising given previous threats from their senior leadership to resist the deployment of any foreign troops, particularly those from Ethiopia that they claim are already on Somali soil.

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Africa Horn

Islamists’ call for national forum imperils Somali govt

2006-08-21

Somalia’s newly dominant Islamist movement announced on Sunday that it would organise a national forum to chart the lawless country’s future, further bypassing the weak government it threatens. At the same time, the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia (SICS) renewed vows to fight the deployment of a proposed east African peacekeeping forces, plans for which were finalised last week, saying foreign troops were “not welcome.” In a move decried by the largely powerless transitional administration, the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia (SICS) said it would soon host a “national reconciliation conference” to set a new course for the country. “We are inviting all the Somali people to attend a national reconciliation conference in Mogadishu,” SICS spokesman Abdurahim Ali Muddey told reporters in the capital, which the Islamists seized from warlords in June. He gave no date for the conference. “Somalis need to talk to each other and resolve their differences at home without foreign interference,” he said, sidestepping questions about whether the gathering was aimed at forming a government to rival the current one. “The last solace for that administration is foreign military intervention that is not viable in Somalia,” the official told AFP on condition of anonymity. “The Baidoa administration is a waste of time and resources,” he said.

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Africa Horn

Somali SA busts up unapproved meeting

2006-08-18

Islamists controlling much of southern Somalia have broken up a meeting of religious leaders in the capital, further asserting their authority in the lawless nation. Officials with the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia (SICS) said the conference of scholars and peace activists from al-Islah group in a Mogadishu hotel was illegal as it had not been approved. Speaking after heavily armed men broke up the meeting on Thursday, a SICS spokesman said the meeting was not licensed and the organisers did not have permission to hold it. Abdul Karim Ali Muddey said: "We have to be a community ruled by laws. People must seek permission to have a meeting, and we will licence it as long as the forum is not a threat to public safety or Islamic teachings." Members of al-Islah, a charity that operates Muslim clinics and schools throughout Somalia, confirmed that the meeting had been disbanded but declined to discuss the matter further. The agenda for the conference was not clear, but the group has been pushing for a resumption of dialogue between the Islamists and Somalia's increasingly weak and marginalised transitional government.

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Africa Horn

Somali Islamists take control of Indian Ocean base for piracy

2006-08-14

MOGADISHU - Somalia’s dominant Islamic militia on Sunday seized control of a central township near the coastline that has been a base of piracy and dozens of hijackings of ships in the Indian Ocean, officials and residents said. ‘The Islamic courts are in full control of Haradere and we were welcomed by its inhabitants, who were forcefully ruled by pirates,’ Sheikh Said Ali, an Islamic courts official, told AFP of the township that lies about 300 kilometres (185 miles) north of Mogadishu. I'm sure they welcomed a bunch of spittle-spewing holy men with lots o' guns ... "All your base belong to us" ‘The era of banditry and piracy is over. People can now live peacefully and get money by fishing and doing other businesses, but not piracy. The pirates have mistreated people in the territorial waters of Somalia and damaged our credibility,’ he added. Residents said the pirates, calling themselves the Defenders of Somali Territorial Waters and loyal to regional warlord Abdi Mohamed Afweyne, ran away fled before the Islamic militiamen and battlewagons—pickup trucks mounted with machineguns—arrived at the dusty outpost in the country’s Mudug region. "Four wheel drive don't fail me now!" Last month, the Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, the head of the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia (SICS) which controls the capital and much of southern Somalia, said he would forcefully stop all acts of piracy in Somalia.

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Africa Horn

Top Somali Islamist warns against peacekeepers

2006-07-17

The Fearless supreme leader of Somalia's increasingly powerful Islamist movement has warned world powers against backing peacekeepers for the lawless nation where his forces are now dominant. Speaking as the international contact group on Somalia were to meet to discuss options for restoring stability in the Horn of Africa country, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys said such a force was unnecessary and would be resisted. He also rejected charges that the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia (SICS) wants to replace the weak Somali transitional government as the main authority in the country but urged it to drop its refusal to meet with his group. "I am appealing to the countries meeting not to ignore the political realities in Somalia," he said on Monday, as the contact group members prepared to meet in Brussels amid growing signs the international community may back peacekeepers. "They should not concentrate on sending peacekeepers who are not needed here," he told AFP from his home region of Galgadud in central Somalia. "Mogadishu ... is peaceful: it was pacified without any intervention from the international community," Aweys said, referring to the ouster of warlords in June after months of bloody fighting by Islamist militia.

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Africa Horn

Last Somali warlord surrenders to Islamists

2006-07-12

Islamists now in full control of the Somali capital vowed Tuesday to "destroy" all resistance to their religious rule as the city's last secular warlord fled after surrendering in fierce battles. Islamic militia scoured southern Mogadishu for weapons still outside their hands following the defeat late Monday of warlord Abdi Hassan Awale Qeydiid in bloody clashes that killed at least 77 since the weekend. "I am urging all armed militiamen who are not working with the Islamic courts to surrender their weapons immediately," said Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, executive chief of the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia (SICS). "You cannot have weapons and act against the Islamic courts," Ahmed said. "Any group that tries to fight the Islamic courts will be destroyed. The Islamic courts have overcome the infidel stooges."

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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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