Oh, I'm sure that will go over real well with the Somalis!!!!
Related: Ethiopia is accused of aiding Somali pirates
Somalis Embrace Islamists
Memory Hole: Somali Slander
Memory Hole: More on Somalia
Somalia: Worse Than Darfur
Memory Hole: U.S.-Approved
Ethiopian Atrocities in Somalia
Ethiopia's Invisible War Crimes
"Heavy fighting erupts in Somalia; At least 22 dead; civilians in capital caught in crossfire" by Mohamed Olad Hassan, Associated Press | May 23, 2009
MOGADISHU, Somalia - Hundreds of government soldiers attacked Islamic insurgents across the Somali capital amid heavy artillery shelling yesterday, battling along streets strewn with bodies as they tried to regain lost ground.
Yeah, the problem with that is the government is the Islamic insurgents we were fighting; now the insurgents are the warlords we backed previously before they got the boot.
Related: Somalia's Al-Shabab IS "Al-CIA-Duh"
See how it works, world?
The UN-backed government, which held just a few blocks of Mogadishu before the fighting erupted early in the day, said it had taken rebel-controlled areas, but the insurgents contended they repelled the attacks. One Somali reported that a busload of fleeing civilians was hit by gunfire, and others told of seeing many casualties. At least 22 people were dead and more than 150 wounded across the city, residents, medical officials, and an independent radio station said.
"We are running out of beds . . . we cannot cope," said Ali Adde, deputy director of Medina Hospital, where more than 100 casualties were brought. Some of the patients were being treated outside in hastily erected tents after the hospital ran out of room, he said.
The government offensive followed a few days' lull after Islamic insurgents staged a major attack in Mogadishu. Despite successes, the insurgents failed to gain control of key installations like the airport and presidential palace, which are guarded by African Union peacekeepers. The Islamic fighters also had been expanding their hold on territory in central Somalia taken from clan militias allied to the government.
Something is a stinkin', readers!
But the militants halted when neighboring Ethiopia moved several columns of troops over the border to secure key towns. Ethiopia, which helped government troops drive Islamic militiamen out of the capital in late 2006, worries about the insurgents' links to rebel groups on its own soil.
I'm so sick of the BOGUS TERROR BULLSHIT JUSTIFY MASS-MURDERING GOVERNMENT ACTIONS -- as well as the MSM which can't even report its own reporting from the time correctly!!!!!!!!
Regional leaders issued a statement yesterday in support of the beleaguered UN-backed government, which took advantage of the calm in recent days to resupply and regroup its troops before launching yesterday's assault.
Which means the "peacekeeping" UN is responsible for aggression, 'eh?
Both sides fired mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, and missiles mounted on trucks into residential areas. Gunmen with belts of ammunition wound around their chests crouched behind shell-pocked buildings, ignoring bodies in the streets.
A man cradled a wounded child, blood streaming from its face onto his white shirt while two more hurriedly trundled a body down the road on a cart, a scarf draped over its head. Another man stared vacantly, his lower jaw torn away by shrapnel or a bullet.
"The gunfire is pounding our village like thunder. This is a nightmare," said Mohamed Haji Tohow from southern Mogadishu. "May God save us."
The United Nations said some 49,000 people had fled the capital, and the humanitarian situation was dire. Many families camped out under trees or by the side of roads, sheltered by nothing more than a few scraps of plastic, without access to food or water.
That's in addition to the nearly 1 million already displaced over time.
Mark Schroeder, an analyst at Stratfor, an international intelligence company, said he did not expect the fighting to end soon.
I've come to never expect an end to any war because they never do.
Two insurgent groups have cobbled together an alliance seeking to overthrow the weak government and its allied militias.
Yeah, right!
An ISLAMIC GOVERNMENT is installed and BANG -- instant violence.
CUI BONO, folks? I've seen this movie before!
In addition, Ethiopia and the United States are keen to prevent Islamic forces from coming into power in Somalia, Schroeder said. They are particularly opposed to the al-Shabab militia, which has stated its support for Al Qaeda and was endorsed by Osama bin Laden in a video.
Oh, THERE YOU GO! Who could doubt that?
I gotta go puke; there is only so much bullcrap propaganda I can stomach!
--more--"
MOGADISHU, Somalia - Islamic insurgents captured a key southern town yesterday, witnesses said, but the country's fragile government claimed the defection of a key militia leader as a major victory. The government has been struggling against a major push in the last week by insurgents, aimed at taking over what little of the Somali capital that the government still controls.
The government denied militants had captured the agricultural crossroads town of Jowhar yesterday, but residents reported a street battle that ended with government allies fleeing to the town's outskirts. The fighters who reportedly fled also are Islamists - reflecting the efforts by Somalia's UN-backed government to win over defectors in the chaotic country....
I'm tired of the misrepresentations, distortions, revisions, and flat-out lies of AmeriKa's newspapers. You can't trust them on anything anymore.
Pro-government militias control much of central Somalia, but the government itself directly controls only a few blocks of Mogadishu, the capital.
Oh, now I see; that deal wasn't really a deal, was it?
Al-Shabab, an Islamic insurgent group that US State Department considers a terrorist organization, with links to Al Qaeda, controls much of southern Somalia. Jowhar, 55 miles from Mogadishu, is a key travel route from southern to central Somalia, and its takeover by al-Shabab would be a significant victory.
Which means U.S. would have to get in there, huh?
--more--"
And I swear the only reason the place makes the paper after being ignored for so long is agenda-pushing.
Can't be anything else; otherwise, they would care about the suffering African and WHY they are suffering (something which must be concealed).
"Fighting engulfs capital for 2d day
MOGADISHU - Heavy shelling and gunfire in Mogadishu killed three people and wounded about 30 yesterday in a battle between government and rebel forces for Somalia's capital, witnesses said. It was the second day of an offensive by the UN-backed government trying to regain neighborhoods won by the Islamic insurgents in recent weeks.
Remember, seperate from the pro-government Islamist militias.
A human rights group said 53 people were killed in the capital Friday and 181 were wounded. Somali insurgents said earlier yesterday that despite the battle the previous day, they continued to hold their positions. Residents reported that the rebels have not been dislodged (AP)."
Update:
"Suicide car bomber kills 7 in Somalia" by Reuters | May 25, 2009
Of course! Like CLOCKWORK!
MOGADISHU, Somalia - A suicide bomber killed six policemen and a civilian yesterday in Somalia's capital and hard-line Islamist insurgents warned that more suicide attacks would target progovernment forces in the coming days.
An upsurge in violence this month has killed nearly 200 people in Mogadishu and forced some 60,000 residents from their homes.
Went up about 15,000 in a day?
At least 53 people have died since Friday morning, when the government attacked rebel strongholds in the city. Neighboring states and Western governments fear Somalia, which has been mired in civil war for 18 years, could become a base for militants linked to Al Qaeda and destabilize the region, unless the new government can defeat them.
I'm so sick of the shit-shovel lies and propaganda -- which accounts for my language and lack of belief in anything the jewspapers report.
The Islamist insurgent group al Shabaab, which Washington says has links to Osama bin Laden, has been spearheading the rebel offensive with the allied guerrilla group Hizbul Islam.
Yup, GET the DEAD GUY in the piece again (sigh!) and refer to some SPLICED-OFF CIA GROUP of WARLORDS!!!
The United Nations said hundreds of foreign fighters have joined the rebels and an influential opposition leader said Friday that some Arabs had come to Somalia to wage holy war against the Western-backed government.
The "Al-CIA-Duh" agents came to Somalia to WAGE WAR against the ISLAMIST GOVERNMENT, huh?
--more--"
FLASHBACK:
People celebrated on the streets of Mogadishu yesterday after moderate Islamist leader Sheikh Sharif Ahmed (at left) was sworn in as Somalia's president. Somali women danced in the streets and antiaircraft missiles were blasted into the air to celebrate Ahmed's election victory. (Ismail Taxta/ Reuters)
WOMEN danced for ISLAMISTS?
Yeah, and cats and dogs are living together, too!!!!
MOGADISHU, Somalia - Somali women danced in the streets and antiaircraft missiles were blasted into the air yesterday to celebrate the election of Sheikh Sharif Ahmed as president.
The moderate Islamist leader won the presidency in an all-night parliament session in neighboring Djibouti yesterday and vowed to end the decades-old conflict in the Horn of Africa nation, make peace with neighbors, address the problem of piracy, and rule with honesty and justice.
He will certainly try; however, with the U.S protecting their thug pirates and funding their thug warlords as an "offshoot terror group"
Analysts said Ahmed has a real possibility of reuniting Somalis, given his Islamist roots, the backing of parliament, and support from once hostile Western nations.
Does that mean the U.S. is going to BUTT OUT? So ALL the DEAD PEOPLE and the SUFFERING REFUGEES were for NOTHING? Right back where we were almost three years ago?
Ahmed was chairman of the Islamic Courts Union that ran Mogadishu for six months in 2006 before Ethiopian soldiers drove them from power....
Yeah, the ETHIOPIANS didn't INVADE at our behest or anything. Don't mention that the SIX-MONTH ISLAMIC RULE was the MOST PEACE Somalia has seen in a long time!
In Mogadishu, thousands of supporters converged in the capital's war-battered stadium chanting "long live Sheikh Sharif."
"Welcome Sharif, we are tired of war. Let Somalis join hands," Farhia Hassan, a mother of three, said as she waved a green branch symbolizing peace....
That's right!
Ahlu Sunna Waljamaca, an Islamist group, said they would support Ahmed but warned him not to reach out to al-Shabab, their archrival. The group said it was not interested in politics but in the protection of Islam.
Yup, there is your dose of propaganda.
Ahmed has said he will try to correct what he sees as the misinterpretation of Islam by some insurgents and will welcome fighters in a new national security force, as long as they are committed to peace.
The ones that are not are most likely in the employ of the CIA!
Somalia's parliament met all week in neighboring Djibouti to choose the new president....
How come this is the first I've heard of it? What is with the selective coverage of politics, MSM?
Not all in Somalia celebrated. "Sharif's election was illegitimate and we shall never recognize him and his government," said Warsame Abdi Samatar, information minister for Somalia's semiautonomous Puntland.
Those must be our guys!
Some politicians from Puntland said they interpreted the comments as a warning to the new president to make sure the semiautonomous region is given senior government positions....
--more--"
