Islamist forces in Somalia are on the retreat

[Rogue 9]

Ethiopia's kicking the Islamic Courts Union right in the nuts. [quote]Islamist Forces in Somalia Are on the Retreat

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By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
Published: December 26, 2006

NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec. 26 — Islamist forces in Somalia beat a hasty retreat today to their stronghold in Mogadishu, Somalia’s battle-scared capital, crumbling faster than anyone expected after a week of attacks by Ethiopian forces.

Burhakaba, a large inland city, fell first, followed by Dinsoor, not far away, and then Bulo Burto, where just a few weeks ago the Islamists in charge were threatening to behead people who did not pray.

The Islamist fighters, who had seemed invincible after taking Mogadishu in June, now seem powerless to stop the steady advance of the Ethiopian-backed forces of the transitional government.

By this afternoon, the transitional government troops were within 60 miles of Mogadishu and calling for the Islamists to surrender. The Islamist leaders refused, saying they would take their fight “everywhere,â€

[frigidmagi]

Go boys go!

[Rogue 9]

Islamist forces withdraw from Mogadishu!

Islamic forces abandon Somalia's capital

December 28, 2006 - 6:20PM

Somalia's Islamic movement abandoned Mogadishu, as government forces approached to within 30 kilometres of the capital.

Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, the executive leader of the Council of Islamic Courts, told al-Jazeera television that he ordered his forces out of Mogadishu to avoid bloodshed in the capital.

A government spokesman said the Islamist leaders had fled their Mogadishu stronghold and that government troops were poised to take the capital in the next few hours.

"The Islamic courts leaders have dispersed in thin air," government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari told Reuters, adding that the leaders had fled to the southern port of Kismayo.

"Our forces already effectively control Mogadishu because we have taken over the two control points on the main roads outside the city," he said from the government's base Baidoa.

Dinari said the interim government now controlled 95 per cent of the Horn of Africa nation which has been at war for a week.

Prime Minister Ali Gedi and President Abdullahi Yusuf remained in Baidoa but would move to Mogadishu at "the earliest appropriate opportunity", Dinari said.

The government maintained its offer of amnesty to all Islamist fighters who laid down their weapons, he added.

But foreign radicals fighting alongside the Islamists would be pursued and brought to justice.

"We appeal to Kenya and all our other neighbours to help us capture these terrorist elements," Dinari said.

Before fleeing Mogadishu, the Islamist leaders had opened up their weapon stores, he said. "They want to create chaos."

Residents living south of Mogadishu said they saw convoys of Islamic fighters driving south toward Kismayo.

In Mogadishu, gunfire echoed through the streets and hundreds of gunmen, who just hours earlier fought for Koranic rule, took off their Islamic uniforms and submitted to the command of clan elders, an Associated Press reporter said.

Some began looting Islamic courts' bases and buildings belonging to Islamic courts officials.

"I have seen that the Islamists are defeated. I'm going to rejoin my clan," said gunman Mohamed Barre Sidow.

"I was forced to join the Islamic courts by my clan, so I now I will return to my clan and they will decide my fate, whether I join the government or not."

Most of the shooting and looting was coming from northern Mogadishu, an Abgal clan stronghold, and there were initial reports of casualties.

"Four people, three men and a woman, died after thugs exchanged gunfire to loot the Islamic courts station near Ramadan Hotel," Abdullahi Adow, a resident in Mogadishu, said. "The ammunition and foodstuff stores were emptied."

Salad Gabayre, a clan militia commander in the Sinai district, said elders were calling for their young men to form into militias to protect their neighbourhoods.

A well-known clan leader, Hussein Haji Bod, asked people to remain calm and strengthen security.

"Elders and scholars will hold a meeting today to discuss the future of the capital," Bod said.

On the outskirts of Mogadishu, government forces took over the northern town of Balad and were just outside the western town of Afgoye, cutting off the seaside capital to the north and west, residents and government officials said.

The government took control of Baledogle airport, the most important airfield in the country.

More than 20 fighting vehicles loaded with Islamic militiamen arrived in Kismayo early on Thursday.

Clan leaders there called for Ahmed Madobe, the governor of Kismayo, to also surrender to government forces, but he refused, said relatives interviewed by The Associated Press.

The Islamic courts captured Mogadishu in June and went on to take much of southern Somalia, often without fighting.

Its fortunes started to reverse on Sunday, when Ethiopia sent reinforcements across the border to help the internationally recognised government.

Somalia's complex clan system has been the basis of politics and identity here for centuries.

But due to clan fighting, the country has not had an effective government since 1991, when clan-based warlords overthrew a dictator and then turned on one another.

Two years ago, the United Nations helped set up the interim government. It has been unable to assert much authority, in part because it has been weakened by clan rivalries.

The competition for control of Mogadishu since 1991 has involved the Abgal and Habr Gadir clans, who came together earlier this year to support the Islamic council.

If Abgal elders switch allegiance to the government, probably in return for key government posts, urban warfare between the Abgal and Habr Gadir clans would surely resume.

[frigidmagi]

RUN BITCHES, RUN THE SARWEN ARE COMING FOR YA!

[Comrade Tortoise]

Wow... I find it odd that I am cheering on an african military that uses kids as young as 15... Still, they are a far sight better than their opponents.

[SirNitram]

I can't cheer either side of this, cause frankly, I can't see it getting better either way.

[frigidmagi]

Considering that the ICU was executing people for running movie theathers and having people attacked for going to the beach with a girl, considering that Ethopia is helping to install the rightful government of Solimia and frankly seems alot more willing then the West ever was to get it's hands dirty to hammer solimia into a shape that vaguely looks like a nation...

I have to say bluntly that your belief shows that you haven't been following this very well at all.

I will say this however, things will be messy and dirty and violent. Shit like this doesn't happen either way. Events in the world have convinced me there is no clean, nice way to rebuild nations like this. I however have full confidence in the elected constitutional government of Ethopia.


*Oh and CT, the Ethopian forces are not made up of 15 year old boys. This is an actual trained force, complete with arty, tanks, jets and helos. Most of the solders are veterans of numberous wars with Ethopia's neighbor Etheria. It's the ICU whose employing 15 year old boys in addition to forgein volunteers.

[frigidmagi]

Troops Enter Mogadishu; Refugees Drowned by Yemen

Somali government troops backed by Ethiopian forces rolled into Mogadishu without firing a shot Thursday, a striking gain in its bid to recapture the country from an Islamic movement that had once seemed nearly invincible.

Off the coast, Yemeni authorities opened fire on boats filled with refugees fleeing the fighting, and at least 17 people drowned in the Gulf of Aden when one vessels capsized, the United Nations refugee agency said Thursday. About 140 people were missing, the Geneva-based agency said.

Hours before the troops entered the capital, the Islamic militants fled Mogadishu, pledging to make a last stand in southern Somalia.

"We are in Mogadishu," Prime Minister Mohamed Ali Gedi said after flying from the government's temporary base in western Somalia and meeting with local clan leaders to discuss the handover of the city. "We are coordinating our forces to take control of Mogadishu."

The Islamic movement took control of Mogadishu six months ago and then advanced across most of southern Somalia, often without fighting. Ethiopian troops then went on the attack in support of the U.N.-backed government last week in attempt to push the Islamists out of power.

The confrontation in the Gulf of Aden took place late Wednesday, when four boats smuggling 515 people were spotted by Yemeni authorities, the UNHCR said. The authorities opened fire, causing two of the boats to try to escape, the agency said. Yemeni authorities were searching for survivors, the UNHCR said.

Experts had feared the conflict could engulf the already volatile Horn of Africa. A recent U.N. report said 10 countries have been illegally supplying arms and equipment to both sides of the conflict and using Somalia as a proxy battlefield.

The conflict has also drawn concern in the United States, which accused the Islamists of harboring al-Qaida terrorists. An insurgent group linked to al-Qaida in Iraq urged Muslims on Thursday to support the Islamists in Somalia "financially, with weapons and men and with prayers."

The prime minister was welcomed to the town of Afgoye on the outskirts of Mogadishu by dozens of clan leaders from the capital and hundreds of government and Ethiopian troops. The clan leaders pledged to the help collect weapons from the remaining militiamen in the capital, government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari told The Associated Press.

The Islamists' retreat early Thursday, which its leaders called tactical, was followed by looting by clan militiamen, some of whom had been their allies. It was a chilling reminder of the chaos that had once ruled Mogadishu after warlords overthrew longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, leaving the country without a central government.

Gunfire could be heard in many parts of the city, and witnesses said several people had been killed.

Before the Islamists established control, Mogadishu had been ruled for the last 15 years by competing clans who came together to support the Islamic movement. The interim government that was established two years ago with the help of the U.N. had been unable to assert its authority in the city, in part because it was weakened by clan rivalries.

Somalia's complex clan system has been the basis of politics and identity here for centuries. Many fear they may now revert to fighting one another and reject the government's authority.

In Ethiopia, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi vowed to inflict total defeat on the Islamic movement and said he hoped the fighting would be over "in days, if not in a few weeks."

"We are discussing what we need to do to make sure Mogadishu does not descend into chaos. We will not let Mogadishu burn," he told reporters in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa.

President Abdullahi Yusuf tried to allay fears of rampant violence in the capital, saying his troops were not a threat to the people of Mogadishu. "The government is committed to solving every problem that may face Somalia through dialogue and peaceful ways," the statement said.

In the south, meanwhile, the Islamic militants vowed to continue their fight against the government and Ethiopian forces, saying they had fled Mogadishu to spare civilian deaths.

"We want to face our enemy and their stooges ... away from civilians," Abdirahman Janaqow, a top leader in the Islamic movement, said in a telephone interview.

The Red Cross said hospitals and other medical facilities in southern and central Somalia have admitted more than 800 people over the past few days.

Yusuf Ibrahim, a former Islamic movement fighter, said only the most hardcore fighters were still opposing the government and its Ethiopian backers. He said they numbered about 3,000 and were headed to the port city of Kismayo, south of Mogadishu, which the Islamists captured in September.

Witnesses reported seeing a large number of foreign fighters in the convoys heading south. Islamic movement leaders had called on foreign Muslims to join their "holy war" against Ethiopia, which has a majority Christian population. Hundreds were believed to have answered the call.

Residents told the AP that Islamic leader Hassan Dahir Aweys had arrived in the frontline town of Jilib, 65 miles north of Kismayo, earlier Thursday with hundreds of fighters aboard 45 pickup trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns.

Islamic fighters have gone door to door in Kismayo recruiting children as young as 12 to make a last stand on behalf of the Islamic movement, according to a U.N. report citing the families of boys taken to Jilib.

Associated Press writers Mohamed Olad Hassan in Mogadishu, Les Neuhaus in Afgoye, Somalia, and Chris Tomlinson in Nairobi, Kenya, contributed to this report.

[Mayabird]

The clans, seeing the ICU's inevitable collapse, jump ship so fast that the whole damn thing capsizes. So while it's good to not have a bunch of Islamists running the show, you still have a tribal mentality that's not going to solve much of anything soon.

I still recommend granting independence to Puntland and Somaliland and handing over the rest of Somalia to Ethiopia. At least the Ethiopians seem willing to kick the shit out of everyone there when they need it.