# Kenya helicopter crashes; push into Somalia begins



## Ropey

> Kenya's government spokesman, Alfred Mutua, said Kenyan troops "are pursuing al-Shabab
> 
> across the border." He did not give any other details.





> OGADISHU, Somalia (AP)  Kenyan military forces moved into southern Somalia on Sunday, an official and residents said, a day after top Kenyan defense officials said the country has the right to defend itself after a rash of militant kidnappings inside Kenya.
> 
> Late Sunday evening, a military helicopter crashed and caught fire inside Kenya from an apparent mechanical malfunction, a diplomat and a resident said. No civilian casualties were reported but the status of the pilots on board was not immediately known.
> 
> Residents in southern Somalia said that columns of Kenyan troops had moved in and that
> military aircraft were flying overhead. Resident Ali Nur Hussein said Kenyan troops arrived in tanks and military trucks, and that troops were coordinating with Somali government soldiers.





> On Oct. 1, Somali gunmen took a wheelchair-bound Frenchwoman from her home near the resort town of Lamu. Somalis also abducted a British woman from a Kenyan coastal resort in September. Her husband was killed in the attack.Kenya's push north into Somalia will open another front that Somali militants must contend with. African Union forces from Uganda and Burundi have expanded their control of Mogadishu in recent months and have almost completely forced al-Shabab out of the capital.



Kenya helicopter crashes; push into Somalia begins

Kenya helicopter crashes; push into Somalia begins


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## Mr. H.

Kenyan military moves into Somalia

Tanks and jets: Kenyan military moves into Somalia - Yahoo! News

Whoa.

_Kenyan tanks, artillery and fighter jets are flowing into Somalia.

Witnesses in the Somali town of Dhobley on Monday said an estimated 40 Kenyan military vehicles entered the town on Sunday. Helicopters and fighter jets flew overhead. Hundreds of troops were on the ground.

Ali Abdullahi, a resident in Dhobley, says the army vehicles were towing what he described as "big guns."

The residents say no large-scale fighting has yet broken out.

Kenya on Saturday vowed to invade Somalia to fight al-Shabab militants after a string of kidnapping attacks inside Kenya resulted in four Europeans being abducted and one killed._


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## High_Gravity

Ethiopia already did the same thing, the results weren't good. Hopefully the Kenyans have better luck, hopefully we are backing them on this.


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## Ropey

High_Gravity said:


> Ethiopia already did the same thing, the results weren't good. Hopefully the Kenyans have better luck, hopefully we are backing them on this.



This looks to be a far larger push HG. There's a lot of air action going on but no one is saying who is flying.


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## Sunni Man

Ropey said:


> *African Union forces from Uganda* and Burundi have expanded their control of Mogadishu in recent months and have almost completely forced al-Shabab out of the capital.



So Uganda has forces to send to Somalia?

Yet we are send US soldiers into Uganda to fight against the Lords Resistance Army.

This whole thing stinks to high heaven.


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## LAfrique

Sunni Man said:


> Ropey said:
> 
> 
> 
> *African Union forces from Uganda* and Burundi have expanded their control of Mogadishu in recent months and have almost completely forced al-Shabab out of the capital.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> So Uganda has forces to send to Somalia?
> 
> Yet we are send US soldiers into Uganda to fight against the Lords Resistance Army.
> 
> This whole thing stinks to high heaven.
Click to expand...



I think the US is going into Somalia to attempt to coerce the Somalis into giving it easy access into the nation, especially to the portion where the US has major military base that the US uses against Middle Easterners. And who better to be an African Judas than African Barack Obama?

*It does not seize to amaze me how the brotherhood gang - NATO Gatlin boys - somehow assumes that using the offspring of a developing nation against other developing nations would somehow justify their quest to dominate the world*.

While I do not advocate violence; unless necessary, I still hold that the Somalis (having no stable government) are simply defending their territory against invaders: The Somalis do not want folks imposing upon them and have never accepted the US-propped government in Somalia. I wish people would simply stay away from Somalia and leave the Somalis alone.


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## Ropey

^ Leave them alone to pirate away and be a major hub for Islamic arms sales?

I can see why some might like that status quo to remain.


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## Jos

America already has a base in Kenya and in Uganda


> The word came down suddenly in early January to the fifty or so U.S. troops stationed inside Camp Simba, a Kenyan naval base located on that country's sandy coast: Drop everything and pull everyone back inside the compound wire. Then they were instructed to immediately clear a couple acres of dense forest. Task Force 88, a very secret American special-operations unit, needed to land three CH-53 helicopters.
> "We had everybody working nonstop," says Navy Lieutenant Commander Steve Eron, commander of Contingency Operating Location Manda Bay, a new American base in Kenya, including a dozen or so on-site KBR contractors. By the next day, every tree had been hauled off and the field graded and packed down using heavy machinery. The pad was completed in thirty-six hours.
> Soon after, U.S. special operators flying out of Manda Bay were landing in southernmost Somalia, searching for survivors among the foreign fighters and Al Qaeda operatives just targeted in a furious bombardment by a U.S. gunship launched from a secret airstrip in eastern Ethiopia.
> The 88's job was simple: Kill anyone still alive and leave no unidentified bodies behind.


The Americans Have Landed [Africa] By 2012, the Pentagon will have two dozen forts in Africa. The story of Africa Command, the American military's new frontier outpost. by Thomas P.M. Barnett

https://www.navsup.navy.mil/scnewsletter/2009/jul-aug/cover10


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## High_Gravity

LAfrique said:


> Sunni Man said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Ropey said:
> 
> 
> 
> *African Union forces from Uganda* and Burundi have expanded their control of Mogadishu in recent months and have almost completely forced al-Shabab out of the capital.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> So Uganda has forces to send to Somalia?
> 
> Yet we are send US soldiers into Uganda to fight against the Lords Resistance Army.
> 
> This whole thing stinks to high heaven.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> 
> I think the US is going into Somalia to attempt to coerce the Somalis into giving it easy access into the nation, especially to the portion where the US has major military base that the US uses against Middle Easterners. And who better to be an African Judas than African Barack Obama?
> 
> *It does not seize to amaze me how the brotherhood gang - NATO Gatlin boys - somehow assumes that using the offspring of a developing nation against other developing nations would somehow justify their quest to dominate the world*.
> 
> While I do not advocate violence; unless necessary, I still hold that the Somalis (having no stable government) are simply defending their territory against invaders: The Somalis do not want folks imposing upon them and have never accepted the US-propped government in Somalia. I wish people would simply stay away from Somalia and leave the Somalis alone.
Click to expand...


Somalia has 2 major issues which the world cannot ignore, 1. Piracy 2. International terrorism i.e Al Shabab who are trained, funded and armed by Al Qaeda and other Muslim terror groups "ignoring them and leaving them alone" as you say could very well cost the US and the world in the long run. We were more than happy to leave Bin Laden and Al Qaeda alone in Afghanistan and we all saw how that worked out, I support the Kenyans in their mission in Somalia.


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## High_Gravity

Ropey said:


> ^ Leave them alone to pirate away and be a major hub for Islamic arms sales?
> 
> I can see why some might like that status quo to remain.



Indeed, there are alot of people that would want the US and others to "leave Somalia alone", so Al Shabab and other shady characters can ramp up and become the next Afghanistan where terrorists can go to regroup, re arm, and for medical attention.


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## High_Gravity

Somali militants threaten revenge attacks after Kenyan incursion








> REPORTING FROM JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA -- Somali militants fighting their homeland's Western-backed government Monday threatened suicide attacks against neighboring Kenya, whose forces entered Somalia over the weekend.
> 
> Kenyan forces pursued Somali militants into southern Somalia after the kidnapping of two Spanish aid workers last week from a refugee camp in Kenya. It was the third kidnapping of foreigners in Kenya by Somali gangs since early September.
> 
> Kenyan officials blamed the Al Shabab militia, which controls much of famine-hit southern Somalia, for the attacks.
> 
> "Our territorial integrity is threatened with serious security threats of terrorism. We cannot allow this to happen at all," George Saitoti, Kenya's internal security minister, told a news conference Saturday. "It means we are now going to pursue the enemy, who are the Al Shabab, to wherever they will be, even in their country."
> 
> Al Shabab called a news conference in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, on Monday to issue a chilling warning of attacks in Kenya. The group last year carried out a devastating suicide bombing in Uganda that killed 76 people -- in reprisal for the deployment of Ugandan forces in Somalia to back the  transitional government there.
> 
> Al Shabab spokesman Ali Mohamed Raghe said that if Kenya did not withdraw its forces, his group would blow up skyscrapers in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, and destroy the country's fragile tourist industry, already reeling from the recent abductions of foreigners at resorts on Kenya's northern coast.
> 
> "The Kenyan forces have crossed about 100 kilometers deep into Somalia, and in some cases their military aircraft have bombed inside Somalia," Raghe said. "If they continue this way, they will regret and feel the consequences back home."
> 
> Witnesses sighted several dozen Kenyan military vehicles in Somalia, news agencies reported over the weekend. Kenyan fighter jets and helicopters have been flying over Somalia, and a military helicopter involved in the operation crashed in northern Kenya late Sunday, killing five troops.
> 
> After militants abducted two Spanish aid workers serving with Doctors Without Borders on Thursday, Kenya closed its northern border with Somalia to prevent militants from entering. The border closure means that thousands of starving and malnourished Somalis seeking to flee the famine will have no escape route out of the south.
> 
> But even blocking the border may offer Kenya little protection from Al Shabab, with reports by Human Rights Watch and others that both Al Shabab and the transitional government have recruited refugees around the Dadaab refugee camp in recent years.
> 
> The Kenyan incursions into Somalia had strong support from newspaper editorials. The Daily Nation editorial described the spate of recent abductions as a "declaration of war" by Al Shabab.
> 
> "These attacks are doing incalculable harm to Kenyas reputation as an oasis of peace and stability," it said, blaming "sleepers" in the Dadaab camp posing as refugees.
> 
> "These attacks must be taken as a declaration of war. Such actions cannot be countered with empty words or acts of appeasement. Aggressive action is required to demonstrate to all and sundry that our national security is not to be trifled with," the editorial said.



Somali militants threaten revenge attacks after Kenyan incursion - latimes.com


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## High_Gravity

Kenya Invades Somalia. Does It Get Any Dumber?








> If the history of war teaches us anything, it's that invading a foreign country is dicey. Storming across too many borders was the undoing of many of the world's great conquerors, from Alexander the Great to Napoleon to the Nazis. The last few decades of US foreign policy - Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq - only underline how tricky invasions are, even for the most powerful. The last 20 years have also seen Somalia emerge with a particularly consistent record of chewing up anyone who arrives carrying a gun, including the U.N. and U.S. special operations troops (1992-3), Ethiopians (2006-9) and Ugandans and Burundians from an African Union peacekeeping force (2008-today).
> 
> So what does Kenya think it's doing? On Sunday, a force estimated variously at a few hundred to  2,000 Kenyan soldiers crossed the border into Somalia into pursuit of militants from the Somali Islamist group, al-Shabab. The invasion came after a rash of armed incursions into Kenya from Somalia. On Sept. 11, Somali gunmen killed British tourist David Tebbutt, 58, and abducted his wife Judith, 56, from a resort on the northern Kenyan coast. In a second attack on a nearby beach hotel on Oct. 1, another group of Somali gunmen kidnapped a 66-year-old disabled French tourist, Marie Dedieu, who was confirmed dead on Wednesday. And then on Oct. 13, a third group of kidnappers took two Spanish aid workers from Dadaab, a camp in northern Kenyan -- the biggest refugee settlement in the world, set up 20 years ago for those fleeing fighting and famine in Somalia.
> 
> Starting a war is not an obvious way to bolster a country's reputation for safety and security. Starting a war with an al-Qaeda affiliate who have previously carried out attacks abroad (in Kampala in July 2010 two al-Shabab suicide bombers killed 76 people) and who have been itching for an excuse to do the same to you carries even more obvious risks. But starting a war in which your invading forces are outnumbered from the beginning (al-Shabab has around 2,500 men at arms), and doing that just as the rainy season starts, is bat crazy.
> 
> Sure enough, by Wednesday the Kenyans and their Somali allies were stuck in torrential rains and thick mud 20 miles short of their first objective of the al-Shabab-ruled town Afmadow. Even if the occupiers can extract themselves from the literal quagmire, analysts unanimously agree they will find it all but impossible to avoid becoming militarily bogged down. Faced with al-Shabab's well-armed, experienced and more numerous guerrillas - fighters who two years ago saw off a far fiercer, better trained and bigger Ethiopian force - Kenya's soldiers seem headed for deadlock at best and, at worst, bloody defeat. What's worse, the Kenyan invasion seems likely to reunify al-Shabab just as it was in danger of splintering over disagreements about leadership and whether to accept aid to alleviate an ongoing famine in southern Somalia. It could even help restore al-Shabab's plummeting local support.



Read more: Kenya Invades Somalia. Does It Get Any Dumber? - Global Spin - TIME.com


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## High_Gravity

Hmm I wonder if this is tied in with the invasion of Somalia?

Kenya: Pub Grenade Blast Wounds Dozen 








> NAIROBI, Kenya  Grenade blasts at a blue-collar bar and a crowded bus stop rattled Nairobi on Monday, as the country worried whether al-Qaida-linked militants from Somalia were carrying out their promise to launch reprisal attacks in Kenya's capital.
> 
> The attacks came only two days after the U.S. warned of "imminent" terror attacks. The U.S. warning had implied that the Somali group al-Shabab would carry out reprisals in response to Kenyan troops' invasion of Somalia in mid-October. The militants had promised to unleash terror attacks in Nairobi in retaliation for the offensive.
> 
> Authorities said it was too soon to name suspects in either blast, though the small-scale blasts targeted Kenyans rather than foreigners as the U.S. warning had suggested.
> 
> Al-Shabab is loosely affiliated with al-Qaida and has carried out several sophisticated suicide attacks, including a bombing that killed more than 100 in Somalia's capital earlier this month and an attack in Uganda's capital that killed 76 people in July 2010.
> 
> One Nairobi-based security official, who is not allowed to be quoted by name, said al-Shabab has bombing "down to a fine art." Throwing grenades, he said, is not their style, though the fact the attacks came so close to the U.S. Embassy warning was hard to ignore.
> 
> The first grenade blast toppled chairs and tables at a blue-collar bar near downtown Nairobi around 1:15 a.m. Monday, wounding 12 people. Later in the evening, a blast went off as throngs of people crowded the sidewalk and tried to jam their way onto raucous mini-busses known as matatus, the primary mode of transportation for Kenya's working class.
> 
> The Red Cross said one person was killed and eight wounded in the second attack. Peter Ndungu Kiarie, 35, said he was in his vehicle when he heard the second explosion and saw people rushing toward him. Many people were wounded in the legs, he said, suggesting the grenade was lying on the ground.
> 
> Police have tightened security around hotels, bridges and fuel depots, police said. But the two attacks spurred debate over al-Shabab's involvement  and what might happen next.
> 
> "This was the al-Shabab. Maybe they wanted to strike earlier in the day or week but the saw that there was a lot of security was tight. I think it is an act of desperation targeting this pub in the backstreet of Nairobi," said resident Peninah Ndinda.
> 
> Eric Agade, a 30-year-old restaurant worker, disagreed: "Somebody is taking advantage of the situation. This is not al-Shabab. Al-Shabab will target somewhere big. This is such a small target."
> 
> Nevertheless, the attacks are bound to have a profound effect on Nairobi residents' feeling of security. Josphat Karuri, 42, the owner of a liquor store across the street from the attacked pub, said he expects to lose business, though he supports Kenya's military incursion into Somalia.
> 
> "It has created a lot tension and fear. Like now that I have opened there are no customers. Usually at this time I am normally busy," he said Monday afternoon. "I think Kenya is totally right pursuing the al-Shabab. ... We are worried that they may strike back but even though the worry is there we need to flush them out. If we keep quiet they may hit harder."
> 
> The weapon used in the early Monday attack was a Russian-made F1 grenade, police said. A similar type of grenade was used in a downtown Nairobi attack in December 2010 at a bus station. That attack killed one person. Three grenades exploded at a political rally in downtown Nairobi in June 2010, killing six people. In December that year, two traffic police died when they were shot and a third was seriously injured by a grenade.



Kenya: Pub Grenade Blast Wounds Dozen


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## High_Gravity

Kenya Attacks: Elgive Bwire Oliacha, Al Shabaab Member, Pleads Guilty 








> NAIROBI, Kenya -- A Kenyan suspect arrested after two grenade blasts this week said in court on Wednesday that he took part in one of the attacks and is a member of the al-Qaida-linked Somali militant group al-Shabab.
> 
> The grenade blasts came after al-Shabab warned it would attack Kenya in retaliation for its military incursion into southern Somalia. Some though, questioned whether al-Shabab was behind the attacks given that it already has demonstrated it is capable of killing dozens of people in attacks on foreign soil.
> 
> Elgiva Bwire Oliacha, 28, also known as Mohammed Seif, pleaded guilty to nine charges, including causing grievous bodily harm to two people during Monday evening's blast at a bus stop where hundreds of blue-collar Kenyans were waiting to get a ride home.
> 
> An officer with the anti-terror police unit who brought Oliacha to court said authorities will bring more charges against him in court on Friday, including charges related to the grenade attack on a pub early Monday morning that wounded a dozen people.
> 
> The officer, who did not give his name because he is not authorized to speak with journalists, said that Oliacha is expected to plead guilty to all of those charges as well.
> 
> Chief Magistrate Gilbert Mutembei allowed police to continue holding the suspect for two more days to complete their investigations.
> 
> Oliacha, who was not represented by a lawyer, looked calm in court, smiling and laughing with journalists who questioned him. When asked if he had gone to train in Somalia with al-Shabab, he said: "I would not even give that information to police."
> 
> Oliacha was arrested Tuesday night by members of an elite paramilitary wing of the Kenya police at his house in a city slum.
> 
> Monday's two blasts came about a week after hundreds of Kenyan forces moved into neighboring Somalia to attack al-Shabab militants who the government blames for a string of kidnappings in recent weeks, including those of four Europeans, on Kenyan soil. One of the Europeans  a quadriplegic French woman  has since died in captivity. Al-Shabab, Somalia's most dangerous militant group, threatened to carry out terror attacks in Kenya in retaliation.
> 
> Police say Oliacha is a Kenyan and not ethnic Somali. During his arrest he was found with six guns, 13 grenades and hundreds of bullets in his house in a slum called Kayole in eastern Nairobi. Oliacha admitted to possession of the weapons in court on Wednesday.
> 
> Analysts have raised doubts as to whether al-Shabab was behind the Nairobi grenade attacks that targeted working-class Kenyans.
> 
> Given al-Qaida's preference for large-scale attacks, the twin blasts did not bear the hallmarks of a major, well-planned terror assault. A U.S. warning also had said likely targets would include shopping malls and night clubs where foreigners congregate.



Kenya Attacks: Elgive Bwire Oliacha, Al Shabaab Member, Pleads Guilty


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## Tank

Where I live it's the Crips and the Bloods


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## High_Gravity

Somali Islamist Militants Rally Against Kenya








> MOGADISHU, Somalia  Islamist militants rallied hundreds of supporters outside Somalias capital on Thursday to call for attacks on Kenya, saying, We want huge blasts, while Kenyan authorities reported an assault inside Kenya, with at least four people killed in an ambush near the Somali border.
> 
> While it remained unclear who was responsible for the attack  in which a rocket-propelled grenade was shot at a car in northern Kenya  it comes just days after twin grenade attacks rocked Kenyas capital, Nairobi, which the police say were linked to the Somali Islamist militants known as the Shabab.
> 
> Kenya sent hundreds of troops, backed by tanks and gunships, into Somalia this month in a premeditated military campaign against the Shabab, who have threatened terrorist attacks in Nairobi in retaliation, warning Kenyans to not let the flames of this war spill over into your country.
> 
> The threats have left Kenyans and the United States jittery, with the American Embassy in Kenya warning of credible terrorist threats, specifically to shopping malls and nightclubs.
> 
> But the recent attacks in Kenya have hit small targets with small weapons. The grenade attacks this week hit a local pub and a bus stop, leaving one dead and more than 20 wounded.
> 
> On Thursday, a Kenyan government official in Nairobi suggested to local news organizations that Kenya would negotiate with the Shabab and halt its military offensive if the Shabab denounced violence.
> 
> If the Al Shabab would like to discuss and engage with the Kenyan government, our channels are very open, Richard Onyonka, the assistant foreign affairs minister, told The Daily Nation.
> 
> But in Somalia on Thursday, Shabab leaders called for the groups supporters and cells in Kenya to hit back harder.
> 
> Hit the enemy with big things that can make them suffer, Sheik Muktar Roobow Abu Mansor told hundreds of supporters and residents in the Shabab-controlled area of Elasha Biyaha, about 12 miles south of the capital, Mogadishu. Big bites.
> 
> Kenyans have been talking about closing the Kismayu port, and their jets fired the port, said Sheik Mansor, referring to the Shababs commercial stronghold on the Indian Ocean. I am telling the mujahedeens that Kenya is your port; go to their banks, guests, and go to all the places they keep their treasury. Take from them in return.
> 
> Nations from across the world have sought to subdue the Shabab, which have sworn allegiance to Al Qaeda, but the fight notched into a higher gear since the group claimed responsibility for terrorist attacks in Uganda last year that left more than 70 people dead.
> 
> The most recent push includes two main fronts, one by the Kenyans aimed at Kismayu, and the other a gruesome street battle in the Mogadishu neighborhood of Deynile.
> 
> The fighting across Somalia has been slow and tough. An unknown number of Burundian soldiers in the African Union peacekeeping force were killed in Deynile last week, possibly scores, their bodies wantonly laid out for public viewing.
> 
> Though the Shabab are losing ground, as well as domestic support, as the battles continue, Thursdays rally  just next door to the war zone of Deynile  offered a flash of resolve.
> 
> We will fight against you; there is not any other option left for us, Sheik Mansor said. Defeating the Christians is here, and more victories.
> 
> While Kenya is well equipped and well trained, many have voiced concerns that the military has virtually no experience in fighting conventional wars outside its borders. On Thursday, Kenyas military engaged in its first face-to-face land battle with the Shabab near the town of Bilis Qooqaani, killing nine Shabab fighters while sustaining two injuries, the military said in a statement.



http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/28/w...nts-rally-against-kenya.html?src=me&ref=world


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## High_Gravity

Somalia Airstrike: Refugee Camp Hit, At Least 3 Killed 








> NAIROBI, Kenya -- An air strike hit a refugee camp in southern Somalia, killing at least three people and wounding dozens of women and children, an international aid agency said Monday. Kenya's military acknowledged carrying out an air raid but said it killed only Islamist militants.
> 
> Kenya's military spokesman Maj. Emmanuel Chirchir blamed an al-Shabab fighter for civilians deaths, saying he drove a truck of ammunition into the camp where it exploded. Chirchir says the air force hit the truck as it drove away from an al-Shabab training camp and it caught fire. He said it proceeded into the camp to use the refugees as a human shield from being bombed again.
> 
> Doctors Without Borders, also known as Medecins Sans Frontieres or MSF, said 52 people were wounded, mostly women and children, when an aerial bombardment hit the camp for displaced people in the town of Jilib on Sunday. About 1,500 families had fled to the area amid Somalia's famine earlier this year.
> 
> There was no way to immediately reconcile the different versions. Either way, civilian casualties would be a public relations issue for Kenya and could turn ordinary Somalis against Kenya's military intervention in the lawless nation.
> 
> The group said in a statement that it was transporting the wounded to the hospital in Marere, noting it had limited surgical capacity.
> 
> Jilib town elder Ahmed Sheik Don said the planes hit a bus stop, and hit near the camp before finally hitting a base of the al-Qaida-linked Somali militants known as al-Shabab.
> 
> Chirchir said 10 al-Shabab members were killed and 47 wounded in the attack, citing informers on the ground.
> 
> Kenya sent troops across the border into Somalia in October following cross-border kidnappings blamed on gunmen from southern Somalia.
> 
> The Danish Refugee Council said it has made its first contact with an American aid worker and her Danish colleague who were kidnapped last week in northern Somalia.
> 
> "It has been some very long days as we have been waiting for signs of life. It is truly a relief that we now have received the message that they are as well as possible their circumstances taken into consideration," said Ann Mary Olsen, the head of the Danish Refugee Council's International Department.
> 
> Olsen said the aid agency is appealing to traditional leaders and clan elders to help release the hostages.



Somalia Airstrike: Refugee Camp Hit, At Least 3 Killed


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## Trajan

High_Gravity said:


> Somalia Airstrike: Refugee Camp Hit, At Least 3 Killed
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> NAIROBI, Kenya -- An air strike hit a refugee camp in southern Somalia, killing at least three people and wounding dozens of women and children, an international aid agency said Monday. Kenya's military acknowledged carrying out an air raid but said it killed only Islamist militants.
> 
> Kenya's military spokesman Maj. Emmanuel Chirchir blamed an al-Shabab fighter for civilians deaths, saying he drove a truck of ammunition into the camp where it exploded. Chirchir says the air force hit the truck as it drove away from an al-Shabab training camp and it caught fire. He said it proceeded into the camp to use the refugees as a human shield from being bombed again.
> 
> Doctors Without Borders, also known as Medecins Sans Frontieres or MSF, said 52 people were wounded, mostly women and children, when an aerial bombardment hit the camp for displaced people in the town of Jilib on Sunday. About 1,500 families had fled to the area amid Somalia's famine earlier this year.
> 
> There was no way to immediately reconcile the different versions. Either way, civilian casualties would be a public relations issue for Kenya and could turn ordinary Somalis against Kenya's military intervention in the lawless nation.
> 
> The group said in a statement that it was transporting the wounded to the hospital in Marere, noting it had limited surgical capacity.
> 
> Jilib town elder Ahmed Sheik Don said the planes hit a bus stop, and hit near the camp before finally hitting a base of the al-Qaida-linked Somali militants known as al-Shabab.
> 
> Chirchir said 10 al-Shabab members were killed and 47 wounded in the attack, citing informers on the ground.
> 
> Kenya sent troops across the border into Somalia in October following cross-border kidnappings blamed on gunmen from southern Somalia.
> 
> The Danish Refugee Council said it has made its first contact with an American aid worker and her Danish colleague who were kidnapped last week in northern Somalia.
> 
> "It has been some very long days as we have been waiting for signs of life. It is truly a relief that we now have received the message that they are as well as possible their circumstances taken into consideration," said Ann Mary Olsen, the head of the Danish Refugee Council's International Department.
> 
> Olsen said the aid agency is appealing to traditional leaders and clan elders to help release the hostages.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Somalia Airstrike: Refugee Camp Hit, At Least 3 Killed
Click to expand...


this should not draw much ire across the NGO, UN and western press after we have been launching numerous predator strikes  and :Libya


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## High_Gravity

Trajan said:


> High_Gravity said:
> 
> 
> 
> Somalia Airstrike: Refugee Camp Hit, At Least 3 Killed
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> NAIROBI, Kenya -- An air strike hit a refugee camp in southern Somalia, killing at least three people and wounding dozens of women and children, an international aid agency said Monday. Kenya's military acknowledged carrying out an air raid but said it killed only Islamist militants.
> 
> Kenya's military spokesman Maj. Emmanuel Chirchir blamed an al-Shabab fighter for civilians deaths, saying he drove a truck of ammunition into the camp where it exploded. Chirchir says the air force hit the truck as it drove away from an al-Shabab training camp and it caught fire. He said it proceeded into the camp to use the refugees as a human shield from being bombed again.
> 
> Doctors Without Borders, also known as Medecins Sans Frontieres or MSF, said 52 people were wounded, mostly women and children, when an aerial bombardment hit the camp for displaced people in the town of Jilib on Sunday. About 1,500 families had fled to the area amid Somalia's famine earlier this year.
> 
> There was no way to immediately reconcile the different versions. Either way, civilian casualties would be a public relations issue for Kenya and could turn ordinary Somalis against Kenya's military intervention in the lawless nation.
> 
> The group said in a statement that it was transporting the wounded to the hospital in Marere, noting it had limited surgical capacity.
> 
> Jilib town elder Ahmed Sheik Don said the planes hit a bus stop, and hit near the camp before finally hitting a base of the al-Qaida-linked Somali militants known as al-Shabab.
> 
> Chirchir said 10 al-Shabab members were killed and 47 wounded in the attack, citing informers on the ground.
> 
> Kenya sent troops across the border into Somalia in October following cross-border kidnappings blamed on gunmen from southern Somalia.
> 
> The Danish Refugee Council said it has made its first contact with an American aid worker and her Danish colleague who were kidnapped last week in northern Somalia.
> 
> "It has been some very long days as we have been waiting for signs of life. It is truly a relief that we now have received the message that they are as well as possible their circumstances taken into consideration," said Ann Mary Olsen, the head of the Danish Refugee Council's International Department.
> 
> Olsen said the aid agency is appealing to traditional leaders and clan elders to help release the hostages.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Somalia Airstrike: Refugee Camp Hit, At Least 3 Killed
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> this should not draw much ire across the NGO, UN and western press after we have been launching numerous predator strikes  and :Libya
Click to expand...


Al Shabab have been makin moves into Kenya, trying to establish a presence there, I support the Kenyans doing what they have to do to prevent that.


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## Trajan

High_Gravity said:


> Trajan said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> High_Gravity said:
> 
> 
> 
> Somalia Airstrike: Refugee Camp Hit, At Least 3 Killed
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Somalia Airstrike: Refugee Camp Hit, At Least 3 Killed
> 
> 
> 
> 
> this should not draw much ire across the NGO, UN and western press after we have been launching numerous predator strikes  and :Libya
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> Al Shabab have been makin moves into Kenya, trying to establish a presence there, I support the Kenyans doing what they have to do to prevent that.
Click to expand...


hey , me too. let them have at it.


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## Ropey

Trajan said:


> High_Gravity said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Trajan said:
> 
> 
> 
> this should not draw much ire across the NGO, UN and western press after we have been launching numerous predator strikes  and :Libya
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Al Shabab have been makin moves into Kenya, trying to establish a presence there, I support the Kenyans doing what they have to do to prevent that.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> hey , me too. let _them _have at it.
Click to expand...


I agree.


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## High_Gravity

Big Countries Are Sought to Help Fight in Somalia



> MOGADISHU, Somalia  Kenya and Somalia on Monday called for other nations to help in their fight against Islamist insurgents, as an aid organization said that five civilians were killed and more than 50 wounded when a military aircraft hunting the militants struck a displaced-persons camp in southern Somalia.
> 
> Most of the victims and wounded were women and children, the organization said.
> 
> In a meeting in Kenyas capital, Nairobi, delegations from Somalia and Kenya, which has sent hundreds of soldiers backed by tanks and gunships into Somalia in a premeditated assault to vanquish the Shabab Islamist militant group, called for a naval blockade on the Shabab-controlled seaport of Kismaayo.
> 
> A Somali government spokesman said Somalia was calling on big countries and big organizations to help with the blockade of Kismayo, a major moneymaker and densely populated stronghold for the Shabab.
> 
> While the official did not name any countries specifically, he did say that Somalia was interested in help from NATO, whose United Nations-backed intervention in Libya officially ended on Monday.
> 
> A spokesman from the Kenyan government said the two countries had already requested the other countries and partners with consistent interest in Somalia to help further. Those countries, he said, included European countries, and the United States.
> 
> The American government has said it is playing no direct or indirect role in Kenyas operations in Somalia. Memories of the American operation in Somalia in 1993, portrayed in the 2001 movie Black Hawk Down, have kept an overt presence of American troops away from Somalia.
> 
> However, the United States has carried out drone attacks inside Somalia and relies on private contractors to help advance its interests as well.
> 
> Currently, Uganda and Burundi provide troops to an African Union peacekeeping mission here, which has supported Somalias weak, American-backed government in taking control of much of Mogadishu.
> 
> More African nations are believed to soon follow.
> 
> A communiqué from the Eastern African Standby Force, a coalition of East African militaries, indicates that more than 100 officers and medical personnel, including military trainers, medical technicians and equipment, along with logistical support, will be sent to the African Union peacekeeping force.
> 
> The peacekeepers have suffered heavy casualties recently in gun battles and suicide attacks from the Shabab.
> 
> The African Union controls Mogadishu, while the Kenyan military, operating independently and alongside government forces and a mix of ragtag militias, is trying to clear the Shabab out of southern Somalia.
> 
> The Kenyan Army is well equipped and well trained, but it has virtually no experience fighting a conventional foreign war. Furthermore, rains have been bogging down the troops on the ground.
> 
> So airstrikes have spiked. On Oct. 18, the Kenyan military said it had killed 73 Shabab members in southern Somalia. Several days later, the military said it had struck the coastal border city of Raas Kaambooni.
> 
> Last week, Kenyan aircraft struck the city of Anole, also in southern Somalia, killing 19 Shabab militants, according to the military.
> 
> But on Sunday, an aircraft carried out a strike on the town of Jilib, which lies in Shabab territory, hitting a humanitarian camp where roughly 7,500 Somalis suffering from the famine were taking shelter, according to Doctors Without Borders.
> 
> Kenya confirmed on Monday an airstrike the day before in the area, but it said it had hit a Shabab training camp, not a humanitarian camp, killing 10 militants and injuring 47.
> 
> We hit an Al Shabab camp; 500 meters from that camp is an internally-displaced-persons camp, said a Kenyan military spokesman, Maj. Emmanuel Chirchir.
> 
> He said that Shabab militants had tried to fight back with a vehicle armed with antiaircraft guns, but mistakenly drove into the humanitarian camp after the vehicle was hit by Kenyan aircraft.



http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/01/w...-somalia-was-hit-by-airstrike.html?ref=africa


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## High_Gravity

Djibouti Adds 850 Soldiers to Peacekeeping Force in Somalia



> MOGADISHU, Somalia  The tiny country of Djibouti will send about 850 soldiers to an African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia this month, a spokesman for the mission said Wednesday. It is only the third country to do so after a series of unmet promises from a number of African nations.
> 
> The troops from Djibouti, in the Horn of Africa, will join roughly 9,000 soldiers from Uganda and Burundi, which have been supporting Somalias weak, American-backed, transitional government since 2007. The government, which has been fighting Islamist insurgents known as the Shabab in Somalias capital, Mogadishu, has virtually no influence outside of the city, and despite a nationwide mandate, neither does the African Union.
> 
> But the peacekeepers have largely pushed the Shabab from Mogadishu, though the rebels still carry out hard-hitting attacks. For a peacekeeping force trying achieve an objective that no entity has accomplished in nearly 20 years  pacify Somalia  the Djiboutian troops will be welcome. The peacekeeping force is currently set at 12,000 troops, but peacekeeping officials hope for at least 20,000.
> 
> Our forces have been very adaptive, adapting to the terrain, fighting in built-up areas, said Lt. Col. Paddy Ankunda, a spokesman for the peacekeeping force. But its been difficult.
> 
> More and more, countries in Africa are joining the battle in Somalia. Kenya sent hundreds, if not thousands, of soldiers backed by tanks and gunships across the border to clear out the Shabab from a number of strongholds in southern Somalia. A high-ranking East African official said Tuesday that the heavily militarized country of Eritrea, which borders Djibouti and Ethiopia, had sent cargo planes loaded with weapons for the Shabab to southern Somalia, an accusation Eritrea rejects. Ethiopian troops have been spotted occupying Somali territory near a Shabab stronghold, and Uganda is sending 2,000 more of its own soldiers to join the peacekeeping force in Mogadishu.
> 
> The governments of South Africa, Rwanda and Tanzania have voiced support for Kenyas operation, and this week Kenya and Somalia asked for big countries, including the United States and European nations, to help in a naval blockade of the highly coveted Shabab-controlled seaport of Kismaayo.
> 
> But as bad weather has bogged down Kenyas troops, the Kenyan Air Force has delivered a number of damaging strikes. The International Committee of the Red Cross said an airstrike on Sunday hit a camp for thousands of displaced Somalis suffering from the effects of a famine, killing a number of civilians.
> 
> On Tuesday, Kenyas military issued a chilling warning to residents in 10 towns under the Shababs influence, warning that further strikes were imminent and that the towns would be under attack continuously.
> 
> On Wednesday, there were reports that hundreds of civilians were fleeing their homes in advance of the threatened attacks. I have only two kids, and I cannot see myself dying, said Aisha Ali from the town of Elasha Biyaha. I have to go to the safe zone.



http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/03/w...n-peacekeepers-in-somalia.html?_r=1&src=rechp


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## High_Gravity

Arms Flying Into Somalia for Militants, Kenya Says








> MOGADISHU, Somalia  The Kenyan government said Tuesday that aircraft were delivering weapons to Islamist insurgents in southern Somalia, widening the international nature of a war that has already engulfed several African nations.
> 
> In a statement, the Kenyans said two planes landed Tuesday in the Somali town of Baidoa, which is under the control of the Shabab, a militant Islamist group that has claimed allegiance to Al Qaeda. The planes carried weapons destined for the group, the statement said, without specifying who had sent them.
> 
> One high-ranking East African official later said the shipments had come from Eritrea.
> 
> Kenya also warned residents in 10 Shabab-controlled towns to avoid contact with the militants, telling them to avoid being used as conduits for the weapons, as it would strike those towns soon.
> 
> In line with the Kenya Defense Forces Strategy of diminishing Al Shabab effectiveness and weapon use, the towns will remain under imminent attack, the statement said.
> 
> Kenyas military launched a pre-meditated assault into Somalia last month with hundreds of troops backed by tanks and gunships to eradicate the Shabab. Its military joined those of Uganda and Burundi, which are contributing to an African Union peacekeeping force that is fighting the insurgents. Last month, 13 more military specialists from Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya, Uganda and Burundi came to assist the African Union peacekeepers.
> 
> But now some officials have accused Eritrea, often considered the most militarized nation in Africa, of joining the fray, too  but on the side of the Shabab.
> 
> Eritrea has long been accused of supporting the Shabab, and in 2009 the United Nations Security Council imposed sanctions on it, demanding that it cease arming, training and equipping armed groups and their members.
> 
> A Somali politician told Somali news media on Monday that Eritrea was funneling weapons to the Shabab into Baidoa. Heavy artillery, bombs, light weapons, the politician was quoted as saying.
> 
> Similarly, a Somali government spokesman restated the governments fear that Eritrea was supporting the Shabab, arguing that it had done so in the past.
> 
> There have been suspicions for a long time, said Suldan A. Farahsed. Eritrea was often financing and supporting these opposition movements. It has been well documented.
> 
> Eritrea strongly rejected the accusations Tuesday, saying military is not the solution to Somalias problems.
> 
> Eritreas desire, right from the beginning, is to see peace and stability in Somalia, the government said in a statement. There is no reason why Eritrea will send weapons to Al Shabab or any other groups and destabilize the country.
> 
> To the contrary, it added, it is evident that most of the weapons that are devastating Somalia are coming in from the regime in Ethiopia.
> 
> Somalias decades-long instability has taken many turns, with nearby countries getting involved. In 2006, thousands of Ethiopian forces poured across the border to oust a rising Islamist government. But in the process a more radical offshoot of the Islamists arose: the Shabab.
> 
> Eritrea and Ethiopia have long been bitter enemies and have fought in the past. And Ethiopian troops habitually cross the Somali border  Ethiopian soldiers have been spotted near a Shabab stronghold for the last several days  and there are fears that Somalias conflict is acting as a proxy war between the two.



http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/02/w...n8.nytimes.com/pages/world/africa/index.jsonp


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## Sunni Man

Sending troops into Somalia from any country is a "fools" mission and will only lead to disaster.


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## GHook93

Good, it's about time someone kicks the shit out of Somalia!


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## High_Gravity

Sunni Man said:


> Sending troops into Somalia from any country is a "fools" mission and will only lead to disaster.



Al Shabab is making a move into Kenya and trying to establish a presence there, Kenya has to do what it takes to prevent that.


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## GHook93

Depends how you storm across the border and what border. If you do it like we have recently done it, as in conquer the enemy and build the nation you are bound to fail. But if you do it declaring the entire country your enemy with the aim of taking them out and leaving them to clean up the mess, then it can be very successful. See how Russia invaded Georgia!




High_Gravity said:


> Kenya Invades Somalia. Does It Get Any Dumber?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> If the history of war teaches us anything, it's that invading a foreign country is dicey. Storming across too many borders was the undoing of many of the world's great conquerors, from Alexander the Great to Napoleon to the Nazis. The last few decades of US foreign policy - Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq - only underline how tricky invasions are, even for the most powerful. The last 20 years have also seen Somalia emerge with a particularly consistent record of chewing up anyone who arrives carrying a gun, including the U.N. and U.S. special operations troops (1992-3), Ethiopians (2006-9) and Ugandans and Burundians from an African Union peacekeeping force (2008-today).
> 
> So what does Kenya think it's doing? On Sunday, a force estimated variously at a few hundred to  2,000 Kenyan soldiers crossed the border into Somalia into pursuit of militants from the Somali Islamist group, al-Shabab. The invasion came after a rash of armed incursions into Kenya from Somalia. On Sept. 11, Somali gunmen killed British tourist David Tebbutt, 58, and abducted his wife Judith, 56, from a resort on the northern Kenyan coast. In a second attack on a nearby beach hotel on Oct. 1, another group of Somali gunmen kidnapped a 66-year-old disabled French tourist, Marie Dedieu, who was confirmed dead on Wednesday. And then on Oct. 13, a third group of kidnappers took two Spanish aid workers from Dadaab, a camp in northern Kenyan -- the biggest refugee settlement in the world, set up 20 years ago for those fleeing fighting and famine in Somalia.
> 
> Starting a war is not an obvious way to bolster a country's reputation for safety and security. Starting a war with an al-Qaeda affiliate who have previously carried out attacks abroad (in Kampala in July 2010 two al-Shabab suicide bombers killed 76 people) and who have been itching for an excuse to do the same to you carries even more obvious risks. But starting a war in which your invading forces are outnumbered from the beginning (al-Shabab has around 2,500 men at arms), and doing that just as the rainy season starts, is bat crazy.
> 
> Sure enough, by Wednesday the Kenyans and their Somali allies were stuck in torrential rains and thick mud 20 miles short of their first objective of the al-Shabab-ruled town Afmadow. Even if the occupiers can extract themselves from the literal quagmire, analysts unanimously agree they will find it all but impossible to avoid becoming militarily bogged down. Faced with al-Shabab's well-armed, experienced and more numerous guerrillas - fighters who two years ago saw off a far fiercer, better trained and bigger Ethiopian force - Kenya's soldiers seem headed for deadlock at best and, at worst, bloody defeat. What's worse, the Kenyan invasion seems likely to reunify al-Shabab just as it was in danger of splintering over disagreements about leadership and whether to accept aid to alleviate an ongoing famine in southern Somalia. It could even help restore al-Shabab's plummeting local support.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Read more: Kenya Invades Somalia. Does It Get Any Dumber? - Global Spin - TIME.com
Click to expand...


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## High_Gravity

GHook93 said:


> Depends how you storm across the border and what border. If you do it like we have recently done it, as in conquer the enemy and build the nation you are bound to fail. But if you do it declaring the entire country your enemy with the aim of taking them out and leaving them to clean up the mess, then it can be very successful. See how Russia invaded Georgia!
> 
> 
> 
> 
> High_Gravity said:
> 
> 
> 
> Kenya Invades Somalia. Does It Get Any Dumber?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> If the history of war teaches us anything, it's that invading a foreign country is dicey. Storming across too many borders was the undoing of many of the world's great conquerors, from Alexander the Great to Napoleon to the Nazis. The last few decades of US foreign policy - Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq - only underline how tricky invasions are, even for the most powerful. The last 20 years have also seen Somalia emerge with a particularly consistent record of chewing up anyone who arrives carrying a gun, including the U.N. and U.S. special operations troops (1992-3), Ethiopians (2006-9) and Ugandans and Burundians from an African Union peacekeeping force (2008-today).
> 
> So what does Kenya think it's doing? On Sunday, a force estimated variously at a few hundred to  2,000 Kenyan soldiers crossed the border into Somalia into pursuit of militants from the Somali Islamist group, al-Shabab. The invasion came after a rash of armed incursions into Kenya from Somalia. On Sept. 11, Somali gunmen killed British tourist David Tebbutt, 58, and abducted his wife Judith, 56, from a resort on the northern Kenyan coast. In a second attack on a nearby beach hotel on Oct. 1, another group of Somali gunmen kidnapped a 66-year-old disabled French tourist, Marie Dedieu, who was confirmed dead on Wednesday. And then on Oct. 13, a third group of kidnappers took two Spanish aid workers from Dadaab, a camp in northern Kenyan -- the biggest refugee settlement in the world, set up 20 years ago for those fleeing fighting and famine in Somalia.
> 
> Starting a war is not an obvious way to bolster a country's reputation for safety and security. Starting a war with an al-Qaeda affiliate who have previously carried out attacks abroad (in Kampala in July 2010 two al-Shabab suicide bombers killed 76 people) and who have been itching for an excuse to do the same to you carries even more obvious risks. But starting a war in which your invading forces are outnumbered from the beginning (al-Shabab has around 2,500 men at arms), and doing that just as the rainy season starts, is bat crazy.
> 
> Sure enough, by Wednesday the Kenyans and their Somali allies were stuck in torrential rains and thick mud 20 miles short of their first objective of the al-Shabab-ruled town Afmadow. Even if the occupiers can extract themselves from the literal quagmire, analysts unanimously agree they will find it all but impossible to avoid becoming militarily bogged down. Faced with al-Shabab's well-armed, experienced and more numerous guerrillas - fighters who two years ago saw off a far fiercer, better trained and bigger Ethiopian force - Kenya's soldiers seem headed for deadlock at best and, at worst, bloody defeat. What's worse, the Kenyan invasion seems likely to reunify al-Shabab just as it was in danger of splintering over disagreements about leadership and whether to accept aid to alleviate an ongoing famine in southern Somalia. It could even help restore al-Shabab's plummeting local support.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Read more: Kenya Invades Somalia. Does It Get Any Dumber? - Global Spin - TIME.com
> 
> Click to expand...
Click to expand...


I don't think Kenya has any interest in rebuilding Somalia.


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## Sunni Man

Al Shabab is only moderately popular with most Somalis depending on tribe.

But as with any country.

When invaded the people will put aside their differences.

That is when the average Somali will rally around Al Shabab


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## High_Gravity

Sunni Man said:


> Al Shabab is only moderately popular with most Somalis depending on tribe.
> 
> But as with any country.
> 
> When invaded the people will put aside their differences.
> 
> That is when the average Somali will rally around Al Shabab



Al Shabab are sick twisted fucks, they are stealing food aid from starving people and not letting people get vaccinations which are causing more people to die. I hope Kenya fucks their shit up.


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## High_Gravity

Kenya Army Tweets: Don't Sell Donkeys To Militants 








> NAIROBI, Kenya  Kenya's military spokesman is using Twitter to warn people not to help al-Qaida-linked militants by selling them an old-world transportation tool: donkeys.
> 
> Spokesman Maj. Emmanuel Chirchir is tweeting updates on Kenya's military push into Somalia to fight the al-Shabab militants.
> 
> On Thursday, he warned unidentified planes to stay out of the region for fear they are transporting weapons to al-Shabab. Chirchir said in an interview that Kenya would shoot down any planes that officials suspect are full of weapons.
> 
> But his commentary also carries the kind of military warnings not usually issued by the Pentagon or NATO: Southern Somalia is getting heavy rains that vehicles can't move through. Accordingly the price of animal transport has shot up.
> 
> "Kenyans dealing in donkey trade along the Kenya-Somali border are advised not to sell their animals to Al Shabaab," Chirchir tweeted, adding: "Selling Donkeys to Al Shabaab will undermine our efforts in Somalia."
> 
> "In addition we are also reliably informed that the cost of donkeys has risen from $150 to $200 for a donkey. Thus, any large concentration and movement of loaded donkeys will be considered as Al Shabaab activity," Chirchir said.
> 
> Chirchir said that Twitter is an easy way to quickly and easily communicate the military's message, and that many Somalis are online. Earlier this week, Chirchir tweeted a list of 10 Somali towns it warned would soon be attacked, prompting residents to flee after Somali media picked up the story.
> 
> "When you do something on Twitter it goes onto the Internet and people who see it can even call those who can't see it," he said. "We're getting good feedback that Somalis are moving away from al-Shabab camps. It is heard in Mogadishu, Kismayo and Baidoa."
> 
> Chirchir says that the Kenyan military has informants who say three flights carrying weapons for al-Shabab have landed in Baidoa, Somalia in the past week. Residents and a Somali legislator say that al-Shabab fighters had blocked off the access to the airport in the central Somali town of Baidoa.
> 
> "All aircrafts are hereby warned not to land in BAIDOA. Anyone violating this will be doing so at their peril," Chirchir tweeted.
> 
> Unexplained flights would be challenged by radio and asked to detail their flight path and cargo, Chirchir said by phone. He said if the Kenyan military was not satisfied with the explanation and the plane landed in areas held by the al-Shabab militia, the plane risked being shot down or destroyed.
> 
> "Before any engagement, in the air, if it is flying, we will ask them what they are doing," he said. "If it cannot explain what they are doing, it will be destroyed in the landing strip."
> 
> He said planes also risked being shot down mid-air.
> 
> Kenya has Jordanian jets but parliamentarians have raised questions about how flight-worthy they are.



Kenya Army Tweets: Don't Sell Donkeys To Militants


----------



## High_Gravity

Somalias Insurgents Embrace Twitter as a Weapon








> NAIROBI, Kenya  Think of it as the Battle of the Tweets.
> 
> Somalias powerful Islamist insurgents, the Shabab, best known for chopping off hands and starving their own people, just opened a Twitter account, and in the past week they have been writing up a storm, bragging about recent attacks and taunting their enemies.
> 
> Your inexperienced boys flee from confrontation & flinch in the face of death, the Shabab wrote in a post to the Kenyan Army.
> 
> It is an odd, almost downright hypocritical move from brutal militants in one of worlds most broken-down countries, where millions of people do not have enough food to eat, let alone a laptop. The Shabab have vehemently rejected Western practices  banning Western music, movies, haircuts and bras, and even blocking Western aid for famine victims, all in the name of their brand of puritanical Islam  only to embrace Twitter, one of the icons of a modern, networked society.
> 
> On top of that, the Shabab clearly have their hands full right now, facing thousands of African Union peacekeepers, the Kenyan military, the Ethiopian military and the occasional American drone strike all at the same time.
> 
> But terrorism experts say that Twitter terrorism is part of an emerging trend and that several other Qaeda franchises  a few years ago the Shabab pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda  are increasingly using social media like Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Twitter. The Qaeda branch in Yemen has proved especially adept at disseminating teachings and commentary through several different social media networks.
> 
> Social media has helped terrorist groups recruit individuals, fund-raise and distribute propaganda more efficiently than they have in the past, said Seth G. Jones, a political scientist at the RAND Corporation.
> 
> For the Shabab, this often translates into pithy postings, like Europe was in darkness when Islam made advances in physics, Maths, astronomy, architecture, etc. before passing on the torch, and sarcastic jabs at the Kenyan Army. Kenyas military spokesman, Maj. Emmanuel Chirchir, is also a loquacious writer of posts, and the result is nothing short of a full-on Twitter war.
> 
> After Major Chirchir wrote that the Shabab might be transporting weapons on donkeys and that any large concentration and movement of loaded donkeys will be considered as Al Shabaab activity, the Shabab responded: Like bombing donkeys, you mean! Your eccentric battle strategy has got animal rights groups quite concerned, Major.
> 
> Major Chirchir fired back, Life has better to offer than stonning innocent girl, a reference to the Shababs penchant for harsh Islamic punishments like stoning.
> 
> The Shabab have teased Major Chirchir for his spelling mistakes and have tossed around some SAT-quality words.
> 
> Stop prevaricating & say what you really think, Major! the Shabab wrote. Sure your comments will invite derision but try to muster (or feign) courage at least.
> 
> Few Somalia hands are surprised by all this. The Shabab may be bloodthirsty, and in the areas they control  and they still control many  they have yanked out gold teeth, beheaded shopkeepers, sawed off arms and stoned adulterers. Yet, at the same time, they have shown their technical skills, making powerful suicide bombs and roadside explosives. They also have a geeky side, showcasing their work through slick propaganda videos, Web sites and digital chat rooms.
> 
> Beyond that  and quite frightening to many American officials  is the fact that educated Westerners are clearly working for the Shabab. Several Somali-Americans have killed themselves as suicide bombers, and even non-Somali Westerners, including one man from Alabama, are serving as battlefield commanders.



Somalia?s Rebels Embrace Twitter as a Weapon - NYTimes.com


----------

