Posts Tagged ‘Somalia’
Security guards flee as pirates seize ship
Somali pirates on Friday seized a specialist tanker after a desperate defence by unarmed security guards in what was thought to be the first attack on a ship with its own deterrent on board.
The pirates’ success will raise fresh concerns about the value of using security guards to protect ships in the dangerous sea lanes between Somalia and Yemen, where most of the 40 vessel seizures reported this year have taken place.
The three guards, all ex-Royal Marines, came under a hail of fire from half a dozen pirates using AK-47 rifles and rocket propelled grenades.
They kept the pirates at bay for more than an hour using hoses, evasive action and a sound device that deafens attackers.
But eventually the team were forced to escape by jumping off the bridge roof to be picked up by a French rescue helicopter.
FT.com / Africa – Security guards flee as pirates seize ship
Are we sooo idiot as to send UNARMED security guards to defend a ship from pirates?
It looks we are…
Unholly alliance: Somali pirates ally with Islamists
BBC NEWS | Special Reports | Pirates ‘working with Islamists’:
# Islamists have used the pirates to bring in arms shipments and foreign fighters, providing weapons and training in their use in return. They also help with bases from which the pirates operate
# Hardliners, known as the Shabab, now have a degree of control over several pirate groups and provide operating funds and specialist weapons in return for a share of the ransoms being paid to free the ships and crew
# As many as 2,500 young Somalis have been trained by the Shabab at points all along the Somali coast
# The Islamists are using the pirates to train their own forces in naval tactics so that they can provide protection for arms being smuggled in Somalia from Eritrea.
According to Phastidio.net, Somali pirates are in talks to buy Citigroup!! (Ehh, no, this was just a joke!!! 😆 )
Technorati Tags: Somali pirates, Somalia, Shabab, Shebab, piracy, Gulf of Aden
Somalia: Jihadists seize yet another town, impose Islamic law
Advancing ever closer to Somalia’s beleaguered capital, heavily armed Islamic fighters declared Thursday they will use strict Muslim rules to bring their lawless Horn of Africa country back under control.
The latest conquest by Islamic forces came late Wednesday in Elasha, 10 miles from the capital of Mogadishu. Thousands of people who have fled a bloody, two-year insurgency are living there in flimsy huts made of sticks and plastic tarp.
Islamic fighters now control most of southern and central Somalia, with the crucial exceptions of Mogadishu and Baidoa, where the parliament for Somalia’s weak, U.N.-backed government sits.
via Jihad Watch: Somalia: Jihadists seize yet another town, impose Islamic law
Elasha was taken my “more moderate Muslims”, “who want to impose strict Islamic law”, and “who want to work for the elderly and disabled”. They continue:
“We inform you that from today on, all areas under our control will be ruled by Islam,” Shabab commander Sheik Abukar told residents of Merka on Thursday, one day after taking over the key port town without firing a shot. “We will change the behavior of the youth here.”
My God, this sounds really bad… and after Aisha’s stoning and Mohammed’s beheading, it sounds even worse.
BREAKING: Suicide bombers in Somalia strike UN compound (and other targets)!! (Updated)
Suicide bombers struck targets across northern Somalia on Wednesday, including a U.N. compound, officials said. There were deaths and dozens of injuries, but an exact figure was still unclear.
“We are still counting the bodies,” said Ismail Adani, a spokesman for the government of the breakaway republic of Somaliland, where bombers hit the U.N. compound, the Ethiopian Consulate and the presidential palace.
Suicide bombers also attacked two intelligence facilities in the northern Somali region of Puntland on Wednesday. The two suicide bombers died in the attack and six security officials were wounded, said Muse Gelle Yusuf, governor of Somalia’s northern port city of Bossaso. The region is a hotbed of abductions and piracy.
via Suicide bombers in Somalia strike UN compound – Yahoo! News
UPDATE: 19 killed in 3 terrorist attacks.
Muslims behead Christian convert from Islam in Somalia
Among at least 24 aid workers killed in Somalia this year was one who was beheaded last month specifically for converting from Islam to Christianity, among other charges, according to an eyewitness.
Muslim extremists from the al Shabab group fighting the transitional government on Sept. 23 sliced the head off of Mansuur Mohammed, 25, a World Food Program (WFP) worker, before horrified onlookers of Manyafulka village, 10 kilometers (six miles) from Baidoa.
The militants had intercepted Mohammed and a WFP driver, who managed to escape, earlier in the morning. Sources close to Mohammed’s family said he converted from Islam to Christianity in 2005.
(…) The Muslim militant announced that Mohammed was an infidel and a spy for occupying Ethiopian soldiers.
Mohammed remained calm with an expressionless face, never uttering a word, said the eyewitness. As the chanting of “Allah Akubar [God is greater]” rose to a crescendo, one of the militiamen twisted his head, allowing the other to slit his neck. When the head was finally severed from the torso, the killers cheered as they displayed it to the petrified crowd.
via Jihad Watch: Muslims behead Christian convert from Islam in Somalia
Don’t think any comments are needed. Only that where is the outrage on this kind of killings?? There is NONE!
No Consensus on How to Solve Somali Pirate Problem
Despite international outrage at the persistence of piracy in the waters off Somalia, there appears to be no consensus yet on how to deal with the problem.
The varying approaches were underscored this week when a South Korea shipping company decided to pay the ransom that one band of pirates had demanded in exchange for freeing a ship on Thursday.
Meanwhile, a stalemate remains in the most prominent hijacking, in which Somali pirates took over a Ukranian ship carrying Russian-built tanks and other weapons.
U.S. and Russian warships have those pirates cornered, but the forces have yet to take action. The pirates had warned they would blow up the ship unless a ransom is paid, but have yet to follow through on the threat.
The case of a hijacked Panama-flagged cargo ship, on the other hand, ended Tuesday in a violent resolution when soldiers from a semiautonomous region of Somalia moved in.
So contrary to what I thought the Faina’s kidnapping had not ended. The pirates have freed other kidnapped ships (one from Thailand and another one from South Korea) though, after their ramson was paid.
There are also more news about which was the destination of the Faina: Russia News has published it was Yemen.
Somali pirates menace to destroy Faina; Kidnapping ends
With U.S. warships lurking nearby, the pirates who hijacked an arms-laden Ukrainian tanker off Somalia threatened to destroy the vessel unless a ransom is paid, a spokesman for the bandits said.
Besides the U.S. ships, a Russian frigate was heading toward the scene, raising the stakes for a possible commando-style raid on the ship. Pirates have seized more than two dozen ships this year off the Horn of Africa, but the hijacking of the Faina has drawn the most international concern because of its dangerous cargo.
The vessel is carrying 33 tanks and other heavy weapons.
Also on Friday, armed pirates in speedboats hijacked a Greek chemical tanker with 20 crew members in the Gulf of Aden near Somalia, a piracy watchdog official said.
After that, the Army from the autonomous region of Puntland (Somalia) attacked the ship. Two pirates and a soldier died in the attack that recovered the ship. What shocks me is that there are practically no news about this. The news report adds:
Although United Nations passed a resolution in which any country was allowed to fight Somali pirates, no Government has decided to carry on an action to end their attacks.
So someone was actually hoping a UN resolution would move countries to act? How shocking!!
It also reports:
Faina was carrying 33 Russian tanks T-72, anti-air weapons, grenades and munition, whose destination was the region of the Sudanese south.
First thing is that it doesn’t say what weapons that munition was for and the second thing is that we don’t know yet exactly what the destination was, as there have been contradicting reports.
Related posts:
About Somali Islamists:
Somalia: Islamists destroy derelict church.
About the Ukrainian ship kidnapped in Somalia:
- Hijacker Somali pirates: “We’ll fight to the death before surrendering us to US, Russia”.
- Somali Islamists’ statements (over the kidnapped Ukrainian ship and, well…, more menaces).
- Piracy is miraculous…sometimes.
- The mistery over the Ukrainian ship captured in Somalia continues.
- Somali pirates demand $20 million ransom.
- What was doing an Iranian-state cargo ship on Somali waters?
Hijacker Somali Pirates: We’ll Fight to the Death Before Surrendering to U.S., Russia
A group of Somali pirates who have hijacked a tanker loaded with military supplies say they will fight to the death before giving in to Russian and U.S. authorities.
The superpowers have been unable to end the standoff and remain concerned that the ship’s cargo of 33 tanks and other weapons could fall into enemy hands.
But a local official reported that the pirates turned down a demand from Islamist insurgents for some of the arms.
The tense situation off the coast of Somalia began 11 days ago when the pirates took control of the Ukrainian vessel MV Faina.
They have asked for a ransom of about $22 million, or 11 million British pounds, to release the 21 Ukrainian, Latvian and Russian hostages and the cargo.
“If we are attacked we will defend ourselves until every last one of us dies,” Sugule Ali, a spokesman for the pirates, said in an interview over satellite telephone from the ship.
“We only need money and if we are paid, then everything will be OK,” he said. “No one can tell us what to do.”
Ali’s words came as U.S. warships continued to surround the ship and American helicopters buzzed overhead.
But looks like that today we have an update: the pirates have reduced the ransom they’re asking to 8 million dollars, apparently, because:
A man who identified himself as Jama Aden and spoke by satellite phone Tuesday is not the usual spokesman for the pirates. He answered the telephone of the spokesman, Sugule Ali, and said Ali was not immediately available.
So, is he really the new pirates’ speaker?? Or not??
Somali Islamists’s statements (over the kidnapped Ukrainian ship and… well, more menaces)
Somali Islamists fighting against the central government (an Ethiopian ally) have asked two days ago to the pirates who kidnapped an Ukrainian ship to destroy the cargo of tanks and weapons if they do not obtain the ransom.
Sheik Robow, speaker of the Somali Islamists, told them to “burn the ship with its weapons or to sink it”. He also denied having any kind of links with the pirates, who “act following their own interests”. “It’s a crime to capture business ships, but that it’s not applied to those which transport weapons for the ennemies of Allah”. “We think that the cargo belongs to Ethiopia”.
via Internacional – EL UNIVERSAL.
So, what’s really transporting this ship and who was it for? I am beginning to think there is much more than meets the eye here. So many problems just for some tanks and “light weapons”. What “light weapons”?
But that haven’t been the only “statement” by our friends,. the amiable Somali pirates: they have also menaced some NGO’s working on their country. The reason? They are “committing crimes against Islam and the Jihad“:
On Friday, a statement by insurgent spokesman Sheik Muqtar Robow accused the aid groups CARE and the International Medical Corps of committing “crimes against Islam and the jihad” and warned them to leave areas controlled by Islamic forces.
He did not elaborate on why the two agencies were singled out or what would happen if they did not leave.
This Sheikh is having a lot of free time lately, isn’t he?
Oh, well, it was only the week-end…
Related posts:
About Somali Islamists:
Somalia: Islamists destroy derelict church.
About the Ukrainian ship, kidnapped in Somalia:
Piracy is miraculous…sometimes.
The mistery over the Ukrainian ship captured in Somalia continues.
Somali pirates demand $20 million ransom.
What was doing an Iranian-state cargo ship on Somali waters?
Piracy produces miracles… sometimes
Six U.S. warships circled a hijacked ship off Somalia and a Russian frigate headed toward the standoff Friday, while Russia called for naval forces gathering in the area to coordinate their efforts against piracy.
The Somali government has given foreign powers the freedom to use force against the pirates holding the MV Faina and its 20 crew members, including two Russians. The Ukrainian ship is anchored near the central Somali town of Hobyo, with the American warships within 10 miles of it.
Russia, whose warship is not expected for several days, has used commando tactics to end several hostage situations on its own soil, but hundreds of hostages have died in those efforts.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Friday that Russia “aims to prevent pirates from causing mayhem,” according to Russian news agencies.
Lavrov said Russia and other nations will act on the basis of a U.N. resolution that authorized countries to enter Somalia’s territorial waters and use “all necessary means” to stop piracy, and said nations with naval vessels in the area should work together against pirates.
via Russia vows to work with U.S. and EU to stop piracy – International Herald Tribune.
BBC continues: Piracy off the coast of Somalia has cost up to $30m (£17m) in ransoms so far this year, a report has said.
The Gulf of Aden is not a sea route ships can avoid. Situated at the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula between Somalia and Yemen, the 2,500-mile waterway is strategic for the world’s economy. It connects Europe and North America with Asia and East Africa via the Suez Canal. About 1,500 ships, ten percent of global shipping traffic, pass through it every month, including four percent of the world’s daily crude oil supply. The only alternative route, around South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, is thousands of miles longer and much more expensive, considering larger ships cost about $20,000 daily to run.
(…) The IMB estimates that about 1,000 pirates are active in the gulf. One sailor, a pirate prisoner for 174 days, said his captors are well-organized in groups of 15-20. Armed with Kalashnikov rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and scaling ladders, they operate hundreds of miles off shore from two or three larger “mother” ships, from which they launch their attacks in speed boats against unsuspecting victims. Naval officer Winstanley said there was a degree of organization in their attacks, “Which is why we are taking action.”
Related posts:
Somalia: Islamists destroy derelict church
BBC reports that An Islamist group in Somalia has destroyed a derelict church in the southern port town of Kismayo, after prayers to mark the Eid al-Fitr festival at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The colonial-era church, which has not been used for many years, was occupied by several displaced families who were not given prior warning that it was to be demolished. The Islamists have also stated that they targeted the house on retaliation for the destruction of a mosque in Etiopia and that they will build a mosque instead.
This is not the first time islamists build mosques on ancient Christian places: in 2005, an Islamist group dug up graves from an Italian colonial cemetery in the capital, Mogadishu, and built a mosque on the site.
The mystery over the Ukranian ship kidnapped in Somalia continues
Le Monde reports that: “Who is the addresee of the weapons’ cargo transported by the Ukrainian cargo captured by Somalian pirates? The pirates’ speaker Sugule Ali has announced that the 33 tancks who were being transported to Sudan and not to Kenya, as was stated by Nairobi and Kiev. Anyway, the weapons’ owner is not our problem, our problem is the $20 million”, that is, the ransom the pirates have demanded to free the Faina and its cargo. The semi-authonomous Sudanese army has denied being the tanks’ owner.
Meanwhile the kidnappers were celebrating Muslim festivity of Eid al-Fitr aboard.
The blue-and-white Ukrainian ship has been buzzed by American helicopters since Sunday. Pirates hijacked the Faina and its cargo of 33 Soviet-designed tanks and weapons on Thursday while the ship was passing through the Gulf of Aden, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, en route to the Kenyan port of Mombasa.
Ali said the vessel was surrounded by four warships on Monday evening, though he could not identify where the ships were from. The San Diego-based USS destroyer Howard has been watching the pirate ship for several days and has spoken to the pirates and crew by radio. On Monday, U.S. naval officials said several American ships had joined the watch but declined to give details.
(…) The U.S. fears the armaments may end up with al-Qaida-linked Islamic militants who have been fighting an insurgency against the shaky, U.N.-backed Somali transitional government since late 2006, when the Islamists were driven out after six months in power. More than 9,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in the Iraq-style insurgency.
US has also announced that 3 pirates may be dead after shootout.
Related posts:
Somali pirate demands $20 million ransom
As a heavily armed U.S. freighter patrolled nearby and planes flew overhead, a Somali pirate spokesman told The Associated Press his group was demanding a $20 million ransom to release a cargo ship loaded with Russian tanks.
The spokesman also warned that the pirates would fight to the death if any country tried military action to regain the ship, and a man who said he was the ship’s captain reported that one crew member had died.
Pirates seized the Ukrainian-operated ship Faina off the coast of Somalia on Thursday as it headed to Kenya carrying 33 Russian-built T-72 tanks and a substantial quantity of ammunition and spare parts. The ordinance was ordered by the Kenyan government.
(…) In a rare gesture of cooperation, the Americans appeared to be keeping an eye on the Faina until the Russian missile frigate Neustrashimy, or Intrepid, reaches the area. The Russian ship was still somewhere in the Atlantic on Sunday, the Russian navy reported.
Pirate spokesman Sugule Ali said he was speaking Sunday from the deck of the Faina via a satellite phone — and verified his location by handing the phone over to the ship’s captain, who also spoke with the AP. It was not possible to further confirm their identities.
“We want ransom, nothing else. We need $20 million for the safe release of the ship and the crew,” Ali said, adding that “if we are attacked, we will defend ourselves until the last one of us dies.”
Somali pirate demands $20 million ransom – Africa – msnbc.com.
Well, we know more things than yesterday. We know who had bought those weapons. I wonder what will happen. The pirates know very well that if they are attacked the munitions can explode, so they will be worth nothing.
Anyway, the mistery remains about the Iranian State’s cargo ship.
Looks like the cargo was destined for Sudan and not for Kenya, as was thought at first.
What was doing an Iranian State’s cargo ship on Somali waters?
A tense standoff is underway in northeastern Somalia between pirates, Somali authorities, and Iran over a suspicious merchant vessel and its mysterious cargo. Hijacked late last month in the Gulf of Aden, the MV Iran Deyanat remains moored offshore in Somali waters and inaccessible for inspection. Its declared cargo consists of minerals and industrial products, however, Somali and regional officials directly involved in the negotiations over the ship and who spoke to The Long War Journal are convinced that it was heading to Eritrea to deliver small arms and chemical weapons to Somalia’s Islamist insurgents.
(…) The MV Iran Deyanat was brought to Eyl, a sleepy fishing village in northeastern Somalia, and was secured by a larger gang of pirates – 50 onboard and 50 onshore. Within days, pirates who had boarded the ship developed strange health complications, skin burns and loss of hair. Independent sources tell The Long War Journal that a number of pirates have also died. “Yes, some of them have died. I do not know exactly how many but the information that I am getting is that some of them have died,” Andrew Mwangura, Director of the East African Seafarers’ Assistance Program, said Friday when reached by phone in Mombasa.
(…) The exact nature of the cargo remains a mystery but officials in Puntland and Baidoa are convinced the ship was carrying weapons to Eritrea for Islamist insurgents. “We cannot inspect the cargo yet,” Osman said, “but we are sure that it is weapons.”
“Puntland requested the pirates two weeks ago to hand over this Iranian ship, saying that it is carrying weapons to Eritrea,” Puntland Fisheries Minister Abdulqadir Muse Yusuf told Reuters. “I have seen food and other odd items on the ship but I do not know what is hidden underneath.”
Mystery surrounds hijacked Iranian ship – The Long War Journal.
For once, it has been the Somali pirates the ones who have been struck with “severe shock”.
Anyway, I am shocked (as ever…) because this story is nowhere in the media… Looks like it hasn’t happened… at all.
Related news:
- Pirates “want $35m for Ukranian tank ship”. The ship was transporting tanks for Kenya. Russia has sent a warship to fight pirates. More information about this in Danger Room: “No one knows, definitively, where the shipment of T-72 tanks was supposed to go. Russia’s ITAR-TASS news agency says it was bound for Kenya, which received 77 of the Ukrainian tanks last year. Andrew Mwangura, of the Mombasa, Kenya-based East African Seafarers’ Assistance Programme, seems less sure. He tells Reuters, “In the past, military equipment has come through Mombasa on its way to south Sudan, but we have not seen any south Sudanese officials at the port waiting. And anyway, there is an arms embargo for Sudan.” T-72 tanks have also been shipped to the Iraqi army, with American assistance.”
- Somalia: 160,000 people have left Mogadishu in 2008 as refugees.
IBA considers both Ukranian and Iranian are the same ship. I just don’t think so. The Ukranian has said what its load of cargo was since the first time. The Iranian crew didn’t tell what it actually contained (it was truly vague, “minerals and industrial products“): we only know the effects it caused on the people who went near it (“pirates who had boarded the ship developed strange health complications, skin burns and loss of hair“). And certainly those effects are not those of a simple “tank and weaponry”. Some people had died out of what they inhaled or touched there.
Last news are that Ukrainian ship is been taken into an Islamist-controlled area:
The Ukrainian cargo ship, whose shipment includes weaponry and tanks, kidnapped by Somali pirates last Thursday, was headed yesterday towards the town of Harardere, a zone controlled by Islamists, according to high-ranking official of the Puntland’s region.
“The pirates are headed towards the harbour of Hobyo and towards Haradhere. Apparently, they want to unload some light weapons there from the cargo ship“, Bile Mohamoud Qabowsade, the Presidency’s Councillor of Puntland’s autonomous government, told by phone from Mogadishu.
Related posts:
Carnage in Somali market shelling
About 40 people have been killed in the Somali capital, mostly when shells were fired on the busy Bakara market.
Witnesses say Ethiopian troops fired mortars after insurgents launched simultaneous attacks on the two main African Union peacekeeping bases.
“There is blood everywhere, and human flesh on the walls,” said market trader Abshir Mohamed Ali.
Eleven people were killed when a shell landed in an alleyway, while six family members died overnight, they say.
Correspondents say the clashes are among the fiercest in Mogadishu for several months.
BBC NEWS | Africa | Carnage in Somali market shelling.
Related posts:
Somalia: French Army frees another two hostages
A French couple held hostage by Somali pirates for two weeks have been freed by the French army in an operation in which one pirate was killed, the Elysee presidential palace announced Tuesday.
As a result, Sarkozy has called upon international community to fight piracy:
(…) “The pirates now know that they are taking risks, big risks,” Sarkozy said.
Sarkozy said he ordered the rescue when it became clear that the pirates planned to take the hostages to Eyl, a Somali zone that serves as a base for numerous pirates.
Freeing them would have been difficult once they got there and “their captivity could have lasted months,” Sarkozy said.
Vicki writes why this operation is really important in the fight against piracy:
Eyl is a port town in the autonomous region of Puntland. At least 10 ships are known to be held there, along with approximately 130 hostages. Most of these languish there for months until the ship owners pay increasingly large ransoms. Sarkozy said that no ransom was paid in this instance. That is good news, since the profits from the ransoms are being invested in drug trafficking, which in turn is being used to sponsor insurgency movements in Somalia’s unstable coalition of states.
For a background on this story, click here.
Related article: Somali pirates plunder is used to fund terrorism, expers fear (via EuropeNews).
Related posts:
If you want to defend the rights of kidnapped hostages, you can join the Facebook group Pray for the hostages. It doesn’t matter what your religion is, just that you’re interested in praying for them.
France, Spain seek piracy help
For some time now, pirates have been ravaging throughout Somali coasts and seizing off 25 ships only last year. Last year a Spanish tuna boat and a French yatch were seized off Somali coasts.
So now both Spain and France are looking for allies to create a multinational naval force to fight piracy in the area and want “as many countries as possible” united in the effort, according to Spanish Defense Minister Carme Chacón.
This is not the first measure brought by the two countries to combat Somali pirates: the UN Security Council passed a resolution in June authorising member countries to send warships into Somali waters temporarily in pursuit of pirates.
The Times – France, Spain seek piracy help.
Technorati Tags: Carme+Chacón, France, International+Maritime+Bureau, Somali+pirates, Somalia, Spain, piracy
Al-Qaida-linked Somali Islamist Draws Comparison With Mandela
DJIBOUTI, Djibouti (AFP)–A Somali hardline cleric accused of ties with Al- Qaida compared himself Wednesday with Nelson Mandela, saying he was fighting to free his country from foreign occupiers.
Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, an influential cleric designated a terrorist by Washington, said: “Americans must use their great wisdom and should not call a freedom fighter a terrorist.”
“I am not harmful to the interest of the United States and other western countries, but I will not stop fighting for Somalia in order to be accepted by the West,” he told AFP by phone from the Eritrean capital Asmara.
“Nelson Mandela was once a terrorist and he was in the U.S. list of people accused of fomenting terrorism, but now he is a patriot and well-respected figure. My case is not different.”
On July 1, the U.S. removed Mandela – winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 and president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999 – and his African National Congress from a three-decade-old immigration watch list for possible terrorists.
(…) Aweys says he is fighting for the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops who entered Somalia late 2006 and helped oust an Islamist group that had taken control.
“There are efforts to bring peace to Somalia, but all those efforts are futile as long as Ethiopians are occupying Somalia, destroying our livelihoods by killing women and children,” he said.
“I would like to work with all Somali forces that are committed to the liberation of Somalia. There is only one disease in Somalia, the presence of the Ethiopian forces.
“If these Ethiopians leave, Somalis will overcome their shortcomings,” he said.
Al-Qaida-linked Somali Islamist Draws Comparison With Mandela.
So: he is fighting against Ethiopian troops who entered Somalia to oust an Islamist regime… in order to create an Islamist Somalia… not to “be accepted by the West” blablabla…
Technorati Tags: Somalia, Ethiopia, Islamism, Mandela, Aweys
UN worker murdered in Somalia
I wrote the other day about Al-Qaeda’s safe havens to train terrorists. One of them is Somalia where Jihadist murderers have assasined Osman Ali Ahmed, the head of the UN Development Programme in Somalia, after attending evening prayers in the mosque in Bulohube. His son and nd another man were also wounded in the incident, the Associated Press news agency reports.
The shooting came a day after an explosion in the capital reportedly killed a Somali official, his wife and four others.
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