Home Tags Posts tagged with "al shabab"
al shabab
A French soldier has been killed in Somalia during a failed operation to free hostage Denis Allex who is also believed to have died, the defence minister said.
Jean-Yves Le Drian told reporters in Paris that a second soldier was missing after the operation.
A battle erupted with al-Shabab militants after commandos swooped on the town of Bulo Marer overnight.
The raid came hours after French troops intervened in the west African state of Mali.
France was “engaged in a merciless fight against terrorism wherever it is found”, Jean-Yves Le Drian said.
The French government knew well the intervention would have dangerous implications for the nine French hostages being held across northern Africa.
Jean-Yves Le Drian said “all the indications” were that hostage Denis Allex, kidnapped in Somalia in July 2009, had been killed by his captors during the operation.
But al-Shabab said Denis Allex, an agent of France’s DGSE intelligence service, was not in the area and was unharmed.
Earlier, the French defence ministry announced that he had been killed. It also said that two French soldiers had died in the fighting, along with 17 militants in the town in the lower Shebelle region.
In a statement, al-Shabab reported a “fierce firefight” that lasted 45 minutes.
A French soldier has been killed in Somalia during a failed operation to free hostage Denis Allex who is also believed to have died
Giving no details of its own casualties, the group said it had killed “several” French soldiers and had captured an injured soldier.
The injured soldier would be shown to the press, once security allowed, the group said.
Denis Allex, according to al-Shabaab, was “safe and far from the location of the battle”. An announcement about his fate would be made within two days, the group said, promising “bitter consequences” for the French government.
Residents said at least four civilians including a pregnant woman were killed and others wounded in cross-fire.
They reported seeing the body of a foreign soldier lying on the ground, with helicopters hovering over him.
One unnamed resident said: “Last night while I was sleeping I heard small-arms fire.
“After 10 minutes of shooting, helicopters joined the fight and started firing at targets on the ground, and people on the ground were firing back.
“Nobody could get out of their houses. The helicopters were hovering over the town.”
Of the other French hostages, at least six are being held by the al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb group, AFP news agency reports.
Denis Allex appeared in a video in June 2010, appealing to France to drop its support for the Somali government.
He last appeared in another video in October, looking gaunt and calling on French President Francois Hollande to work for his release.
Somalia has not had an effective central government for more than two decades.
France has a large military base in neighboring Djibouti, including army, marine and air force units.
On Friday, President Francois Hollande announced that French forces were supporting an offensive by the Malian government to regain territory captured by Islamist militants in the north.
It was confirmed that French jets had made air strikes as Islamist rebels were forced out of the town of Konna.
Jean-Yves Le Drian said a French helicopter pilot was killed in the fighting.
Francois Hollande said Islamists had been trying to turn Mali into a “terrorist” state and the French intervention complied with international law and had been agreed with Malian interim President Dioncounda Traore.
[youtube b7zGSBDRwqA]
The first Somali government and African Union (AU) troops are reported to have entered the strategic Somali port of Kismayo, witnesses and officials say.
They have been battling the al-Shabab militia for control of the city.
On Saturday, the al-Qaeda-aligned militants said they had withdrawn from Kismayo after an AU military assault.
Kenyan and Somali forces had launched a beach assault on the Islamist group’s last major bastion the day before, but had met some resistance.
Reports as to the size and make-up of the AU contingent have been mixed.
One resident said Somali Service that a small infantry unit of 11 Somali soldiers had entered the city from the west and were patrolling on foot on the main roads of Kismayo, while another said he had seen both Kenyan and Somali troops entering the city centre from the airport.
Around 100 troops were seen by a tribal elder in Kismayo taking over a police station and setting up an outpost on top of a tall building.
Somali government spokesman in Kismayo Mohamed Faarah Daher said AU and Somali forces had gone in to the city to establish security for the population, and had also taken up positions at the airport and sea port.
Kenyan troops are part of an African force trying to wrest control of Somalia from militants for the new United Nations-backed president.
After resisting the AU and Somali advance on Friday, al-Shabab announced it had shut its five-year administration in Kismayo the next day for strategic reasons.
Residents had spoken of increasing tension inside the port town amid the power vacuum that ensued.
A number of influential clan figures have been murdered in the past few days.
The Kenyan military said that Kenyan, Somali and AU troops were “currently consolidating the gains in Kismayo and expanding out to the rest of the city”, according to a message on its official Twitter account.
Kenyan soldiers have “established no-fire zones around markets, schools, mosques and hospitals”, another message read. Kenyan troops are reported to be present in Kismayo’s suburbs but not in the city centre.
The Kenyan Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi said Kenya welcomed the move on Kismayo.
“Kenya has been bearing the brunt of the instability in Somalia for a very long time. We host 650,000 refugees and we have been seeing sporadic incidents of grenade attacks in Kenya,” he said.
“So any action supported by the international community… is very positive because it is going to give room for Somalia to stabilize,” he added.
Last week, a Kenya military spokesperson said he feared the withdrawal might be a trap, making the army wary of entering Kismayo. There have been unconfirmed reports that al-Shabab may have mined parts of the town.
Correspondents say the loss of Kismayo will be a major blow to the Islamists.
Somalia’s second largest port is a significant source of revenue for whoever controls it and al-Shabab also used the port to bring in weapons.
AU troops pushed al-Shabab from the Somali capital, Mogadishu, in August 2011.
Along with other pro-government forces they have gone on to take control of most of the major towns previously in the hands of the militants.
But the al-Qaeda-linked group’s fighters are still highly active in much of the countryside in southern and central Somalia and have carried out attacks in cities they no longer control.
Since the overthrow of President Siad Barre in 1991, Somalia has seen clan-based warlords, Islamist militants and its neighbors all battling for control.
[youtube _qJAFuK-o0k]
One child has been killed and three seriously hurt in a grenade attack on a church’s Sunday school in the Kenya capital, Nairobi.
The attacker targeted St Polycarp’s church on Juja Road.
A police spokesman blamed sympathizers of Somalia’s al-Shabab Islamist militant group, angry over Kenya’s role in the UN-backed intervention force.
A mob later rounded on Somalis living near the church with sticks and stones in a suspected revenge attack.
Police chief Moses Nyakwama said 13 people had been injured in the revenge attack, in the suburb of Eastleigh.
Reports suggested a number of those hurt at the church were injured in a stampede after the attack.
A police spokesman, Charles Owino, told Reuters news agency: “We suspect this blast might have been carried out by sympathizers of al-Shabab.
“These are the kicks of a dying horse since, of late, Kenyan police have arrested several suspects in connection with grenades.”
The authorities said three children were seriously hurt in the attack, and a number of others suffered lighter injuries.
The Red Cross had earlier said six children were critically wounded.
Irene Wambui, who was in the church at the time of the attack, said: “We were just worshipping God in church when suddenly we heard an explosion and people started running for their lives.
“We came to realize that the explosion had injured some kids who were taken to hospital and unfortunately one succumbed.”
Senior Nairobi police officer Moses Ombati appealed for calm after youths reportedly attacked the nearby Alamin mosque.
Nairobi and the port city of Mombasa have suffered a series of grenade attacks since Kenya sent troops into Somalia last October.
The attacks in Mombasa escalated after radical Islamist preacher Aboud Rogo Mohammed was killed in a drive-by shooting in August.
In July, 15 people were killed in raids on churches in Garissa, near Kenya’s border with Somalia.
There was speculation that al-Shabab or its sympathizers were responsible.
[youtube LfURdegScLg]
Six Somali civilians have been shot dead by a Kenyan soldier advancing towards the al-Shabab stronghold of Kismayo, the Kenyan army has confirmed.
The soldier has been detained pending an investigation, it said, noting the incident followed a militant attack.
Somali army spokesman Adan Mohamed Hirsi earlier said: “It was a deliberate killing.”
Meanwhile, the Hizbul Islam group has announced that it is leaving the al-Shabab militant organization.
It is a significant setback for al-Shabab, following recent military defeats.
Kenyan troops intervened in Somalia a year ago after a spate of cross-border attacks blamed on the al-Qaeda linked al-Shabab.
The shooting happened about 50 km (30 miles) from Kismayo, the largest city still in militant hands.
Six Somali civilians have been shot dead by a Kenyan soldier advancing towards the al-Shabab stronghold of Kismayo
Adan Mohamed Hirsi condemned the killings and asked the Somali government to take action.
“This incident is very hurtful,” he said, adding that a group of young men were shot outside a shop in the village of Janay Abdalla.
They were reportedly queuing to buy sugar.
As well as those killed, two civilians were seriously wounded, Adan Mohamed Hirsi said.
Kenyan military spokesman Col. Cyrus Oguna said the incident happened shortly after al-Shabab militants attacked Kenyan soldiers who were escorting people to collect water from a well in the village, killing five civilians and one soldier.
“Later on in the day, several people approached KDF [Kenya Defence Forces] defensive positions, where a KDF soldier allegedly opened fire killing six people,” he said in a statement.
“The soldier was disarmed and has since been put on guarded seclusion,” he said, adding that appropriate action would be taken after the investigation.
Col. Cyrus Oguna said the Kenyan operations in Somalia should not be judged by this “unfortunate incident” and that the “utmost care and concern for civilian safety” were taken.
Kenyan forces have in the past been accused of causing civilian deaths in Kismayo while shelling al-Shabab targets inside the city from ships operating off the coast.
Some 10,000 people have fled Kismayo in the past week, the United Nations refugee agency estimates.
Al-Shabab has been forced out of the capital, Mogadishu, and several other towns over the past year but still controls much of the countryside in south and central Somalia.
However, it still stages frequent attacks.
On Saturday, gunmen shot dead a member of Somalia’s new parliament in Mogadishu.
Mustafa Haji Maalim was gunned down after leaving a mosque in the southern Waberi district following evening prayers, witnesses said.
The dead lawmaker was the father-in-law of former President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, and is the first parliamentarian to be targeted since a new 275-member assembly was selected in August.
No-one has so far claimed the attack, though al-Shabab has previously vowed to kill government officials.
On Thursday, a double suicide attack in Mogadishu targeting a restaurant recently opened by Somalis from the diaspora killed 18 people.
Hizbul Islam spokesman Mohamed Moalim said his group still wanted the African Union mission to leave Somalia but welcomed the new president and parliament as a “positive development”.
He said the split was due to long-standing ideological differences, such as his group’s opposition to the use of foreign jihadis.
The two forces merged in 2010, following bitter clashes.
Since the overthrow of President Siad Barre in 1991, Somalia has seen clan-based warlords, Islamist militants and its neighbors all battling for control.
The wreckage of two Ugandan helicopters that went missing on Sunday has been found in a remote area of Kenya, a Kenyan army spokesman has said.
The fate of those on board – believed to be 14 people – is unknown, Colonel Cyrus Oguna said.
Both aircraft were part of a contingent being sent to reinforce the African Union (AU) force in Somalia.
A third helicopter on the same mission made an emergency landing in Mount Kenya on Sunday.
Its passengers have been rescued, Col. Cyrus Oguna said.
The wreckage of two Ugandan helicopters that went missing on Sunday has been found in a remote area of Kenya
Only one of the four Russian-made helicopters en route to Somalia had made a scheduled refuelling stop on Sunday in the Kenyan town of Garissa.
The wreckage of the two missing helicopters was spotted on Mount Kenya – Africa’s second-highest peak at 5,199 metres (17,057 feet) – by wildlife officers, Kenya’s Daily Nation newspaper reports.
A Kenyan army team is on the way to the site of the crash, said Col. Cyrus Oguna.
One helicopter has been completely destroyed and the other partially, he said.
The combat helicopters came down as they were flying from Uganda to Somalia to take part in an AU-led offensive to capture the port city of Kismayo from the militant Islamist group al-Shabab, correspondents say.
Ugandan troops form the bulk of the nearly 17,000-strong AU force in Somalia, where they are supporting the UN-backed government.
Although it has lost ground in the past year, al-Shabab, which has joined al-Qaeda, still controls many southern and central areas.
Prev12Page 2 of 2
