Ethiopian Troops Seen Entering Central Towns in Somalia

[xiinfaniin]

Ciidammo Itoobiyaan ah oo ku qulqulaya deegaanno ka tirsan Gobollada dhexe ee dalka Soomaaliya

 

 

 

Isniin, November 28, 2011 (HOL) − Ciidammo Itoobiyaan ah oo aad u hubeysan ayaa lagu arkay bartamaha dalka Soomaaliya, kuwaasoo kasoo tallaabay Axaddii shalay soohdinta ay wadaagaan Soomaaliya iyo Itoobiya.

 

Soo gelitaanka ciidamadan cusub ayaa waxay kusoo beegmaysaa maalmo yar kaddib markii ay IGAD ka codsatay dowladda Itoobiya inay ka caawiso DF iyo AMISOM dagaalka ay kula jiraan Xarakada Al-shabaab.

 

"Waxaan aragnay ciidammo Itoobiyaan ah oo aad u hubeysan, kuwaasoo hubkooda ay ka mid yihiin taangiyo ama kaarayaal, waxayna kusii socdeen Guriceel iyo Baladweyne. Ciidamadana waxay ahaayeen kuwo ka tiro badan kuwii aan aragnay toddobaadkii hore," ayuu yiri Axmed Muxyadiin Ugaas oo ka mid ah dadka ku nool degmada Balanbal oo la hadlayay wakaaladda wararka Reuters.

 

"Illaa shalay gallinkii dambe waxaan tiriyay 100 baabuur oo taangiyo ay ku jiraan oo ay wateen ciidamada Itoobiya, welina qulqulka ciidamadaas ma joogsan," ayuu goobjooguhu ku daray hadalkiisa.

 

Saraakiil u hadlay xukuumadda Itoobiya ayaa sheegay in ciidammo yar oo ka tirsan kuwooda ay ku sugan yihiin gudaha Soomaaliya, balse dowladda Itoobiya ayaa weli diiddan inay ciidamadeedu gudaha u galeen Soomaaliya.

 

Mas'uul ka tirsan Ahusunna oo isaguna magaciisa qariyay ayaa xaqiijiyay inay jiraan ciidammo Itoobiyaan oo ku sugan degmooyinka ay ka taliyaan ee gobollada Hiiraan iyo Galguduud.

 

"Haa, ciidammo Itoobiyaan ah ayaa halkan kuwo kalena way soo galayaan," ayuu yiri sarkaalka u hadlay Ahlusunna. "Al-shabaab waa laga bixinayaa gobollada dhexe, balse ma doonayo inaan shaaca ka qaado xilliga tallaabada la qaadayo."

 

Soo gelitaanka ciidamada Itoobiya ayaa wuxuu kusoo beegmayaa iyadoo madaxweyne Sheekh Shariif uu xalay ka sheegay dood aqoon-isweydaarsi ah oo lagu qabtay madaxtooyada in madaxda Itoobiya ay diiday inay ciidammo u soo diraan Soomaaliya.

 

Dowladda Itoobiya ayaa sannadkii 2006 ciidammo badan u soo dirtay Soomaaliya iyagoo caawinaya dowladdii Col. C/llaahi Yusuuf, waxayse isaga baxeen dalka 2009 kaddib laba sano oo dagaallo culus ay la galeen xoogaggii Maxkamadaha Islaamka.

[xiinfaniin]

Abtigis's salvation army have finally come

[Valenteenah.]

Round Two. Shabaab a godsend ayey noqdeen for many.

[xiinfaniin]

By Mohamed Ahmed and Abdi Sheikh

Sunday, November 27, 2011

 

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - New convoys of heavily-armed Ethiopian troops have crossed into Somalia and are heading for central areas, residents said on Sunday, days after Addis Ababa said it planned to send troops to help Somali and Kenya forces fighting Islamist insurgents.

 

Ethiopia, which intervened in Somalia between 2006 and 2009, said on Friday that it would deploy troops inside Somalia again for a "brief period".

 

An Ethiopian government official also acknowledged on Friday that a small force was already there on a reconnaissance mission. Ethiopia had previously denied scores of military trucks and armoured vehicles had entered Somalia on Nov. 19 and 20.

 

On Sunday, residents from towns in central Somalia said they had seen new, larger convoys.

 

"We have seen heavily armed Ethiopian troops with tanks heading to Guriel and Baladwayne. There are many more of them and (they are) more armed than last week," Ahmed Muhudin Ugas told Reuters from Balanbal town.

 

"Since yesterday afternoon I counted over 100 armed trucks with tanks; their convoy has not stopped yet."

 

A senior official with the pro-Mogadishu Sufi militia group Ahlu Sunna Waljamaca also confirmed the deployment.

 

"Yes, Ethiopian troops are here and more have entered central Somalia," the official, who declined to be named, told Reuters by phone. "Al Shabaab will be ousted from central Somalia but when and how are political points we do not want to disclose now."

 

Kenya sent troops into Somalia last month to crush al Shabaab, accusing the militant network of frequent attacks on its security forces and tourists inside Kenya.

 

Ethiopian soldiers previously went into Somalia in 2006, and left the country in early 2009 after ousting the Islamist Islamic Courts Union (ICU) from de facto power in Mogadishu.

 

They were dogged by accusations that their intervention, hugely unpopular with Somalis, was a rallying call for militias such as al Shabaab, who were not as powerful at that time.

 

This time, Ethiopia insists the deployment will be brief, although it has not given details on the size of the contingent.

 

Another resident in Guriel, in the central Galgadud region, said he had seen two different convoys of Ethiopian forces.

 

"Last night there was a convoy of Ethiopian troops that reached the town," Abdinur Osman Moalim told Reuters. "I don't know their number, but early in the morning we saw more than 40 vehicles of armed Ethiopian troops." (Editing by George Obulutsa and; Alessandra Rizzo).

 

Source: Reuters

[NGONGE]

Are they in? Hadaba now is the time to oppose them and call for their exit (whilst hoping they don't leave before dismantling the crazy Islamic cardboards).

[Abtigiis]

Xinn, and what is Sheikh Sharif saying about this? I thought you will update us on that too!

 

I second Ngonge. They must leave immediately. :D

[xiinfaniin]

^Why would I update you on Sharif. The man is as fickle as you are, thinking Ethiopians are not coming when they are already in

 

See, that is what I meant when I said you were fully owned

[Naxar Nugaaleed]

Hope they finish the job this time, and where the hell is Djibouti and why are they so late to the party, i keep reading there are 3000 Djiboution troops on there way

[Xaaji Xunjuf]

Very disturbing

[xiinfaniin]

Kenya’s Somali Gamble

 

By any reckoning, 2011 was not a good year for Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen (Movement of Striving Youth) or al-Shabaab (the Youth) as it is more commonly known. This Islamist and al-Qaeda aligned group in Somalia suffered various setbacks.

 

In March, Transitional Federal Government (TFG) forces together with the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) recaptured the town of Bulo Hawo. In April, the town of Dhobley, near the Kenyan border, also fell under the control of the TFG. By August 6, al-Shabaab was driven out of Mogadishu as a result of the co-ordinated attacks from AMISOM and TFG fighters.

 

In the process, some senior and experienced al-Shabaab commanders were killed. On March 16 Abdelkadir Yusuf Aar who served as the group’s leader in the Juba and Gedo region was killed. On April 3 another senior al-Shabaab operative, Hassan Abdurahman, was killed in Dhobley. On June 11, Fazul Abdullah Mohamed was killed by security forces in Afgoye, north-west of Mogadishu. Not only was Mohamed an al-Shabaab commander but he was also a senior al-Qaeda operative.

 

In addition to this military pressure from AMISOM and the TFG, al-Shabaab was also suffering from a series of organizational problems. Tensions between the movement’s northern and southern commanders escalated on the ideological and tactical fronts; less money was entering al-Shabaab’s coffers from the Somali diaspora at the same time when support for the movement from the Somali business community was ebbing; and clan militias increasingly challenged al-Shabaab’s territorial hegemony in its heartland of southern Somalia.

 

Attempting to lure Ethiopia

 

It is in this context that the authorities in Nairobi embarked on an ill-conceived, badly planned and poorly executed Operation Linda Nchi (Swahili for “Protect the Nation”) which involved hundreds of Kenyan troops crossing the border into Somalia on October. The immediate catalyst for the operation was the kidnapping of several tourists from Kenya by ostensibly al Shabaab militants*. In doing so the government of Mwai Kibaki has played into the hands of al-Shabaab.

 

For some time now al-Shabaab has been attempting to lure Ethiopia, the US and Kenya into sending boots on to Somali ground. In having a foreign “occupation” force once more on Somali soil, al-Shabaab hopes to play the nationalist card and to unite all factions under its banner whilst simultaneously weakening the TFG which is then seen as the “puppets” of these foreign forces.

 

Washington, however, has refused to play by al Shabaab’s rules, preferring surgical predator drone strikes. Addis Ababa, having withdrawn their troops and having learned their mistakes from its earlier intervention see no reason to once more re-engage militants on their home turf. Unfortunately, Nairobi still has to learn this painful lesson. Far from using its armed forces to seal its borders with Somalia or using its air force to provide support to TFG forces as it did at Dhobley, Kenya chose to send troops into al-Shabaab’s heartland in southern Somalia to take on the movement directly. This will prove to be a costly mistake for Nairobi.

 

Objective not clear

 

In the first instance, the Kenyan authorities were not clear as to the objective of its military intervention. Thus whilst at first, Nairobi stated that their armed forces were pursuing al-Shabaab fighters across the border, subsequent statements suggests that the military objectives became ever more expansive. These expanded objectives included dismantling al-Shabaab itself as well securing Kismayo, an al Shabaab- controlled port, 155 miles from the Kenyan border.

 

Second, given the expanded objectives and the topography of the region the military force deployed was much too small to attain the avowed objectives.

 

Third, Kenyan military planners seemed not to have factored the weather when drawing up their plans. One reason for the offensive to have stalled was because of the heavy rains and mud which is slowing the advance.

 

Fourth, rather than fight the Kenyans in conventional terms, al-Shabaab is employing guerilla tactics – which the Kenyan military unfortunately did not anticipate. Fifth, the intervention is exacerbating popular anger against Kenyans – especially when innocent civilians are being targeted. On October 30, for instance, the Kenyan air force, conducted an aerial bombardment of an internally displaced persons camp in Jilib which resulted in the deaths of five civilians, and the wounding of 45 others. Of the latter, 31 were children. Al-Shabaab has tapped into this popular anger as it recruits more fighters.

 

It is already clear that Nairobi is seeking a not too gracious exit from the Somali stage. Recently a Kenyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said that if the TFG commits to fighting al-Shabaab (which it has been doing), Kenya will halt its military advance. This Kenyan misadventure in Somalia may well prove to have given al Shabaab a life line.