Somalia rebels looking increasingly like Taliban

[mlurp]

More to worry about. IMHO the world is starting to come unglued... So many people with their own agendas, and most are about evil and hate..

Somalia rebels looking increasingly like Taliban

By JASON STRAZIUSO and MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN, Associated Press Writers Jason Straziuso And Mohamed Olad Hassan, Associated Press Writers – 2 hrs 11 mins ago.

MOGADISHU, Somalia – Men are forced to grow beards. Women can't leave home without a male relative. Music, movies and watching sports on TV are banned. Limbs are chopped off as punishment, and executions by stoning have become a public spectacle.

Somalia is looking more and more like Afghanistan under the Taliban — two rugged countries 2,000 miles apart, each lacking a central government, each with a hard-line Islamist militia that cows the public into submission.

Al-Shabab in Somalia and the Taliban in Afghanistan — their tactics increasingly mirror each other. Those tactics worked for the Taliban until the U.S. invasion overthrew it in 2001, and now they are making a comeback. Meanwhile, al-Shabab has gained control over large swaths of this arid Horn of Africa country.

In the latest adoption of tactics long used by the Afghan militants, al-Shabab is ordering households in southern Somalia to contribute a boy to the militants' ranks. Childless families have to pay al-Shabab $50 a month. That's Somalia's per capita income.

An al-Shabab commander attributed the shared tactics and ideology to the fact that both groups follow a strict form of Islam.

"One more thing we deeply share is the hatred of infidels," the commander, Abu Dayib, told The Associated Press.

Some experts say the similarities are no accident.

"Al-Shabab is copying exactly whatever the Taliban was doing in the late 1990s, because they think the strategies the Taliban employed in Afghanistan were successful," said Vahid Mujdeh, the Afghan author of a book on the Taliban. "There is no doubt that the Taliban are like heroes for al-Shabab."

U.S. and other security officials worry about another common thread: Both the Taliban and al-Shabab have links to al-Qaida.

Until their overthrow, the Taliban gave Osama bin Laden and his group safe haven in Afghanistan. Many analysts believe al-Shabab is now controlled by al-Qaida-linked foreign fighters who honed their skills in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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Somalia rebels looking increasingly like Taliban - Yahoo! News

[waltky]

Is where Black Hawk Down happened...

Pentagon: 'A Few Dozen' US Troops Deployed to Somalia
16 Apr 2017 - Somalia's government is still propped up by the international community and a 22,000-strong African Union peacekeeping force.

The United States is deploying "a few dozen" troops to Somalia to assist the national army and conduct unspecified security operations, a U.S. military spokeswoman said Saturday. The soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division, a light infantry unit trained for air assaults, will mainly train and equip Somalia's army "to better fight Al-Shabab," an Al-Qaida-linked extremist group, the spokeswoman for the U.S. Africa Command based in Germany, Samantha Reho, told AFP.

They will also conduct "security force assistance," she said, confirming a report by Voice of America. "For operational security issues, we will not discuss specifics of military efforts, nor speculate on potential future activities or operations," she said, declining to say precisely how many troops were being sent. Somalia's fragile central government is still propped up by the international community and a 22,000-strong African Union peacekeeping force, after nearly three decades of civil war and anarchy.

Somali soldiers march along under the watchful gaze of their NCO. A light infantry unit from the 101st Airborne Division is being sent to help train and equip Somalian troops in their fight against al-Shabab.

While Shabab militants have lost large swaths of territory and were forced out of Mogadishu by African Union troops in 2011, they continue to strike in the capital and countryside. They have threatened a "merciless" war against the new administration of President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, a dual U.S.-Somali citizen who goes by the nickname Farmajo. He took office in February. The 101st Airborne Division has been extensively used in U.S.-led military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The United States' most notorious military operation in Somalia was in 1993, when an ill-fated attempt to snatch militia leaders led to two Black Hawk helicopters being shot down in Mogadishu. A chaotic rescue was mounted, resulting in hundreds of deaths, including those of 18 U.S. soldiers. The incident was made famous in the book and the movie "Black Hawk Down." The U.S. military spokeswoman noted that U.S. forces have been in Somalia since 1993, helping the Somali government on security concerns.

Pentagon: 'A Few Dozen' US Troops Deployed to Somalia | Military.com

[waltky]

Death toll jumps to 358 in Mogadishu truck bombing...

Mogadishu truck bombing death toll jumps to 358
Fri, 20 Oct 2017 - More than 50 people are also still missing after last Saturday's huge truck bombing, officials say.

The death toll from last Saturday's huge truck bombing in the Somali capital Mogadishu has risen to 358, the information minister says. Some 56 people are also still missing, Abdirahman Osman says. Officials have blamed the Islamist al-Shabab group, allied to al-Qaeda. But the group has not said it was behind the attack. The truck exploded at a busy junction, destroying hotels, government offices and restaurants.

However it is unclear if the junction was the intended target or if the driver detonated the explosives because suspicions about the truck had been raised. It blew up next to an oil tanker, which intensified the blast. The blast left 228 people injured, of whom 122 had been flown to Turkey, Sudan and Kenya for treatment, Mr Osman said. Somalia has appealed for blood to treat the wounded.

More than 150 of the victims were burned beyond recognition and were buried by the government on Monday. Somalis in Mogadishu have demonstrated against al-Shabab following the attack, with many wearing red cloth around their foreheads to show solidarity with the victims. A 22,000-strong African Union force is in the country trying to help the government recapture territory from al-Shabab, whose fighters are active in much of rural southern Somalia.

Mogadishu truck bombing death toll jumps to 358 - BBC News