Somali Islamists Run Walk Briskly Away - Again
The islamists who just the other day told the entire world - with a straight face - that they would never run from their enemies have once again departed. This time it is not at all apparent where they are briskly walking to. They were briskly walking too fast to track. But on the way out of town, they left the civilians in Kismayo a little parting gift. They shot and killed at least two of them.
MOGADISHU (AFP) - Islamist fighters have abandoned their last stronghold of Kismayo in southern Somalia after Ethiopian and Somali government troops advanced towards the city, but vowed to fight on.
"Kismayo is already in the hands of the government. The Islamists have run away … the airport and the seaport are free. They are still some mopping up operations," Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi told AFP in Mogadishu on Monday.
He said the toll "is not available yet but there are no big casualties".
But witnesses said that two people were killed when the retreating Islamist fighters opened fire at angry residents.
"The Islamists were so angry at the people who were shouting 'we don't need you, we need the government' … they opened fire and killed the two," said Leileila Sheikh Adam, a resident of the town seized by the Islamists in September.
She added that the town was very tense, with local clan militia having looted the headquarters of the Islamic courts and taken weapons and ammunition.
The loss of Kismayo, caps a major turn of fortune for the Islamists, who last year took control of the capital Mogadishu and much of the country and were closing in on the weak transitional government's last stronghold at Baidoa.
The press should look on the bright side here. Sure, the islamists didn't live up the the PR the media helped distribute. Absolutely, the media generated image of the invincible warriors turned out to be media special effects. Sure, the reporting coming out of the area is now all highly suspect. Of course, the media looks absurd in all this. But at least the islamists are getting their exercise.
We managed to obtain a photograph showing the spirited defense the islamist militias are offering against the advancing Ethiopians and Somali government forces.
Look, the shutter speed only goes so high. It was the best we could do.
UPDATE: Others: Secular Blasphemy, Power Line, Sister Toldjah, Gun Toting Liberal, The Moderate Voice, Prairie Pundit, A Blog For All, Op For, Hot Air, Reformed Chicks Blabbing, Mindflame, Captain’s Quarters, Bits Blog,
War, World news | Gaius January 1, 2007
By Quilly Mammoth, January 1, 2007 @ 11:57 am
I can’t help but wonder if there was some very canny strategery going on in DC. The fact that the US was supporting the warlords came out because some of them felt that they weren’t being supported enough.
Meanwhile, Ethiopia was making noise that it was unhappy with the thought of RIFs (Radical Islamic Fundamentalists) on their border.
The battles between the RIFs and the clan militias bled both, most particularly the clans. And it gave time for Ethiopia to strengthen its resolve as well as begin to move the supplies neccessary for an invasion to the border. Which it has prior experience with.
I haven’t seen it brought up, but in early August of 1996 the Ethiopians launched a heavy raid against the seaport of Jidu. While many played it as a bid for Ethiopia to get a seaport, the fact is that Jidu and the surrounding area were under control of a coalition of warlords belonging to a similar outfit to the current Islamic Courts.
Furthermore, in early 1994 the Clinton administration brokered a deal between Ethiopia, Eritrea and the Somali government to conduct a sweep of western Somalia to clear it of Islamic militias and their training ground. AFAIK no US troops were involved, but some of the militias targeted were believed to have been involved with the infamous Blackhawk Down action. Throughout the next ten years there would be small border clashes and reportedly cross border ops by the Ethiopians in the Ogadin area. Somali Jihad groups such as the Islamic Union of the Mujahedeen of Ogadin have long claimed that Ethiopia, with help of American and Israeli (doubt the Israeli bit though) trainers, has had an ongoing military presence in the north west of Somalia. That they interfered with negotiations to bring Islamic Law and Rule to that area through peaceful means. (Which means accept rule of the Koran or we kill you)..
In all, this invasion by the Ethiopians has almost certainly been longed planned simply lacking the minor details which are known when the opportune time is reached. For Ethiopia this was when first regional consensus was highest that the control of Somalia by the RIFs was dangerous and second Ethiopia had sentenced the last of the Duerga thus securing the internal stability of Ethiopia and freeing the bulk of the Army to act externally.