Sheik Sharif Seeks Military Help in Battle Against Foreign Fighters

[Liibaan]

Somalia Seeks Military Help in Battle Against Foreign Fighters

 

 

By SARAH CHILDRESS

 

NAIROBI, Kenya -- Somalia's government requested immediate military assistance from regional powers over the weekend to help combat foreign fighters it says have ties to al Qaeda.

 

The government said it can't dispel on its own insurgents with more sophisticated training and weaponry than its own troops.

 

No nations have come forward with an offer of troops so far. But Farahan Ali Mohamoud, Somalia's information minister, said that the government had received "positive responses" from some countries, which he declined to name.

 

The decision to ask for military aid, made by parliament over the weekend, is a significant one for a nation that had until recently endured a humiliating occupation. Ethiopia invaded in 2006 to overturn Somalia's Islamic government. The occupation, which ended earlier this year, was deeply unpopular in many corners of the country, and insurgents used it as a rallying cry against the government.

 

It's still unclear just how close jihadist insurgents are to overrunning the few vestiges of government that Somalia still enjoys. But the call for foreign troops underscores the threat that Somalia's troubles pose for the rest of the region.

 

The Kenyan government has deployed troops to the vast border it shares with Somalia to prevent militants from slipping across the arid terrain to launch attacks. The 1998 bombing of the American embassy, then in downtown Nairobi, that killed over 200 people, most of them Kenyan, is still seared in Kenyans' memories.

 

A spokesman for Kenya's defense ministry couldn't be reached on Sunday to say whether it might now volunteer to send troops to Somalia.

 

Fighting has forced over 100,000 Somalis in the past month to flee to already-brimming refugee camps on the outskirts of the capital Mogadishu and across the border to Dadaab, a 15-year-old refugee camp inside Kenya.

 

Somalia has teetered for years, but the recent insurgent offensive, and a surge in Somali-based pirate attacks on international shipping, have boosted the profile of this long-time trouble spot.

 

Mr. Mohamoud, the information minister, said that Somalia would welcome any country, including Ethiopia, to contribute troops, but would require them to do so through an international organization, such as the African Union, United Nations, or the Arab League. Those groups, he said, could send battalions with a clear mandate to target foreign fighters.

 

"We need a globalized, coordinated response," Mr. Mohamoud said. "They are aiming to make Somalia a good base where they can run their attacks on the rest of the world. That's something that's been determined by our intelligence sources."

 

The plea comes after nearly two months of fighting in Mogadishu. The violence has threatened Somalia's fledgling government, now only four months old.

 

Foreign fighters, a collection of jihadists from Yemen, the U.S. and Pakistan, have joined forces with Somalia's local insurgency, known as Al Shabaab, a loose collection of militants. So far, government troops have kept militants from overrunning Mogadishu, although government officials remain safe only in a few pockets of the city.

 

Last week, a bomb killed Somalia's minister for national security and four other government officials. More than 200 people have been killed in the past month due to fighting, the U.N. has said.

 

Somalia hosts an African Union peacekeeping mission, known as Amisom. With just over 4,000 troops, Amisom is charged with protecting government buildings in Mogadishu, and the nation's ports and airports.

 

It's not mandated to directly engage the insurgents, but to retaliate only in self-defense. The mission is desperately understaffed, with minimal equipment.

 

Recently Amisom troops have themselves become a target of insurgents, who have attacked Amisom's compound and laid sophisticated roadside bombs reminiscent of those laid to kill American troops in Iraq.

 

"We are supporting the call by the Somali government" for more troops, said Gaffel G. Nkolokosa, Amisom's spokesman. "We would welcome them."