Puntland facing a threat from Al Shabaab cell in Galgala

[General Duke]

PDF: IMMEDIATE PRESS RELEASE: PUNTLAND DIASPORA FORUM CONDEMNS LATEST AL SHABAB ATTACK PUNTLAND STATE

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[General Duke]

Somalia: Al Shabaab and Galgala militants deny each other [report]

29 Jul 29, 2010 - 11:06:58 AM

 

Somalia's insurgent group Al Shabaab has denied connection to a July 26 battle near Puntland's port city of Bossaso, where Puntland troops killed 13 militants and captured many after Galgala militants attacked an army post, Radio Garowe reports.

 

Al Shabaab Somalia July spokesman Ali Mohamud Rage, alias Ali Dheere, said during a VOA Somali Service interview Thursday: "Al Shabaab is not connected to them [Galgala militants] and it's the local people in Galgala that are fighting against the Puntland government and PIS," a reference to Puntland's intelligence and counterterrorism agency which operates under its new name, Puntland Intelligence Agency (PIA).

 

 

The Al Shabaab spokesman claimed that the "local people have been fighting against oppression by PIA and the Puntland government since the [former Puntland President] Adde Muse's term."

 

Sheikh Ali Dheere, Al Shabaab's spokesman, did not specify exactly what "oppression" he spoke of, but added: "It should not be – that every time a group of Muslim groups fight against current regimes that they are part of Al Shabaab."

 

Many wonder why Al Shabaab, an extremely violent group that proudly claimed the 7/11 bombings that killed more than 70 people watching the 2010 FIFA World Cup in Kampala, Uganda, is now publicly distancing itself from Mr. Atom, a secretive man hiding out in hills with foreign fighters.

[General Duke]

Al Shabaab and Atom: Identical language

 

Mr. Mohamed Said Atom, the Galgala militants' leader, told the interviewer that the July 26 attack on Puntland army post in Karin, 40km south of Gulf of Aden port city of Bossaso, was "an attack but it was preceded by many things. The attackers were locals."

 

"There is no Al Shabaab involved. Themselves [Al Shabaab] are saying they are not involved," Atom said.

 

But Atom's answers were identical to the words of Al Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Ali Dheere and Al Shabaab's violent ideology, and he provided disconnected and vague answers to the direct question: "Are you Al Shabaab member?"

 

Both Atom and Ali Dheere claimed that the "local Muslim people" were fighting against the Puntland government, itself an elected Muslim government in federal Somalia, a country that is nearly 100% Muslim.

 

Not surprising, it is part of Al Shabaab's violent ideology to divide humans into those that surrender to Al Qaeda's global war or those that are "infidels."

 

In April, the largest Islamic conference in 20 years was held in Garowe, Puntland's state capital. More than 50 Somali Muslim scholars met for a week, held discussion panels, and declared that Al Shabaab's violent struggle is "not jihad" under Islamic principles.

 

Al Shabaab officials reacted with anger to the conference's outcome and issued threats against the conference's Somali Muslim scholars from all corners of Somalia, including Mogadishu and Somaliland.

 

In line with Al Shabaab dogma, Atom also claimed that "Puntland government was fighting the Muslims by cutting off supplies to Galgala," a reference to a Puntland army siege underway to flush out the Galgala militants.

 

Puntland officials say they are working closely with clan elders and community leaders in Galgala area to ensure that the flow of civilian goods and supplies to the villages always remains open.

 

Asked why he commands a private militia, Atom said: "We are Muslims and we wish to build an Islamic state and to remove the Ashahado la Dirir from Somalia."

 

Since 2006, Al Shabaab and its parent defunct alliance, the Islamic Courts Union, formerly led by current Western-backed TFG President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, have used propaganda phrases like "Ashahado la Dirir" to refer to all groups that oppose them, Somali or foreigner.

 

Observers say Atom's claim to represent "local clan interests" was overshadowed by his interview answers, dominated by references to Islamic state and political language that links him ideologically with anti-peace forces in Somalia, namely Al Shabaab.

 

In March, a United Nations report identified Atom as a weapons supplier to Al Shabaab, giving him intimate connections to the terrorist group whose ranks are infused by foreign fighters from the Middle East, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, according to regional governments like Kenya.

 

The foreign fighters have flocked into Somalia since 2006 after Al Shabaab invited them to fight Al Qaeda's global war against the West and its alies.

 

In Bossaso, sophisticated roadside bombings have killed Puntland soldiers in recent months, and intelligence officials say its another import from Al Shabaab in the terror group's attempt to destablize Puntland.

[General Duke]

No clan support, Atom isolated

 

In early 2006, Atom was associated with a minor clan uprising in Galgala area against Puntland’s government after clan militias clashed with Puntland troops guarding foreign geologists, who were surveying the hilly region for potential resources.

 

Atom organized a private militia using momentary clan sentiments, but his transformation into a violent criminal in recent years has alienated the local clans, most of who are "wary of the foreign fighters and Somalis from all regions hiding out in the Galgala hills," according to well-informed sources.

 

Many believe that the Galgala militants' July 26 attack on Puntland government forces at Karin army post was a desperate attack, as Puntland's ongoing security crackdown on criminal elements in Bossaso and even expulsion of hundreds who pose security threats has disrupted Atom's terror operations.

 

For months, Puntland officials have blamed Atom's group hiding in the hills of being responsible for bombings and targeted assassinations of government officials.

 

Sources close to clan leaders say Atom is "isolated" and local clans have come out publicly and endorsed Puntland government's security crackdown against the Galgala militants.

 

Analysts say Mr. Atom's isolation and exposure as a violent criminal and his dangerous connections to Al Shabaab has weakened his position significantly and none of the local clans have supported him publicly.

 

It is possible Atom requested Al Shabaab's public rejection as part of a clever plan to deceive people and attempt to hide Atom's exposed nature as Al Shabaab cell. Such thinking would allow Al Shabaab to mask itself in Puntland.

 

But sources say many locals speak of fear of a pending Puntland offensive against Atom's hideouts, as the war of words over the airwaves builds up.

 

But sources say many locals speak of fear of a pending Puntland offensive against Atom's hideouts, as the war of words over the airwaves builds up.

Puntland, located in northeast Somalia, is a self-governing stable region with peaceful elections and which supports the establishment of a federal Somalia.

 

Al Qaeda-backed insurgents who have wreaked havoc in south-central Somalia are actively trying to support new insurgencies in peaceful parts of the country, including Puntland and Somaliland.

 

Puntland's government considers Al Shabaab a terrorist organization and has vowed to crush all threats to state security and has deployed thousands of troops and police in major cities.

 

GAROWE ONLINE

[General Duke]

Islamist rebels vow jihad on Somalia's Puntland.

By Abdi Sheikh

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Islamist militants based in Somalia's semi-autonomous region of Puntland will wage a holy war against the administration there until their strict version of sharia law prevails, a rebel commander said late on Tuesday.

 

Sheikh Mohamed Saiid Atom, who says his fighters are allied to the al Qaeda-inspired al Shabaab insurgents behind this month's coordinated bomb attack on Uganda's capital Kampala, urged local residents and businessmen to take up arms.

 

"We shall never stop fighting Puntland. We are part and parcel of al Shabaab, we are brothers united by Islamic sharia (law)," Sheikh Atom told reporters in the town of Galkayo.

 

The United Nations says Sheikh Atom is one of the principal suppliers of arms and ammunition for al-Shabaab in Puntland.

 

A major pirate base, Puntland has been relatively stable compared with the rest of Somalia but in recent months violence and instability has spiked in the region.

 

Islamist rebels in central Somalia have threatened to hound the pirates out of their coastal lairs and in May seized Haradhere, a town that has profited heavily from piracy in the Gulf of Aden.

[General Duke]

RECRUITING MILITIA

 

Local residents said the rebels had been recruiting militia fighters in the area and were camped out in the hills outside the port city Bosasso.

 

"Sheikh Mohamed Saiid Atom has been recruiting Islamists in those hilly areas since 2005," said resident Hussein Ali.

 

"He has indoctrinated the youth using three means: a huge amount of money from the sales of weapons, sharia law and convincing his clan they have little political influence on Puntland's administration," Ali added.

 

The Kampala bomb blasts killed 76 people and thrust the festering conflict in Somalia and the rebels' links with al Qaeda back into the international spotlight.

 

The July 11 attack was the first foreign strike by Somali militants, and analysts say their ability to launch attacks abroad has been helped by an influx of foreign jihadists.

 

The agreement by African leaders to send an extra 4,000 peacekeepers to Somalia is likely to have little impact in Puntland because the force is based in the capital Mogadishu.

 

The African Union force, known as AMISOM, is stretched as it is to shield the president's residence and guard the port and airport. Al Shabaab and a second group, Hizbul Islam, control much of central and southern Somalia unchecked.

 

A pro al Qaeda website posted a statement saying separately saying it will launch television channel -- Alkataaib -- to spread its message in the anarchic Horn of Africa nation.

 

"The media war faced by the Mujahideen is of the heaviest and most important front in our war with infidel in Somalia, which makes us caretakers of the gaps in the media jihad. This pushes us to the battleground on the media jihad on the bigger Somalia front," the site www.atahadi.com said.

 

Source: reuters.com

[NASSIR]

Reuters, AFP and the likes have all dented the journalistic ethics of balanced news coverage they project to the world. It's like they have re-manufactured the fabrications of the warlord-cum Pirate chief, Mr. Farole before today's VOA interview with Atam himself.

 

I'm sure GaroweOnline editors are in a rush mode to cover up the initial cargo of fabricated items they supplied to the world, taking full advantage of the global fear against the extremists agenda. Islam has now become a "psychological taboo" as Mr. Paragon has put it. The fact will however represent itself in a good day light before the public.

 

Now the latest news I have is that Gen. Ilka-jir is in the midst of brokering a ceasefire btw Atam and Farole. He has demanded an immediate investigation as to the cause of the death of Du'ale in his jail cell, a violation of the Geneva Convention against Torture.

[General Duke]

^^^Yeah good on IlkaJiir he happens to be the only good person in Puntland, and Attam the only Wadaad, and the death of that man the only one worth investigating, everything else is meaningless right?

 

The talking points are getting more absurd by the day. It seems like only one group is playing catch up game. So far the Puntland media's coverage has been quite effective and unemotional.