Huge explosions, aircraft heard in southern Somalia.Aircraft attack rebel base in south Somalia-rebe

[caydarus]

Reports from the small coastal village of Khandal, about 8 kms west of Kismayo, indicate that a suspected U.S. plane or drone launched missiles Thursday against an Islamist training camp 10km south of Kismayo as well as an area where where several foreign jihadist fighters were embarking on a boat on their way to an unknown destination.

 

 

Kismayo residents told tf.sf that the first attack targeted the camp south of Kismayo this afternoon while a second attack was launched this evening against a target near Kismayo airport.

 

 

It is yet unclear whether the attack hit its targets or not, but residents who requested anonymity told a local journalist in Kismayo that they witnessed smoke in the air and heard planes flying throughout Thursday. In addition the witnesses said that three, 4-wheel drive pick up trucks with wounded al-Shabaab fighters were immediately taken to Kismayo and that the militants have imposed on an overnight curfew.

 

 

“One attack happened around evening prayers around 7:00 to 8:00pm local time,” said Mohamed Mohamed, a Kismayo resident. He said that the operation resulted in scores of casualties including senior al-Shabaab militants in the area.

 

 

“No one knows who was killed but there are serious casualties that I can confirm,” Mohamed said.

 

 

“We heard this evening blasts in the airport area. After that al-Shabaab banned movements so now I’m in my house. I can’t go out because al-Shabaab militia have scattered all the streets,” said Abdisalaam, a resident in Kismayo.

 

 

“I also heard that another airstrike happened on main training camp, 10 kilometer south of Kismayo,” added Abdisalaam.

 

 

Al-Shabaab military officer in Kismayo confirmed the attack and told tf.sf that two of their soldiers was injured.

 

 

“I believe the enemy of Allah shelled the Mujahedeen bases in Kismayo area using airplanes and two of the Mujahedeen were injured, but we did not suffer any casualties,” said the officer on condition of anonymity “

 

 

“It’s not the first time they shelled us, one, two, three, all the infidels of the world want to fight against us. They use airplanes, warships, and every thing they can, but Allah is with us so there is nothing they can do against us,” added the officer.

[caydarus]

 

 

 

Al-Shabaab's Kismayo Commissioner

Terrorist

Sheikh Hassan Yacqub told al-Shabaab run radio station, Al Andalus, that there were casualties sustained by his group, but stressed that al-Shabaab will withstand any foreign threat.

 

A terrified resident in Khandal itself told our correspondent that a plane had been flying over the area since yesterday in a suspected reconnaissance mission.

 

“I am shocked that this big thing happened. What I can see are al-Shabaab fighters everywhere in the city. Everyone remained indoors, terrified,” a local women told terrer free somalia.

 

Khandal has been a key hiding and training point for the militants, particularly foreign fighters, due to its strategic location.

 

 

MOGADISHU (tf.sf)— Huge explosions were heard early Thursday near the southern Somali town of Kismayo, followed by the sound of aircraft, a local elder and an Islamist official said."We heard huge explosions. Then a few minutes later we heard the sound of aircraft. We are not yet sure what it was," Abdulahi Ise, the elder, said.He added that the explosions came early in the morning in the area of Qandal, a few kilometres outside Kismayo, a port town controlled by Al-Qaeda linked Shebab Islamists.A Shebab official in the Kismayo area said his men had reported an aerial bombing raid on a Shebab base."The military aircraft of the enemy carried out an aerial bombardment on a base where some mujahedeen fighters were staying. Initial reports indicate several mujahedeen fighters including muhajirs (foreigners) died," the official said, refusing to be named.

"We believe the aircraft belonged to the US," he added.The United States has in the past few years launched several raids on Somalia, targeting senior regional Al-Qaeda figures.In January 2007 a US air raid left dozens of people dead at Ras Kamboni in the far south of Somalia. It was coupled with a second raid 155 kilometres further north.One of the presumed targets of those raids was Al-Qaeda's chief in east Africa Fazul Abdullah Muhammad, who was gunned down earlier this month in a shootout at a roadblock in Mogadishu after he made a wrong turn.Fazul was believed to be behind the August 1998 embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, the worst attack by Al-Qaeda until the September 2001 attacks on the United States.

In March 2008 the US military said it fired at least one cruise missile into Somalia, targeting an Al-Qaeda leader.Reports from Mogadishu said that strike killed at least 10 people, including an Al-Qaeda military leader Aden Hashi Ayro.Ayro trained with Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and had been linked to the deaths of foreign aid workers in Somalia. He is also thought to have been a target of the 2007 US air strikes.

Another senior Al-Qaeda figure in the region, the Kenyan Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, wanted for the 2002 attacks on Iraeli targets on the Kenyan coast, was killed in September 2009 in another US raid on south Somalia.In November 2002, Al-Qaeda killed 15 people when gunmen led by Nabhan attacked the Israeli-owned Paradise Hotel in Mombasa and fired two missiles at an Israeli charter airliner in Kenyan airspace the same night, missing it.

Outgoing CIA chief Leon Panetta, who is poised to become the next US defense secretary, said earlier this month that the Shebab were looking to extend their operations and carry out attacks abroad.

"The threat from Al-Shebab to the US and Western interests in the Horn of Africa and to the US homeland is significant and on the rise," Panetta said in written responses to the Senate Armed Services committee.

"Al-Shebab leaders, who have claimed affiliation with Al-Qaeda since 2007, are developing ties with Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and are showing an increasing desire to stage international terrorist attacks in addition to their acts of violence inside Somalia," he said in a written text.

The Shebab still control most of south and central Somalia and roughly half of the capital Mogadishu despite gains in recent months by the African Union AMISOM forces that are propping up the transitional government the Shebab are trying to topple.

Aircraft attack rebel base in south Somalia-rebels

 

 

Al Qaeda linked Al-Shabaab Forces Kismayo Port Workers to Fight .Death, Unemployment and Punshiment Only Other Options

[caydarus]

We Are Winning the War on Terrorism in Horn of Africa

The threat is from violent extremists who are a small minority of the world's 1.3 billion Muslims, the threat is real. They distort Islam. They kill man, woman and child; Christian and Hindu, Jew and Muslim. They seek to create a repressive caliphate. To defeat this enemy, we must understand who we are fighting against, and what we are fighting for.