Is Sheikh Muktar Abdirahman the Newest Verson of Godane

A prominent Al Shabaab leader known as Sheikh Muktar Abdirahman who has never spoke to media spoke to the Al Shabaab controlled radio telling listeners that Al Shabaab will continue their fight and will not give up, Radio Garowe reports.

Muktar stated that Al Shabaab's role is to bring the Sharia law to Somalia which can be brought back through jihad.

"Al Shabaab was founded to bring back jihad so we can govern our country and the citizens of Somalia by Sharia law," said Muktar speaking to Al Shabaab controlled radio.



Muktar gave a brief history of how Al Shabaab was founded by Adan Hashi Ayrow whose was killed in air raids in the town of Dusomareb and how his killing sparked the attacks from Al Shabaab in Mogadishu according to Muktar.

Al Shabaab is an off-shoot of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), which splintered into several smaller factions after its defeat in 2006 by the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and the TFG's Ethiopian military allies.

Al Shabaab has lost their control in southern Somalia in August they admittedly retreated from Mogadishu vowing that they would continue their fight.

al Qaeda Takes Direct Charge of Insurgency in Somalia

The following report from The Times suggests that Foreign Commanders have taken charge of the Islamist offensive in Somalia.

This is remarkeable development, suggests that Transitional Government Forces, who has recently counter attacked, has stripped the combined Shabaab and Hizbul Islam Units of thier local Leadership.

Key questions are:

• Where are Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys and Muktar Abdirahman Godane?
• Has there been a falling out breaking their recent re-uniting?
• Have the forces so fractured that only Seasoned al Qaeda leaders can hold them together?

It may be that The Times are likely misreading the count of 1000 foreign fighters. They may be double counting, reading reports that there are about 300 fighters, and believing these fighters just arrive, added those numbers already there.

There may have been up to 500 foriegn fighters at the begining of the offensive, and unless plane loads of new foreign fighters have arrived in last few weeks that is a more likely number.

-Shimron Issachar

Up to a thousand foreign fighters, including Britons, have answered the call to jihad in Somalia and are leading street-fighting Islamist extremists in the war-torn capital Mogadishu, The Times has learnt.
Early yesterday the Western-backed Government launched a counter-offensive after almost a fortnight of attacks by insurents that have killed at least 200 civilians.

At least 45 people were killed yesterday in battles across the city, the highest daily death toll for months.

The insurgents’ attacks have threatened to topple the shaky Government of Sheikh Sharif Ahmed only weeks after the international community pledged £135 million to support him.

Senior security officials in the region say that the foreign fighters are behind the recent success of the extremists. More than 290 fighters from Britain, the US, Canada, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia entered Mogadishu in the past two weeks.

An intelligence report seen by The Times, which is due to be presented to the US Congress next week, states: “An estimated ten foreigners have taken the lead to command both Somali and foreign fighters in Mogadishu and other parts of Somalia.”
“I have no doubt that some of the foreign fighters are British as well as North American and Scandinavian,” said Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the top Somali diplomat for the United Nations. One Western diplomat with experience in Somalia said: “These foreigners are the ones with al-Qaeda links. I would be surprised if Britons were not the leading foreign members of al-Shabaab.” [...]
“Al-Shabaab welcomes and calls foreign fighters for jihad,” said Jason Mosley, an Africa analyst at Oxford Analytica. In most cases foreign fighters bring religious fervour helping to radicalise the bulk of disparate al-Shabaab militants, who fight mostly for money or under duress.
Of course, if there were not broad acceptance of Sharia in letter and in principle across Somalia, the jihadists -- styling themselves as bearers of "law and order" -- would not have gotten as far as they have.

A smaller number have military skills, financing and weaponry. “We understand that these fighters are providing training to the extremist insurgents and are helping to mobilise funding and source weapons, the level of which we have never seen before,” Nicolas Bwakira, the head of the African Union (AU) Somalia mission, said.

Intelligence sources said that foreign jihadis from Britain and elsewhere had joined an alliance of al-Shabaab factions and Hizb al-Islam extremists that have coalesced around Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys. The Sheikh, who is wanted as a terrorist by the US, returned from exile in April to take on the fragile Administration of Mr Ahmed.

The Rest @ Jihad Watch

Abu Zubayr wounded, Possibly Dead

The leader of Al Shabaab is reported to have been wounded and possibly killed in what appears to be an accidental explosion at a safe house outside Mogadishu.

Ahmed Abdi Aw Mohamed, the reclusive spiritual leader of the radical al Qaeda-linked terror group, was seriously wounded in the explosion on May 17. He is reportedly being treated at a hospital in northern Mogadishu, according to Garowe Online. Another source, Waaga Cusub, a Toronto-based Somali website aligned with the Hawiye clan in Mogadishu, speculated that Mohamed may have been killed, although the report has not been confirmed.

• Eleven Shabaab fighters and three or four "foreign fighters" were killed in the incident.
• One report indicated that three Pakistanis were among those killed.
• After the incident, Shabaab fighters immediately cordoned the home and prevented witnesses from getting near the site, making confirmation difficult.
• Mohamed, who is also known as Sheikh Mukhtar Abu Zubayr and Godane, is reported to have been hosting a meeting of senior Shabaab commanders when the explosion occurred. No other senior leaders have been reported killed or wounded.
• The cause of the explosion is unknown.
• One witness told Waaga Cusub that "missiles" struck the safe house.
• No US airstrike has been reported in the region.
• US officials contacted by The Long War Journal would not comment on the reports of a potential strike.
• The US has carried out several strikes against al Qaeda and Shabaab leaders since early 2007.

But the cause of the explosion appears to be a premature detonation of one or more bombs on site. A source close to Shabaab told Garowe Online that one or more car bombs detonated due to faulty wiring.

• Another witness told Waaga Cusub that one of the Pakistanis was training for a suicide attack against African peacekeepers and crossed the wrong wires.
• After the explosion on Sunday, a Shabaab spokesman stated that three car bombs built for use against African peacekeepers had accidentally detonated.
  

Shabaab has carried out numerous suicide attacks inside Somalia and the semi-autonomous regions of Puntland and Somaliland. The terror group is estimated to have between 280 and 300 foreign fighters in its ranks.

Shabaab has openly lobbied to join al Qaeda, and the offer has been warmly received by Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri, al Qaeda's second in command.

• Mohamed is one of the original founders of Shabaab, or the Young Mujahideen Movement in Somalia.


• In November 2008, Mohamed and two other senior Shabaab leaders were designated as terrorists by the US.


• He has taken on a more visible role since the death of Shabaab's chief military commander Aden Hashi Ayro in a May 1, 2008, airstrike.


• Mohamed rarely appears in the media, but just six days ago released an audio recording in which he denounced the Somali government, led by President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, a former ally during the rule of the Islamic Courts.


• Ahmed and the parliament had attempted to appease the radical Islamist groups by passing a bill imposing sharia, or Islamic law, throughout the country.

Shabaab and the allied Hizbul Islam are battling for control of central and southern Somalia with Islamic Courts factions that reconciled with the weak Transitional Federal Government. Despite the alliance and support from several thousand African Union troops, the Ahmed government controls only small areas of the capital of Mogadishu; nearly all of the southern and central provinces are under Shabaab and Hizbul Islam control.

.....Shabaab recently took control of the town of Jowhar in the central province of Hiran from the Islamic Courts.

• The move sparked an incursion from the Ethiopian Army, which invaded Somalia in December 2006, ousted the Islamic Courts, and occupied the country until its withdrawal in January 2009.
• Ethiopian forces have been spotted moving into Hiran. The incursion has placed the Ahmed government in an awkward position.

The Ethiopians are disliked, but the Islamic Courts and the Somali government are incapable of defeating Shabaab and Hizbul Islam without outside help.

The Rest @ The Long War Journal

Muktar Abdirahman Godane Wounded 17 May

According to this 18 May report from Garowe Online, a media group with al Shabaab links, There was a mysterious explosion at a house was located in Daynile district, in the outskirts of Mogadishu on Sunday. Neighbors were forced to stay inside their homes and onlookers were prevented from coming anywhere close to the house by Al Shabaab gunmen.

It turns out that Godane was there when the explosion occured and was wounded. 17 others were killed, including 4 "foreign fighters"

See the following Report published on 20 May

-Shimron Issachar

MOGADISHU, Somalia May 20 (Garowe Online) - The leader of Somalia's Al Shabaab guerrilla group was wounded during a recent accidental explosion, inside sources tell Garowe Online.

Sheikh Muktar Abdirahman "Godane," one of the founders of Al Shabaab and the group's current leader, was wounded when an explosive device "went off accidentally," the sources said.

"The explosive device was being used for training [purpose] but it went off accidentally," said a source close the secretive guerrilla group, adding that Godane was being treated at a private hospital in the northern outskirts of the capital Mogadishu.

On Sunday, an accidental explosion at a house where Al Shabaab fighters were lacing vehicles with explosives killed 17 people. READ: Mysterious explosion kills 17, including 'foreign fighters'

Godane recently issued an audio tape where he spoke about the anti-government insurgency being spearheaded by Al Shabaab fighters in Mogadishu and other parts of south-central Somalia. READ: Al Shabaab leader speaks, more fighting in Mogadishu


The Rest @ Garowe Online

Shabaab' s Muktar Abdirahman Godane Threatens Media

On May 13th, 2009 Muktar Abdirahman “Godane”, leader of Al Shabaab Islamist faction has spoken via an audio recording where he urged fighters to continue the ‘jihad,’ as a Major Battle was unfolding in Mogadishu (Radio Garowe).

Godane and the Shabaab, who have assassinated numerous leaders of the Transitional Federal Government, local city leaders, kidnapped aid workers, and most recently video taped sawing off the heads with the serrated back edge of a survival knife of three live prisoners. In short they have shown their willingness to commit and record atrocities.

here is the quote threatening the media:

“I tell the media to report the facts and the truth and to play their role in the jihad…if the journalist cannot tell the truth, he should be silent and not confuse the public,” Godane warned.

Islamists believe they are bound to warn their enemy prior to an attack, and have systematically done so, including a warning before 9-11. This may be such a warning to Media sources in the Horn of Africa, especially Somalia.

The audio tape, which can only be described as "media spin" keeps trying to tie the current government with Ethiopia. This is a strong indication that he knows he is losing the support of the Somali public, now that Somalia's traditional enemy, Ethiopia, has left.

- Shimron Issachar