Justice in the Islamic Emirit of Somalia

Al Shabaab punished four people in Afgoi district of Lower Shabelle region for committing numerous crimes.

• An eighty-year-old man was sentenced to 25 lashes for “viewing indecent films”
• a fifty-five-year-old women was sentenced to 39 lashes for “being a healer who treats ailments believed to be caused by witchcraft” and “practicing un-Islamic ways of healing.”
• A woman was whipped 39 times “for making her husband love her much better than before using witchdoctors in the area”
• a man 60 times for “alleged involvement in drug dealing.” (I wonder if it was khatt)

-Shrimon Issacar

Source: Critical Threats.org

Defeated Al Shabaab May Be Crossing Into Kenya

Somalia's al Shabaab rebels are on the verge of being defeated after a four-year insurgency and could be driven out of the capital Mogadishu, the country's president said.

Troops backed by pro-government militia took two towns from the Islamist group, which claims ties to al Qaeda, in fighting on Monday, said President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, clad in the military uniform he has worn since the government launched its offensive.

Battles have raged across central and southern Somalia in recent weeks as Somali troops backed by the moderate Ahlu Sunna Waljamaca militia struggle to reclaim territory from al Shabaab. "Al Shabaab is on the verge of collapse," the president told reporters.

"We shall also sweep them from Mogadishu. Our enemies have suffered a great loss, it is obvious they will run away from many towns."Residents said al Shabaab had deserted more towns after it was rumoured the Ethiopian and Somali troops had advanced further. Ahmed said on Saturday his fighters were receiving logistical help from Ethiopian troops.

• Kenyan police said suspected al Shabaab rebels had entered Kenya and warned the public to be on alert and provide any information to aid in arresting them.
• The rebels who crossed the border were fleeing the fighting in Somalia, Kenyan authorities said.
• They are concerned because the Islamists have threatened to strike at Kenya to punish the east African country for training hundreds of new recruits to bolster Somali troop numbers.
• Kenya has been twice hit by al Qaeda. The militants have waged an insurgency against the largely ineffective UN-backed government and control large chunks of southern and central Somalia.
• Counter-terrorism experts say the lawless nation is a haven for foreign jihadists. In the past few weeks, Somali forces have clawed back parts of Mogadishu and now control 70% of the city, the government says.
  

Government soldiers captured Luq, 80 km (50 miles) from the Ethiopian border, and Elwaq, a frontier town close to Kenya after taking Beledhawo over the weekend. "We have taken Luq town after a brief fight. Al Shabaab has fled," Abdi Fatah Mohamed Gesey, former governor for Bay region, told Reuters by telephone from the agricultural town.

The Rest @ Reuters

"We will not stop our operations against al Shabaab. The residents have warmly welcomed us and our next stop will be Baidoa." Sustained clashes over the past week have focused on the capital and Somalia's southern border with Kenya. Government troops and African Union peacekeepers say they have inflicted heavy losses on al Shabaab militants in Mogadishu, but have also sustained some casualties.

"Our troops have captured Elwaq, nine km from the Kenyan border, peacefully," Colonel Mahamud Ali Shire told Reuters by telephone. "They run away from the town. We are now headed for Garbaharey, we have heard their last convoy has left for Bardhere to keep their foreign fighters safe, but we will not for a minute stop our fight against them." (Reuters)

Sheikh Khadar of Masagawaa arrested by al Shabaab

It appears that al Shabaab has found someone to blame for the starvation they cannot seem to address by arresting on of their own, Sheikh Khadar, of Masagawaa, for stealing aid funds for drought.

-Shimron


**************
Somalia’s Al Shabaab militant group has detained regional leaders of the group in the Galgudud region of central Somalia after being charged with stealing money, local elders said Friday.

Sheikh Khadar, Al Shabaab’s Eldher district commissioner, and two other officials were taken into custody following search operations in the village of Masagawaa.

The officials were accused of stealing 300 million Somali shillings (US$9,677) which is said to have been intended to aid drought-affected Somalis in central Somalia.

No comments about the incident were immediately available from Al Shabaab’s administration in the region.

The event comes as many regions in southern and central Somalia have been hit by severe droughts after a shortage of rain for more three years.

Al Shabaab has banned more than 20 aid agencies from operating in south-central Somalia.Read more:

The Rest @ ALN

Ahmed Osma's Partner Arrested in The Netherlands

Yesterday the Star Tribune (published in Minneapolis-St. Paul) reported on a seemingly significant arrest in the Netherlands related to the al-Shabaab recruiting networks that have centered on the Twin Cities area. From the Star Tribune:

A 43-year-old Somali man from Minneapolis was arrested this week in the Netherlands for allegedly financing the recruitment of up to 20 young Somali men from Minnesota to train and fight with terrorists in their homeland....

The identity of the man, who was arrested Sunday at an asylum-seeker's center 45 miles northeast of Amsterdam, was not released.

• But Special Agent E.K. Wilson of the Minneapolis FBI office confirmed Tuesday that the man was arrested in connection with the ongoing counterterrorism investigation that began here when young men began disappearing in 2007.
• "We are aware of this individual and of this arrest. And it is tied to our ongoing Minneapolis investigation," Wilson said.
• "We are and have been working closely with Dutch authorities through our legal attaché office in Brussels and coordinating with the Department of Justice Office of International Affairs."

Dutch prosecutors said in a statement that

• the man lived in Minneapolis before leaving the United States in November 2008 and arrived in the Netherlands about one month later.
• The statement said American authorities asked for the man's arrest and are seeking to have him extradited....
• According to the Dutch statement, U.S. prosecutors suspect the man of bankrolling the purchase of weapons for Islamic extremists and helping other Somalis travel to Somalia in 2007 and 2008.
• The article refers to this as likely "the most significant development yet" in the investigation into US-based Shabaab recruiting networks.

This assessment appears to be correct. A recent article in CTR Vantage that examines Shabaab recruiting networks in the West shows that though recruiters seem to play a significant role in these networks, much is still not known about them.

Those arrested to date in the Twin Cities case have been people who traveled to Somalia, or those who facilitated the travel, but the recruiters have been largely in the shadows.

For example, when 26-year-old Salah Osman Ahmed pleaded guilty to providing material support to terrorists based on his travel to Somalia, he spoke elliptically of the recruiters who helped draw him there, mentioning "secret meetings" beginning in October 2007 with people he would only describe as "guys."

The arrest of a bigger player in the case may provide greater insight into these networks.


Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/threat-matrix/archives/2009/11/arrest_in_netherlands_may_yiel.php#ixzz0WguAEeSr

The Rest @ The Long War Journal

Axmed Cabdi Godane may be a new name for Ahmed Abdi Godane,

Axmed Cabdi Godane may be the new " nom d' jur " for Ahmed Abdi Godane, or he may be someone closly associated with Ahmed Abdi Godane. Ahamed abdi is a leader in al Shabaab, operating in Somalia, and operates under several names

-Shimron

Al Shabaab has Influence in the Somali Goverment?

Garow Reports stataements by Mohamed "Dheere" Omar, which imply that the Prime Minister Nur "Adde" Hassan is connected to the Shabaab.

This should not be of any surprise to anyone. Shabaab is trying to establish their own autonomy, since the have declared the " Islamic Emirate of Somalia ". They own the southern Third of Somalia right now, with two squeamish partners who are terrified of al Shabaab's unpredictability and viciousness.

This uneasy bickering will continue until the next phase of the war. All sides appear to be rearming, reequipping, and al Shabaab is training new International Islamist recruits for incursions into Ethiopia and possibly Kenya.

There will be no peace as long as al Shabaab exists, has arms and Eastern Ethiopia and Kenya are not Islamic states.

-Shimron