Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys Prouodly Recruits Child Soldiers

Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, top Al-Shabaab militia's commander confirmed that his group is using underage children in their fight against Somali Transitional Government.

• "We recruit underage children to fight for us, the children are ready to die for their country and religion" said Sheikh Aweys while addressing people in a mosque at Elasha Biyaha camps in outskirt of Mogadishu, the restive capital of Somalia.
• He adds they will continue recruiting underage children to fight against Somali government forces and African Union troops.

"There was an incident where 13 year fighter shocked when he heard the loud sounds of the artillery while he was fighting and he said the fighting is terrible but the Jihad is sweet and later he was dead in the clashes," said Aweys.

Human Right Agencies alleged Somali Islamic militants force hundreds of children to serve as soldiers in Somalia, and the international community called on the Somali Islamist not to use children in the fighting.

Somali radical Islamist insurgents are well-known turning children of soccer to fighters, but Aweys is the first commander, who assured that his group use underage children as fighters.

Aweys was former leader of Hizbul Islam militias before they joined Al-Shabaab radical militants late last year.

Al-Shabaab, is fighting to overthrow the Somali government backed by African Union troops to control the country and set up a strict Islamic state.

The militias control much of central and southern regions including large parts of the capital Mogadishu.

The Rest @ AllAfrica

Aleged AQIM Assassins on Trail for Christopher Leggett Murder

NOUAKCHOTT (Reuters) - A Mauritanian prosecutor on Monday requested the death penalty against three alleged members of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, suspected in the murder of American NGO worker Christopher Leggett in June 2009.

The suspects,

• Mohamed Abdallahi Ould Ahmednah,
• Sidi Mohamed Ould Bezeid and
• Mohamed Mahmoud Ould Khouna,

have all denied the charges.

Leggett, 39, was working for an NGO called Noura and was the director of a language and computer school in Nouackchott, the capital of the north African country.

Al Qaeda's branch in North Africa (AQIM) had claimed responsibilty for the killing, saying they shot Leggett because he was trying to convert Muslims to Christianity.

Mauritania is among several countries in the Sahara region where al Qaeda-linked fighters have raised their profiles with a series of attacks and kidnappings.

AQIM grew out of the militant Salafist movement in Algeria and has moved south where it is taking advantage of the vast and lawless desert sahel regions of Mauritania, Mali and Niger.

The Rest @ Reuters, Africa

Saleh Kamel Moves to Strengthen Ikhwan ( Muslim Brotherhood ) in Egypt

Saleh Kamel, non-warrior but still an Islamist who lives and integrated life. His busines, religion and politics are united in pricniple. He is Muslim Brotherhood business supporter, and he is opening a 100 Million Euro bank in Egyp. This venture will significantly strengethen the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.

Saleh Kamel is a well established supporter of Ikhwan business ventures world wide, including Islamic Banking.

• He supports the spread of Sharia world wide, and is the most worlds' most powerful Islamist banker.
• He does not overtly fund jihad, but as a supporter of Sharia, he has been instrumental in building an Islamic global financial structure, which enables Jihadsts to move outside Western Finanacial structures more and more often.
• He was the first proponent and catalyst behind the emerging Certified Islamic Public Accountant credential.
• When effective Generally Acceptable Accounting Pracitices (GAAP) are established for the CIPA, a new and separate finanacial accountability standard will be established.

This new Sharia standard will institutionalize a sharia tax called Zakat tax. Zakat is an admirable benevolence system that uses the tax for a number of good purposes. Unfortunately, it also can provide for funding Jihad. The giver can be separated from the receiver making the use of the tax less than trasparent.

The Zakat is collected, and Islamic banks have accounts set up for the collectors of Zakat. Some accounts are co-mingled, or dedicated to Jihad, like Account 98.

Therefore, if an Islamic Student group in the US collects donations to support Tsunami Victims in Indonesia, when the funds arrive in country it is perfectly ethical under Islamic Law and tradition to use the funds to equip and Pay Jihadists defneding of expanding the Ummah.

In this context, read the following news story -

Saleh Kamel, non-warrior but still an Islamist and Muslim Brotherhood business supporter, opens 100 Million Euro bank in Egyp. This venture will signficantly strengethern the Muslim Brotherhhod in Egypt.

-Shimron

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1 billion EGP Bank to be established in Egypt, Saleh Kamel says

H.E Sheikh Saleh Kamel, President of Islamic Chamber of Commerce& Industry (ICCI) and Head of Saudi Council of Chambers of Commerce& Industry unveiled his plans of the initiative to establish the first Bank for Development and direct investment in Egypt, with registered capital of 100 billion pounds ($170 million) with the participation of Saudi and Egyptian businessmen.

Kamel announced during a meeting held by the Egyptian Businessmen's Association headed by Hussien Sabour said the bank "would be the first of its kind in the Arab unity and that it targets high-risk development projects and elimination of unemployment in Egypt."He added that businessmen have the chance to participate in the establishment of this bank.

He did not exclude the contribution of the government funds from two sides, pointing out that the Bank’s establishment depends on the completion of the governmental measures. Kamel outlined that the Saudi investment assets in Egypt have not been affected thanks to the staff, while the investment operating losses increased as a result of a slump in tourism and sales.For his part, Abdullah bin Sadek Dahlan, a Jeddah Chamber of Commerce board member and president of the Saudi-Egyptian Business Council said that the investment climate in Egypt is still in the forefront of the Arab markets in spite of the current conditions, pointing out that the Saudi investment in Egypt still exist seeks to achieve further development.

Osama Saleh, Chairman of General Authority for Investments and Free Zones said that Saudi investments comes on top of Arab countries investing in Egypt and the second largest investor in the world, pointing out that the General Investment Authority is seeking in the coming period to focus on supporting the policy of free economy.

The Rest @ ICCOnline

Hamammi May Be Alive

An American citizen who serves as a senior Shabaab military commander and propagandist is thought to be still alive, US intelligence officials told The Long War Journal, disputing a report from last week by a Somali official claiming that Hammami had been killed.

"Our assessment is Hammami is not dead, at least we see no evidence of it," a senior US intelligence official told The Long War Journal, referring to Omar Hammami, the American from Alabama who is better known as Abu Mansour al Amriki.

Hamammi was reported to have been killed sometime during the last month in heavy fighting in Mogadishu and the surrounding areas, Somalia's defense minister told The Associated Press on March 8. But the defense minister did not present any evidence of Hammami's death. Also, Shabaab did not announce Hammami's death.

US intelligence officials contacted by The Long War Journal on March 8, the date of the initial report, would not confirm Hammami's death.

The Rest @ The Long War Journal

Nigerias Boko Haram Continues Assasinations

In the midst of Libya’s protests, I don’t want to neglect stories taking place elsewhere in Africa. For today, I’d like to give an update on the activities of Boko Haram, the Muslim rebel group in Nigeria’s north east.

When I last wrote on the subject earlier this month, I said that Boko Haram’s foray into political assassinations as well as its continued attacks on security personnel threatened to disrupt the elections in the north east.

I added that with turmoil elsewhere in the country, such as the Christian-Muslim conflict in Plateau State, Boko Haram’s guerrilla tactics were straining the capabilities of Nigerian security forces to respond to the country’s different crises.

• Meanwhile, Boko Haram’s career of violence is threatening to exacerbate Christian-Muslim tensions in Nigeria.
• For their part, Nigerian authorities have kept on trying to dismantle the movement.
• Boko Haram’s latest killings include two policemen shot over the past week.
• At least one of the attacks followed Boko Haram’s pattern of dispatching two-man motorcycle teams to murder their victims.
• Boko Haram was also apparently involved in a recent attack on a church in Maiduguri.
• This assault follows incidents last Christmas Eve where three churches were hit in Maiduguri.
• Bloomberg’s Dulue Mbachu argues that Boko Haram’s attacks on Christians could inflame national rivalries between Christians and Muslims.

Increasing population growth and the southward drive of the Sahara desert have pushed Muslim farming and herding communities up against non-Muslims, sparking heightened competition for land and resources. That has fueled conflict along religious lines, said Peter Egom, an analyst at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs in Lagos, the commercial capital“These people are now using violence on a religious platform to address their social and economic exclusion,” he said.

In the north, Boko Haram is capitalizing on an upsurge in religious tension since Jonathan, a native of the Niger River delta who took office in May after the death of President Umaru Yar’Adua, a northern Muslim, won the nomination of the ruling People’s Democratic Party. That violated a party rule to rotate the presidency between the north and the south.

Explicit Christian-Muslim conflict involving Boko Haram could push Boko Haram into an even more politicized role this election season.

The State Responds

• The Nigerian state continues to investigate and attack Boko Haram. Police raids and clashes with Boko Haram have yielded weapons caches belonging to the group and have caused several deaths among suspected members.
• The military leadership says its strategy is evolving, and that it is committed to finding a solution to the problem in the north east: “We recently changed our strategy and we will continue to do so, until we succeed in all the places we are having challenges, including Borno, Bauchi and Plateau States.
• Part of the success is that the military and other security agencies impounded several arms and ammunitions in Maiduguri recently,” [Air Marshal Oluseyi Petinrin] said.
  
• He added that the military would continue to ensure the integrity of the nation by recruiting and re-training credible manpower, that would handle the task of ensuring national security.“We are going to change the way we operate. It will be aggressive, but people should bear with us. I want to call on the people of the state, not to panic because the military and other security agents deployed to the state are working together to ensure that peace returns very soon,” he added.
  
• Petinrin’s frankness and determination show how seriously the Nigerian government is taking the challenge of Boko Haram. But Boko Haram’s guerrilla tactics have thus far made it difficult for authorities, even though they possess superior firepower, to make much headway in defeating Boko Haram

The Rest @ The Sahel Blog

I Million Protesters in Yemen

Tue Mar 8, 2011About one million people have staged a protest in southern Yemen, as forces loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh have killed a boy and injured several others.

The 12-year-old Omar Atta died in hospital in Yemen's southern province of Ibb on Monday night after sustaining a gunshot injury, Reuters reported.

The incident occurred after Saleh loyalists stormed an anti-government protest camp, also wounding around 60 people in the attack.Almost one million protesters marched through the streets of Ibb on Tuesday to condemn the attack."My son sacrificed himself, this is my family's gift to the revolution in Yemen," Omar's father said in a tearful speech to protesters in Ibb on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, heavy security forces and armored vehicles were deployed across the capital to guard the Sana'a University, which has been the epicenter of anti-government protests for the last two weeks.Tanks were stationed in main streets leading to the presidential palace, while armored vehicles were deployed to guard foreign embassies, banks and governmental compounds.

On Tuesday, large numbers of security forces were also deployed in nearly all major cities rocked by protests, especially in the southern provinces, where anti-government sentiments have been on the rise.

On Monday, President Saleh called for a national-dialogue conference in an attempt to end the impasse with the opposition, which was rejected by the opposition's rotating President Yaseen Saeed Noman.

Dozens of people have been killed and hundreds more have been injured in the Yemeni government's violent crackdown on anti-regime protests.

Source: PressTV.Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/168887.html.

Iranian Arms Capured in Nigeria Intended for The Gambia

According to Vanguard Newspaper, A Nigerian, Alli Abass Jega, standing trial alongside Azim Aghajani, an Iranian, before a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, for arms importation yesterday, told the court that he (Jega) was misled by Aghajani to use his name and office address to bring in the seized consignments of arms and ammunition.

Jega and Aghajani are both facing a fresh four-count charge for alleged illegal importation, without licence, of 13 container loads of firearms and ammunition into Nigeria from Iran in contravention of Section 1 (14) of the Firearms Act, Cap MI7, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria.

During a cross-examination, yesterday, the prosecution witness, Mr. Charles Okpekor, who was cross-examined by the defence counsel, said Jega had claimed ignorance of the content of the13 container loads of arms and ammunition imported into the country from Iran last October.Part of Jega statement, read:

• “they (Masud and Aghajani) asked me to allow them used my name and the address to send the goods in transit to Nigeria, before being cleared for The Gambia.
• Masud and Aghajani thus deceived me into using my name and office address to send weapons instead of building materials they dubiously mentioned to me.”
• Further hearing in the matter was adjourned till March 21 and 22 for continuation of trial.

The Rest @ Forya Online