Was the African Union Mission's Invasion of Somalia to Oust Jihadis A Waste of Time? — Jihadis Return Upon Withdrawal

Al-Shabaab have raised the black flag of tawheed over the strategic port city of Marka after a surprise offensive against African Union troops

Shabaab Regains Ground in Southern Somalia


By Bill Roggio and Caleb Weiss
Shabaab, al Qaeda’s official branch in East Africa, has retaken control several towns in southern Somalia after the withdrawal of African Union and government forces.

Shabaab fighters reoccupied Marka, located just 45 miles south of the Somali capital of Mogadishu, today after African Union and Somali troops abandoned the town.

“AMISOM (African Union Mission in Somia) forces moved out at midday and the local administration and all other Somali security forces left a few minutes later – and then heavily armed al-Shabab militants entered the town,” a local resident told The Associated Press. “They have been addressing residents at the district headquarters.”

Al-Shabaab Makes Video of American Jihadis Killed in Somalia

Shabaab raised its flag at the town center, addressed a crowd, and began patrols, according to photographs obtained from Shahada News Agency, a jihadist propaganda outfit. According to the AP, Shabaab has occupied the police station and government buildings.

Shabaab lost control of Marka in August 2012 after the Kenyan military invaded southern Somalia in response to Shabaab raids in northern Kenya. While Shabaab lost control of the major population centers in southern Somalia during the Kenyan and African Union offensive, the group maintained its military strength and retreated to rural areas of the country.

They have retaken control over the last month with a vengeance.

Today’s African Union withdrawal from Marka is likely a response to Shabaab’s mid-January assault on an ANISOM base in the town of El Ade. Shabaab fighters from the Saleh al Nabhani Battalion killed scores of Kenyan troops and seized a large quantity of weapons, munitions, and vehicles during the rout. Shabaab claimed it killed more than 100 troops during the El Ade raid and the Kenyan military has been silent on its losses.

Attacks of that magnitude have a demoralizing effect on African Union troops, and the militaries are unable to sustain such losses over time.

Marka is the third large town in southern Somalia to fall to Shabaab in the past two weeks after African Union troops pulled out without warning. On January 26, Shabaab marched into the towns of El Ade and Badhadhe after Kenyan forces withdrew, leaving a security vacuum.

Read More

Prosecutor Leading Investigation Into Al Shabaab Terror Attack, Joan Kagezi, Assassinated In Uganda

Screen captured from YouTube video.

By Prudence Nyamishana
Ugandans were left in shock the evening of March 30, 2015, when Senior Principal State Attorney Joan Kagezi was shot dead in Kiwatule, a Kampala city suburb, while driving home from work with her children in the car. Kagezi was leading the prosecution against the perpetrators of the al-Shabab twin bombings, which took place in July 2010 during the World Cup finals, killing 74 people and injuring another 70. Kagezi was supposed to lead a witness in a testimony about how the explosives were assembled and brought to Kampala.

The news first broke on social media, where discussions about the shooting are using the hashtag #KiwatuleShooting. Raymond Qatahar, an investigative journalist, confirmed the identity of the deceased after he broke the news on Twitter:

New details coming in are that the woman shot was a prosecutor in the terror suspects case that's due to resume tommorow at the high court.
— Qatahar Raymond (@qataharraymond) March 30, 2015

BREAKING: Eye witness says there was a shooting in Najjera Kiwatule. A woman in a car was shot at point-blank range
— Qatahar Raymond (@qataharraymond) March 30, 2015

Eye Witness account: “Two men riding on a boda-boda pulled up to her car and one shot her over four times at point blank range”
— Qatahar Raymond (@qataharraymond) March 30, 2015

Concerned citizens immediately started to demand answers from the authorities:

Why a high profile profile State Attorney was travelling with no security at all is also disturbing.#KiwatuleShooting
— BUTTERFLY (@BeingEdna) March 31, 2015

The big question -> “@WALI_MART: Do we even have like a witness protection programme in Uganda? #KiwatuleShooting“
— Jo Heath (@joabyxnx) March 31, 2015

Qwenga, a Ugandan blogger, pointed out what he sees as a flaw in the country's national security infrastructure:

The problem is; Uganda's Security Personnel think that Terror Alerts are all about bomb blasts. #KiwatuleShooting
— Qwenga (@bkyeyune) March 31, 2015

Angelo Izama, Ugandan writer and blogger, wrote:

My analysis was that if public confidence is withdrawn from the institutions referee-ing conflict, justice wld go into the black market
— Angelo Izama (@Opiaiya) March 30, 2015

Where the rules of protection are different depending on one’s status in society- impunity will rise #Kiwatuleshooting
— Angelo Izama (@Opiaiya) March 30, 2015

Benjamin Rukwengye, another Twitter user, worried that too much was being made of a high-profile individual, while larger numbers of fatalities go unnoticed by the public:

Poorer pple die in tens, like that. We use them as stats&don't ask the hard questions. Reflections maybe? 2/2 @ssojo81 @Kalinaki @Natabaalo
— Benjamin Rukwengye (@BibiRukwengye) March 31, 2015

On Facebook, Nicholas Opio, a Ugandan lawyer who worked with Kagezi grieved:

I worked with her in the Kwoyelo trials. I have traveled the world with her for meetings. Rest in Peace Joan. This act of cowardice and criminality has no place in our society. These cowards must be sought after, arrested and should be held to account and must face the full extent of the law.

Richard Anguria Omongole worried that police investigations might not produce any results:

Terrible terrible what act of cowardice. My worry,like many cases before,the police will find nothing and begin looking at family wrangles. That's what makes all of us unsafe. RIP Joan

Kampala's estranged mayor, Erias Lukwago, expressed his sadness:

Am extremely saddened by the news of the gruesome murder of my colleague in the legal profession, JOAN KAGEZI, a Senior Principal State Attorney. My heart goes out to the traumatised children, who were at the scene of this heinous crime in Kiwatule. May her soul rest in eternal peace

Meanwhile, Ugandan Police Chief General Kale Kayihura issued a statement on Facebook:

This evening, Monday 30th March 2015, Ms. Joan Kagezi, Ag. Assistant Director of Public Prosecution, was shot dead at 7:15 pm, near her residence in Kiwatule a city suburb as she drove home with her children.

She had stopped at a fruit stall by the road side where she normally stopped to purchase fruits, when the criminals riding on a motorcycle of boxer type, red in color, stopped next to the parked vehicle and shot her twice in the neck and shoulder, through the widow on the driver’s side. She was driving the vehicle herself.

The Director of CIID, Assistant Inspector General of Police Grace Akullo who by coincidence was driving some distance behind her, was the first police officer on the scene.

She coordinated the evacuation of the deceased to Mulago hospital where she was pronounced dead on arrival. Her three children who were with her escaped unhurt.

Ms. Joan Kagezi was in charge of the International Crime Division handling international crimes such as terrorism, war crimes, and trafficking in persons.

At the time of her tragic death she was the lead prosecutor in the case of the 2010 terror suspects now before the High Court.

She was, also working with the Police in the prosecution of the suspects in the recent spate of murders, robberies and terrorism in Busoga region and Kampala. Her death is a big loss to the country.

Reprinted with permission from Global Voices.

Al Shabaab Benefited from The West's Destruction of the Libyan State

Al Shabaab fighters training in Somalia (Screen capture from YouTube video)

By Robert Barsocchini
Al Shabaab, the Islamic terrorist group that has just laid siege to a Kenyan university, killing nearly 150 people, benefited from the 2011 Western aggression that backed al Qaeda and affiliated militias to destroy the state of Libya:

The Telegraph:

Libyan arms that went missing during the fighting to remove Col Muammar Gaddafi are now spreading even further afield…

The new report by a special UN security council committee suggests that they have now travelled even further, with Libyan ammunition showing up in the continuing war being waged by al-Shabab [pictured above], an al-Qaeda offshoot in Somalia.

RELATED STORY: Nation Killing: Libya — From Africa’s Richest State Under Gaddafi, to Failed State After NATO Intervention

Somalia borders Kenya, where Al Shabaab has just attacked a university.

Al Shabaab has “Wahhabi roots”; Wahhabism is the extremist version of Islam exported by missionary theocracy Saudi Arabia, which is itself currently carrying out US-coordinated terrorist attacks against people in Yemen. “Al-Wahhab’s teachings are state-sponsored and are the official form of Sunni Islam in 21st century Saudi Arabia”.

In addition to support for Saudi Arabia dating to the 1930s, the US has on numerous occasions openly or indirectly supported al Qaeda and other Wahhabi terrorist groups.

RELATED STORY: The Lockerbie Bombing Hoax - Governments & Big Media Told Decades of Lies About The Bombing of Pam Am Flight 103 Libya Didn't Do It

The Western aggression that destroyed Libya also benefitted other al Qaeda and al Qaeda linked militias, such as Boko Haram:

Al Jazeera: “…heavy weapons such as SAM-7 anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles…were either surreptitiously obtained by posing as Gaddafi’s supporters or indirectly purchased from mercenaries who had acquired these arms from Libyan depositories. …these arms have been transferred to groups such as Ansar Dine, Boko Haram and MUJAO, emboldening and enabling them to mount more deadly and audacious attacks.

• Commentary Magazine: “Unsecured Libyan weapons went to Boko Haram”
• Human Rights First: “Unsecured Libyan stockpiles empower Boko Haram and destabilize African Sahel”
• NBC News: “Apart from benefiting from sympathizers in the Nigerian military, the Islamic terror group is able to purchase small arms and occasionally some larger weaponry in nearby conflict zones, ‘probably Libya’ … The collapse of Libya has further flooded the market”
• Reuters and United Nations: “The Libyan civil war may have given militant groups in Africa’s Sahel region like Boko Haram and al Qaeda access to large weapons caches, according to a U.N. report released on Thursday. … Boko Haram killed more than 500 people last year and more than 250 this year in Nigeria.”
• Washington Post: “Boko Haram … militants, who traveled to northern Mali last year to join the fight there, have returned with heavy weapons from Libya, presumably from former Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi’s arsenal.”

Reporter and UK-based colleague on Twitter.

Reprinted with permission from Washingtons Blog

Somalia-Based Jihadis Attack University in Kenya - Kill At Least 147 (Videos)

Second massacre after a mall attack in Kenya left 67 dead in 2013. Jihadis claim attack was in revenge for Kenya's attacks on Al Qaeda-affiliated Al-Shabab members in Somalia

Screen capture from NYT video.

By Ismai'il Kushkush and Rukmini Callimachi
Gunmen attacked a university campus in eastern Kenya early Thursday, clashing with guards, forcing their way into dormitories, taking hostages and singling out non-Muslims, the authorities said.

Kenya’s interior minister, Joseph Nkaissery, said that 147 people had been killed, including four attackers — making it the deadliest terrorist attack in the country since the 1998 bombing of the American Embassy in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi.

The minister contended on Thursday night that the harrowing siege at the university had ended, and that security forces were carefully sweeping the campus for any remaining threats.

Kenyan security forces surrounded the campus of Garissa University College and clashed with the gunmen throughout the day, eventually cornering them in one dormitory, officials said.
Abdikadir Sugow, the spokesman for the Garissa county government, said the gunmen were seen wearing “combat gear,” including what appeared to be “either bulletproof vests or suicide bomb vests.”

The Shabab, an extremist group based in Somalia and affiliated with Al Qaeda, issued a statement through a radio station it controls claiming responsibility for the attack.

It said its fighters attacked the university early Thursday morning, began separating Muslims from non-Muslims and started an “operation against the infidels.”

Read More

60 Killed When 'Islamist' Extremists Raid Village in Kenya — Witness Claim 'White Man Speaking Fluent English' Led the Raid

Gunmen were said to have shot anyone who couldn't recite Koranic versus. (Photo
screen captured from YouTube video)

By Jill Reilly
A white man speaking 'fluent English' was in charge of an Somali Islamist group al-Shabaab which gunned down at least 60 people in a Kenyan coastal town on Sunday evening, according to witnesses.

Several residents in Mpeketoni reported that they saw a pale-skinned man who spoke English and Arabic giving orders to the gunmen.

The eyewitness accounts support the theory that the men were sent by al-Shabaab by a seasoned foreign jihadi unit now working with the Somali Islamists.

'I saw a white man who was speaking in fluent British English commanding the rest of the attackers,' said Mary Gachoki, a teacher who lives in Mpeketoni and speaks good English told The Telegraph.

Today the Inspector General of Police said several people have been arrested including suspected ringleaders.

David Kimaiyo also said that someone had been arrested for using social media to say that al-Shabaab was behind the attacks.

'We have arrested several suspects in connection to Mpeketoni incident including the owner and driver of one the vehicles used by attackers,' Mr Kimaiyo said on Twitter.

'Also in police custody is a suspect who was operating social media accounts purportedly used by al-Shabaab to claim responsibility.'

Read More