al-Shabaab... Harakat ash-Shabaab al-Mujahidin aka the Mujahideen Youth Movement. It was originally the youth movement of the Islamic Courts, now pretty much all of what's left of it. They are aligned with al-Qaeda but operate more like the Afghan or Pakistani Taliban. The organization's current leader is Ibrahim Haji Jama Mee'aad, also known as Ibrahim
al-Afghani. Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, a Kenyan al-Qaeda member, is considered the group's military leader...
fighters in central Somalia.
The skirmishes broke out late Wednesday between the two sides in Mahas and Mataban districts of Hiran region, located 215 kilometers (134 miles) north of the capital Mogadishu, a Press TV correspondent reported.
Over 45 people were also injured during Wednesday's bloody festivities as heavy gunfire and barrages of mortar shells were exchanged.
Somalia has been without a functioning government since 1991, when warlords overthrew former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
Strategically located in the Horn of Africa, the lawless state remains one of the countries generating the highest number of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDP) in the world.
An estimated 1.4 million Somalis are displaced within the country while another 680,000 live as refugees in neighboring countries, according to the United Nations
...an international organization whose stated aims of facilitating interational security involve making sure that nobody with live ammo is offended unless it's a civilized country...
High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
The UNHCR reported in April that the number of Somali refugees arriving to neighboring countries during the first quarter of 2011 has more than doubled in comparison to the same period in 2010.