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 have been maimed after a military air strike hit a convoy near the coast of southern Somalia, witnesses have said.
| The Somali government has an air force? When did that happen, an where on earth are they keeping it, given all the various armed groups roaming the landscape? |
"We heard bangs of kabooms first and again after minutes, more loud blasts,'' Ali Abdinur, a resident, told the News Agency that Dare Not be Named news agency. "I don't know what happened but the place was an al-Shabaab camp.''
Hassan Yaqub, an al-Shabaab leader, confirmed the attack and said two members of the group were maimed.
"Two enemy aircraft attacked our mujahedeen fighters at a time they were conducting a security patrol near Kismayo,'' Yaqub told a local radio station.
| Anyone calling themselves "mujahideen" deserves to be attacked. Preferably followed by pulverization and the bouncing of rubble. |
It was not immediately clear who was behind the strike, but US aircraft have attacked al-Shaboobs in Somalia before.
A US air strike killed a senior leader of the group in 2008, while a US commando raid in 2009 killed an al-Shabaab member wanted for the 2002 car booming of a Kenyan beach resort.
Somalia's fragile, UN-backed government, established in 2004, has been battling al-Shabaab who control much of the country's south and centre.
The government controls only a few blocks of Mogadishu and relies on African Union
...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
peacekeeping troops to protects key government officials and installations.