http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/world/uk/British-youths-heading-for-Somalia-for-jihad-training-Report-/articleshow/5006125.cms

Although Afghanistan and Pakistan remain the main destination for Britain’s would be terrorists, British youths are increasingly heading for Somalia for “jihad training”, a media report said today.

British spy agency MI5 has warned that the number of young Britons traveling to Somalia to fight in a “holy war”, or train in terror training camps, has soared in recent years as the war torn African nation has emerged as an alternative base for groups like al-Qaeda, ‘The Independent’ reported.

According to the report, the number of young Britons following the trail every year has more than quadrupled to at least 100 since 2004.

And the British authorities are particularly concerned about the number of people with no direct family connection to Somalia who are traveling to fight and train there, prompting MI5 to target the failed state as its next major challenge to their efforts to repel Islamist terrorism.

In fact, the diversity suggests Somalia is flourishing as a training ground for radical British Muslims, who can join the local terrorist militia al-Shabaab (the youth), go on to join conflicts, including the Afghan campaign, or return home to pose a security threat to the UK, the report said.

“We would have started at below 20 five years ago, when Somalia was not significant enough to be put under close surveillance,” a senior Home Office source said.

The source added - “It has been climbing noticeably every year. You have to remember that Somalia is not a place you would go for a holiday. It is particularly striking when people with no Somali family are going there; it looks as if some people are being attracted by the lawlessness.”

http://www.reuters.com/article/africaCrisis/idUSWBT1878333

WASHINGTON, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Helicopter-borne U.S. special forces attacked a car in southern Somalia on Monday and killed one of the region’s most wanted militants, U.S. sources familiar with the operation said.

Kenya-born Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, 28, was wanted over a hotel bombing and a botched missile attack on an Israeli airliner leaving Kenya’s Mombasa airport in 2002.

The U.S. sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States believed that Nabhan was killed in the attack and that his body had been taken into U.S. custody.

At least one U.S. helicopter was involved in the operation, the sources said.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman declined to comment “on any alleged operation in Somalia.”

http://news.antiwar.com/2009/09/14/us-troops-attack-somalia/

Following confirmation by the French military that they definitely weren’t in the process of invading Somalia, the United States military is now confirming that it is, in fact, American forces that are pouring into the southern portion of the country in a helicopter-backed invasion.

US military officials confirmed to the Associated Press today that forces from the US Joint Special Operations Command had invaded the lawless African nation, and were the ones responsible for the attack on the tiny village of Barawe this morning that was the first staging ground of the attack.

What the officials wouldn’t comment on was exactly why the United States, which launched a failed “peacekeeping” operation in the nation in 1993 and backed an Ethiopian invasion in 2007, had decided to launch yet another foreign adventure, though media outlets speculated that it was probably something to do with al-Qaeda.

The United States has recently been supplying the self-described Somali “government” with “tons of arms,” according to the State Department. Yet reports on the ground suggest that forces loyal to this faction, which only controls a handful of city blocks in the capital city of Mogadishu, have generally just sold the US-supplied weapons on the open market.

Though without any concrete information about what the American military actually intends to do in Somalia it will be difficult to speculate about the size and scope of the invasion, with roughly 200,000 soldiers committed to Iraq and Afghanistan (and more escalations on the way in the later) it seems hard to imagine the nation is looking to commit to yet another long-term occupation.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/14/us-troops-raid-somalia

Many experts fear Somalia is becoming a haven for al-Qaida, a place for terrorists to train and gather strength much like Afghanistan in the 1990s. The UN-backed government, with support from African Union peacekeepers, holds only a few blocks of Mogadishu, the war-ravaged capital.

Last year, US missiles killed reputed al-Qaida commander Aden Hashi Ayro the first major success after a string of US military attacks in 2008.

Like much of Somalia, Barawe and its surrounding villages are controlled by the militant group al-Shabab, which the US accuses of having ties to al-Qaida. Al-Shabab, which has foreign fighters in its ranks, seeks to overthrow the government and impose a strict form of Islam in Somalia.

Witness Abdi Ahmed said six helicopters buzzed the village before two of the aircraft opened fire. After the helicopters fired, soldiers in military fatigues got out and left with the two wounded men.

“There was only a burning vehicle and two dead bodies lying beside it,” said Mohamed Ali Aden, a bus driver who drove past the burnt-out car minutes after the attack, some 155 miles (250 kilometers) south of Mogadishu.
Somalia’s weak government has very few resources and does not have helicopters or other modern equipment.

Witness Dahir Ahmed said the helicopters took off from a warship flying a French flag, but that could not be confirmed and French military spokesman Christophe Prazuck denied the attack was a French operation.

“They are not French helicopters,” he said. France previously has launched commando raids to rescue French nationals.

The US government haunted by the deadly 1993 US military assault in Mogadishu chronicled in the 1999 book Black Hawk Down, made into a 2001 film is trying to neutralise the growing terrorist threat without sending in troops.

Somalia has been ravaged by violence and anarchy since warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned on each other. A moderate Islamist was elected president in January in hopes that he could unite the country’s feuding factions, but the violence has continued unabated.

Mogadishu sees near-daily battles between government and insurgent forces. Tens of thousands of civilians have been killed.

Somalia’s lawlessness also has allowed piracy to flourish off its coast, making the Gulf of Aden one of the most dangerous waterways in the world.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=87&art_id=nw20090914151221935C764027

Paris - The French military on Monday denied claims that its forces were involved in a raid on a village in an Islamist-controlled area of southern Somalia.

“There was no French operation,” said admiral Christophe Prazuck, spokesman for the armed forces’ general staff.

The spokesman said the French forces present in the region were operating within the framework of the European Union anti-piracy force Atalante and that “they did not intervene over Somali territory.”

Somali elders and witnesses said foreign troops staged a helicopter raid in the village of Erile, around 200km south of the capital Mogadishu, opening fire on a vehicle and killing several people inside.

The area is controlled by the Shebab, an Al Qaeda-inspired organisation engaged in a massive offensive against the Somali government and which is believed to be holding a French agent kidnapped in July.

A local Islamist commander who asked to remain anonymous claimed that the helicopters were French.

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from april 9th 2009 : http://seeker401.wordpress.com/2009/04/09/drama-off-the-coast-of-somalia/

” the whole piracy thing is a cover to get armed forces into the area and eventually into africa..this particular hijacking is different though..they have gone after a USA ship for the first time and the crew have fought back as well..400 containers of food for somalia on board..anything else??..2-3 hours time the show will start..once the sun rises..who knows what will eventuate..but it maybe a premise to invade somalia and start guarding the huge oil supplies they have..both on the land and off shore.. “

april 13th 2009 : http://seeker401.wordpress.com/2009/04/13/blackhawk-down-2/

” didnt think this would come through so quick, but we could see it coming..usa troops on the ground again in somalia..and the french wont be far behind i believe “

there she blows..the game has started..and the french..again..involved in the conflicts and then running into the shadows to hide..this story will grow and grow

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