Analysis: US denying safe haven for al-Qaida in Somalia

Written by The jerusalem post
Mar 06, 2008 at 06:18 PM

In the early hours of Monday morning, a number of missiles fired from an American naval ship fell on the small Somali town of Dobley. The target according to a US military official, was a "facility where there were known terrorists" affiliated with al-Qaida. The Monday attack was reminiscent of the January 2007 air strike, which the US carried out against suspected al-Qaida operatives involved in the 1998 US bombings in East Africa. This latest show of US force in the Horn of Africa emphasizes Washington's continued resolve to attack al-Qaida operatives and their bases wherever they are in order to deny them safe havens.

Somalia has been mired in conflict and instability since its dictator Siad Barre was overthrown in 1992. Located in the Horn of Africa and in close proximity to the Arabian Peninsula, Somalia borders Ethiopia, Kenya, Eritrea, and has an Eastern coastline to the Indian Ocean. Due to its porous borders and very weak government, Somalia, where over 90 percent of the population is Muslim, is highly vulnerable to the infiltration of radical Islamists and weapons trading. The latter was evident in the 1998 Congo war, where a large portion of the weapons used entered the African continent via Somalia.

After Siad Barre was overthrown, Somalia imploded on itself, as different factions began vying for control over the country, turning Somalia into a failed state (a situation whereby the government does not have the ability to provide basic security and services to its people). The state of lawlessness worked to the advantage of Islamists who sought to establish bases of operations in Somalia, just as they have in Afghanistan and the tribal belts of Pakistan. There is strong evidence to suggest that al-Qaida initially found it difficult to operate in Somalia due to the homogeneous ethnic nature of the country, (there are five principle ethnic groups in Somalia), however perseverance eventually led to the appearance of local Somali Islamists who support the al-Qaida global jihadi agenda.

In 2004, an Islamic group known as the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) emerged in Mogadishu and for a brief time it controlled the Somali capital in an attempt to assert its authority and implement Sharia law. Whilst its leader Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed was considered a 'moderate', his deputies Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys and Adan Hashi Ayro are known Islamists who were part of the organization al-Ittihad al-Islami (the Islamic Union, (AIAI)) which is accused of having ties with al-Qaida. Aweys himself appears on the US's most wanted terrorist list, whilst Ayro is known to have received training in Afghanistan jihadi camps.

source: qarannews.com