Horn of Africa Update- Suspected Al Shabaab Car Bomb Kills 70 in Mogadishu; Somali Pirates Sentenced in Murder of American Yachters

MOGADISHU: The Islamic Al-Shabaab militia took credit for a deadly truck bombing that tore through the heart of Mogadishu, killing at least 70 people on a crowded street outside of the Ministry of Education this week.

A truck loaded with drums of fuel exploded outside the Ministry of Education, where students accompanied by their parents registered for scholarships offered by the Turkish government. The thunderous blast covered the city in dust more than a half-mile away, leaving blackened corpses sprawled on the debris-strewn street amid burning vehicles. One woman used a blue plastic bucket to pour water on a smoldering body.


Even in a city mired in war and anarchy for two decades, Tuesday's attack by the al-Shabab group horrified rescue workers. Ali Abdullahi, a nurse at the city's Medina Hospital, said countless victims were being brought in with amputated limbs and burns.

"It is the most awful tragedy I have ever seen," he said. "Imagine dozens are being brought here minute by minute. Most of the wounded people are unconscious and others have their faces blackened by smoke and heat."

Duniya Salad sobbed over her brother's burnt body after he died while undergoing treatment at the hospital.

"They killed him before he started university! Why was he killed? Damn to al-Shabab," she said.
Al-Shabab, which was formed about five years ago, immediately claimed responsibility for the attack on a website it uses.

"Our Mujahideen fighters have entered a place where ministers and AMISOM foreigners stay," al-Shabab said in a brief post on a website, referring to the Ugandan and Burundian forces who make up the African Union peacekeeping mission.

The attack took place on one of the busiest streets in the capital, and it was not clear whether the Ministry of Education was the intended target.

In the last few days, the death toll from the attack has climbed past 100, as hospitalized victims have succumbed to their injuries. The bomber was reportedly a dropout named Bashar Abdullah Nur who wanted Somali youth to abandon secular eduacation and take up arms in jihad instead.

This is the part where I remind you that Somalia hasn't had a functioning government since 1991 when Said Barre's autocratic regime collapsed in a civil war that fractured most of the country into feuding fiefdoms controlled by bandits, pirates, warlords, smugglers and Islamic militias.

Backed by peacekeepers from Burundi and Uganda, Somalia's transitional government was able to clear the Somali capital of al Shabaab militants over the last year, although the Islamic terrorist group still controls large swaths of territory to the south of the capital and is reportedly fighting against Yemeni government forces with their Al Qaeda counterparts on the Arabian Peninsula. To hardly anybody's surprise, Al-Shabaab has vowed to carry out further attacks.

VIRGINIA: The leader of a gang of Somali pirates who hijacked an American yacht off the coast of Yemen and murdered the 3 Californians on board received a life sentence at a federal court in Norfolk, VA this week.

Mohamud Salad Ali is the fifth of 11 men who have pleaded guilty to piracy in the case to be sentenced.

He received a second life sentence that he'll serve concurrently with the other one because he also pleaded guilty to hostage taking resulting in death. That charge carried the possibility of the death penalty, but prosecutors agreed to the lesser sentence as part of a plea deal.

Ali has detailed for investigators how piracy operations in Somalia work and has agreed to help prosecutors as they pursue charges against other men.

None of those who have pleaded guilty in the case so far are believed to have been the triggermen. Three other men are charged with murder and other death penalty-eligible counts.
Ali -- a former policeman who recruited men for the expedition -- was on board a U.S. Navy warship at the time the killings happened.

The Navy had offered to let the pirates take the 58-foot sailboat in exchange for the hostages, but the men refused because they wouldn't get the kind of money they wanted. Hostages are typically ransomed for millions of dollars.

"Mohamud Salad Ali led the pirate attack, and his refusal to release the four Americans -- even with the opportunity to proceed to Somalia with the Quest -- reveals the callous regard that Somali pirates have for their hostages and the threat they pose to any U.S. vessel on the high seas," U.S. Attorney Neil MacBride said in a written statement.

Two other pirates had been sentenced this week to life in prison for their role in the February hijacking. Aside from Californians Jean and Scott Adam, four of the Somali pirates were killed in close-quarters combat when US sailors boarded the hijacked vessel.

KENYA: Two European tourists were abducted from upscale resorts along the Kenyan coast in separate incidents in the past month. In mid September, a British tourist was shot to death and his wife was abducted by gunmen on a speedboat in the Kenyan island of Lamu, less than 50 miles south of Kenya's border with Somalia.

The defense minister for Somalia's transitional government says that it's possible that al-Shabaab could be holding the woman for ransom, but didn't rule out the possibility of bandits. Police in Kenya and the UK believe that somebody on the staff might have tipped off the kidnappers, who had checked in a few hours before the gunmen raided the resort.

Members of the al Shabaab-linked Ras Kamboni brigades have calimed credit for the kidnapping- and announced that they were using her as a human shield to protect themselves from US Predator drone airstrikes amid multiple reports that the captive Briton was being held in an Island in Somali waters.

In the beginning of October, a disabled French woman was abducted by gunmen from her vacation home on the Kenyan island of Manda- across a lagoon from Lamu. Despite a brief chase and firefight with the Kenyan Navy, the abductors were able to slip back into Somali territory and the woman is reportedly being held in a coastal area in southern Somalia's Lower Jubba Region.

SEYCHELLES: British officials have announced the formation of a task force in the Indian Ocean island chain of they Seychelles that will be dedicated to tracking the pirate financiers and ransom money.

Ministers plan to despatch officers from the Serious and Organised Crime Agency to staff a new Indian Ocean unit dedicated to hunting pirate financiers, who provide start-up cash for gangs in return for the lion's share of ransom proceeds.

A financier who offers as little $10,000 to equip a gang with skiffs, fuel and guns can easily expect a return of 10 or 20 times his money in the event of a successful hijacking.

But while such profits are now believed to run into tens of millions of dollars a year, relatively little is known about exactly where the cash ends up, beyond a widespread acknowledgement that it makes the gangs ever more powerful, and may also line the pockets of Somalia's al-Shabaab Islamist movement.

"Pirate financiers are the kingpins of piracy," said Henry Bellingham, Foreign Office minister for Africa, who will announce details of the new centre in a speech to the Chamber of Shipping in London on Wednesday. "Effectively targeting them will have a huge impact on the ability of pirates to terrorise the high seas."

The new unit will be based in the Seychelles Islands, nearly 1,000 miles east of Kenya, which have now become a key forward operating base against pirate gangs as they spread their reach across the Indian Ocean.

As Somali pirates stage attacks further east, local fishermen and tourism officials in the Seychelles fear that pirate activity could do long-term harm to the small island nation's economy.

Another Horn of Africa Update: U.S. Commandos Re-Take Japanese Tanker; Danish Yacht Seized by Pirates

OMAN: U.S. Commandos have boarded a Japanese oil tanker that was seized by pirates off the coast of Oman and re-taken the vessel without firing a shot on Sunday.

Twenty-four crew members on the MV Guanabara took refuge in a protected part of the vessel after reporting they were under attack Saturday, roughly 328 nautical miles southeast of Duqm in southern Oman.

A special unit from the destroyer USS Bulkeley boarded the oil tanker Sunday and detained the suspected pirates, according to a news release from the Combined Maritime Forces (CMF). No shots were fired and no injuries were reported.

"The ships and aircraft under my command have today scored a real and immediate victory through the disruption of a suspected act of piracy and the detention of individuals believed to be engaging in piracy," CMF's counter-piracy commander, Abdul Alheem, said in a statement.

Two vessels from the NATO counter-piracy task force- the USS Bulkeley and the Turkish frigate TCG Giresun- received a distress call from the Guanabara and shadowed the vessel before it was boarded by the commandos.

The captured pirates will reportedly face trial in Tokyo.

PUNTLAND: Seven Danish nationals were captured by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean on Feb. 24th after their yacht was seized. This captives includes a family of five (the parents and three children) as well as 2 crew members.

An official from the village of Bandarbeyla in Puntland said that it was likely the Danes were being held in a mountainous region called Hul Anod. The official also said that a warship was spotted some 1.5 miles off the coast of the village and cautioned against any sort of military operation after the massacre of 4 Americans at sea last month.

According to piracy expert, the average ransom payout for a large shipping vessel and its crew is in the neighborhood of $5 million. A couple from the UK were released in September 2010 reportedly after a ransom of $1 million was paid out.

MOGADISHU: Somali officials have reported that an American from Alabama who joined the Al Shabaab Islamist group was killed in clashes with soldiers from the Somali transitional government and African Union peacekeepers this week.

Somali Defense Minister Abdihakim Mohamud Haji Fiqi told The Associated Press that Somali officials do not have a body and that the intelligence reports have not yet been confirmed.

"We have information saying that he died," Fiqi said. "I'm not sure 100 percent sure but this is the information that we get from different sources. We need to make sure."

Omar Hammami, who grew up in the middle-class town of Daphne, Alabama, joined the al-Qaida-linked Somali militants in 2007 while he was in his early 20s. He became the most high-profile American member of al-Shabab and had taken on the nom de guerre of Abu Mansour al-Amriki, or "the American."

Forces from the Somali transitional government, backed by African Union peacekeepers have been mounting a countrattack against the Islamist al Shabaab militia. On Monday, the Somali and multinational forces were able to seize control of the border town of Bulo Hawo- along the Kenyan and Ethiopian border- from Al Shabaab; the first time forces from the UN-backed Transitional government were able to exert control over territory outside of Mogadishu.

[hat tip: Jammie Wearing Fool]

Horn of Africa Update: Four Americans Murdered by Somali Pirates; 17 Killed in Mogadishu Truck Bombing

Somali pirates shot dead four American yachters while the commandeered vessel was being shadowed by the Destroyer USS Sterrett on Tuesday.

U.S. forces boarded the yacht Quest after one of the pirates fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the Sterrett. The grenade missed, but gunfire erupted from inside the Quest. Several pirates appeared on the deck of the Quest ready to surrender. As the Navy SEALS boarded the yacht, they found two pirates dead from small arms fire and killed two more below decks in close quarters combat.

Below decks, the SEALS also found the bodies of Scott and Jean Adam of Laguna Beach, CA and Bob Riggle and Phyllis Mackay of Seattle, WA. The four Americans were airlifted to USS Enterprise where they were pronounced dead. The Navy also took 15 of the surviving pirates into custody at that point.

The yacht Quest was registered to the Adams, who had spent the past few years sailing the world and passing out bibles along remote seaside villages in Alaska, Central America, Fiji and Polynesia.

Reportedly this pirate attack was different from others in that the pirates boarded and seized the Quest directly from one of their 'mother ships' instead of sending out gunmen in small skiffs to seize the vessel. The four Americans were reportedly sailing off the coast of Oman when they were accosted by the pirates [As a side note, does anybody else find it somewhat disturbing that when this DOES get mentioned by the mainstream media, it's as though the bibles might've played a role in their death, not the dozen or so gun wielding Muslim men from the failed state who actually commandeered their ship and pulled the trigger? NANESB!].

As navies from various nations have stepped up patrols in international waters off the coast of Somalia, Somali-based pirates have pushed further and further eastward into the Indian ocean, striking vessels closer to the Indian Ocean island nations of the Seychelles or Maldives or even India than the Horn of Africa.

The massacre of the 4 Americans comes about a month after South Korean commandos successfully raided a tanker that had been seized by pirates and freed the crew who were being held hostage. In May 2010, Russian Naval commandos carried out a similar operation, freeing the crew of the MV Moscow University.

ELSEWHERE: A truck bomb detonated outside of a police training center in Mogadishu on Monday, killing at least 17 people. The Somali Islamist group Al Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack.

Guards shot at the vehicle as it sped towards them from a busy intersection near the port before it exploded, killing several pedestrians and destroying nearby homes. The police academy was located some 1600 feet from Mogadishu's busy port.

In response to the bombing, Somali troops backed by African Union peacekeepers fanned out through Mogadishu claiming to have captured three Al Shabaab bases on Wednesday.

Besides mounting an insurgency campaign against African Union peacekeepers presently in Somalia, Al Shabaab had also claimed responsibility for twin suicide bombings in the Ugandan capital of Kampala in July 2010.

HORN OF AFRICA UPDATE: South Korean Naval Commandos Kill 8 Pirates, Free Hostages; Private Military Contractors Training Private Anti-Pirate Forces?

South Korean sailors from the Cheonghae Naval Unit conducting an antipiracy drill in 2009- Militaryphotos.net

Six days after the MV Samho Jewelry was boarded and seized by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden, South Korean commandos stormed the cargo ship, killing 8 pirates and rescuing the 21 member crew. Taking part in multinational anti-piracy patrols in the region, the destroyer Choi Young was dispatched by South Korea to intercept the hijacked vessel.

The Samho Jewelry was carrying chemicals from the United Arab Emirates to Sri Lanka when the pirates attacked. A vessel from the same company shipping oil from Iraq to the USA- the Samho Dream- was hijacked by pirates last May and it's crew was released 217 days later only after a largest-of-its-kind ransom payment of US$9.5 million.

"Our special forces stormed the hijacked Samho Jewelry earlier today and freed all hostages," said Colonel Lee Bung-Woo, a spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

"During the operation, our forces killed some Somali pirates and all of the hostages were confirmed alive," Lee told reporters on Friday. Another JSC spokesman said eight pirates were killed.

The military said Friday's rescue followed a brief gunbattle Tuesday, when the destroyer encountered pirates who had apparently left the South Korean freighter to try to seize a nearby Mongolian vessel.

The South Korean commandos aboard a speedboat and a Lynx helicopter were dispatched to rescue the Mongolian ship.

Tuesday's firefight left several pirates missing and believed killed although their bodies have not been found, spokesmen said. Three commandos were slightly hurt.

The rescue took place 800 miles off the northeastern coast of Somalia, according to the Joint Chiefs.

ELSEWHERE IN THE HORN OF AFRICA: Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater USA, is reportedly backing an effort by South African Private Military Contractors to train 2000 Somalis for a land-based private army that would protect officials from Somalia's fragile Transitional government as well as combat pirates and the al-Shabaab Islamic militia.

Prince reportedly brokered the deal between officials in the United Arab Emirates and other Middle Eastern nations and South Africa's Saracen International to fill the security vacuum in the lawless region.

Presently an African Union peacekeeping force is propping up the internationally recognized Somali Transitional government that only controls parts of the capital city of Mogadishu. Last month, the AP reported that the Somalia project encompassed training a 1,000-man anti-piracy force in Somalia's northern semi-autonomous region of Puntland and presidential guards in Mogadishu, the ruined seaside capital. The story identified Saracen International, a private security company, as being involved, along with a former U.S. ambassador, Pierre Prosper; a senior ex-CIA officer, Michael Shanklin; and an unidentified Muslim donor nation. Prosper and Shanklin confirmed they were working as advisers to the Somali government.

Since then, AP has learned from officials and documents that Prince is involved and that a second 1,000-man anti-piracy force is planned for Mogadishu, where insurgents battle poorly equipped government forces.

This has some analysts fretting over what they call 'the privatization of war', which in a region that has been racked by famine, prolonged civil wars, lawlessness, piracy and terrorism for the last 20 years seems like a rather petty and abstract complaint.

I mean, really? Suddenly, employing some battle-hardened South Africans (or Brits, or Aussies, or Americans) with extensive military backgrounds to break the impasse and restore some sort of order is bad?

Worse than multiple civil wars dragging on for decades at a time that's killed millions?

Worse than multiple famines triggered by said civil wars and ethnic cleansing that's killed millions more?

Worse than rampant piracy that threatens to choke off the Red Sea to commercial maritime traffic to all nations?

Worse than yet another failed state playing host to yet another Islamic terror group that can operate with impunity?

I mean, it's not as though Saracen is usurping a Democratically elected government- there has essentially been no functioning central government in Somalia since 1991.

Food for thought.

PUNTLAND- The autonomous reigon of Puntland- where a number of pirate raids have been launched from- said it was breaking with Somalia's Transitional Federal Government 'until a legitimate Federal authority is in place in Mogadishu'.

The decision was made during a special cabinet meeting in the Puntland capital Garowe, said a government statement received by AFP in Nairobi.

It said the Mogadishu government "does not represent Puntland in international forums" and called on "the UN Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS) to reconsider its position and support for the TFG at the expense of other Somali stakeholders".

And it criticised "the lack of participation, consultation and representation of the Puntland Government during the 2008-2009 Djibouti Peace Process which led to the formation of the current Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia."

The statement also slammed "the marginalization of Puntland from the international community's initiatives and funding intended for the reconstruction and development of Somalia as a whole."

It said it "welcomes, supports and endorses the new U.S. Dual-Track Policy which is based on realities on the ground in Somalia" and called for a conference to speed up national reconciliation.

Unlike neighbouring Somaliland, Puntland, which was founded in 1998 by former transition president Abdullahi Yussuf Ahmed, did not secede from Somalia but has its own government bodies at Garowe.

While it's rumored that some government officials in Puntland take a cut of ransoms paid out to pirates, the Saracen project is reportedly using a pool of recruits from Puntland. Local reports also indicate that Saracen is aiding in the construction of a new Naval facility outside the coastal village of Bandar Siyada.

Photo- Guuleed

SOMALILAND- It could be that there's a country newer than South Sudan waiting in the wings. Somaliland declared its independence from the rest of Somalia during the 1991 Civil War and has managed to avoid the chaotic slide into lawlessness and anarchy that has characterized the rest of Somalia. It has managed to set up a functioning government and legals system, hold regularly scheduled elections and circulate its own currency- although for whatever reason the international community has been reluctant to recognize it as an independent state [I was actually made aware of Somaliland in the 1997 editon of Fielding's World's Most Dangerous Places; apparently Somaliland stood out because it wasn't as dengerous as the rest oF the country- NANESB!].

Surveys indicate that Somaliland holds considerable oil and mineral reserves, but because of it's unrecognized status, foreign companies are unable to extract those resources while Somaliland itself lacks the expertise on a local level to set up large scale drilling or mining operations. Presently, it's main source of income is exporting livestock, remittances from abroad and allowing Ethiopia to use the port of Berbera.

And they also view the rampant piracy in the region as one more problem that jeopardizes their bid for international recognition as a sovereign state. The de facto government in Somaliland has offered to put the port at Berbera at the disposal of the international navies that are patrolling the Red Sea and Indian Ocean as part of their stepped up campaign against Somali pirates as far back as 2008.

More recently, they have arrested and jailed pirates fleeing into Somaliland waters, handing out sentences of 15 years each. Last month, they arrested six Russian pilots violating territorial airspace and suspected of attempting to deliver military supplies to the Puntland reigon in defiance of a blanket arms embargo on all of Somalia (it is thought the supplies were destined for the Saracen project in Puntland). Puntland and Somaliland are involved in an ongoing border dispute as well. The Russians were released after being given a suspended sentence and fine at the end of December.

While far from perfect, this resilient and fairly orderly enclave along Somalia's northern coast could be what the international community needs to serve as a counterweight to the out of control piracy and al Shabaab militias that have taken over elsewhere in the Horn of Africa.