Thursday, October 03, 2013
In Nairobi, Kenya the fighting
with Somali al Shabaab gunmen in a mall is over and it’s still unclear
how many civilians and terrorists were killed. The mall was largely
destroyed and many shop owners complain of their goods and furnishings
being looted. Soldiers and police are believed responsible for that.
Police from the United States, Israel, Canada, Britain and Germany have
arrived to help in the investigation but are having a hard time getting
much information from the Kenyans. Some of the security video from the
mall has been recovered and so far that only shows four armed men
entering the mall and then calmly moving through the place shooting
people. The violence continued for the next three days and over 60
civilians were killed, along with three soldiers and three policemen.
The security forces claim to have killed five hostile gunmen but
apparently do not have the bodies. Some of the security forces
casualties may have been caused by friendly fire as the situation inside
the mall was pretty chaotic in the hours after the police and army
showed up.
The military used explosives to deal with what were believed
to be diehard terrorists in areas of the mall who could not be reached
by gunfire. This collapsed part of the mall and some bodies are believed
to be in the rubble. Not all the bodies found so far have been
identified and some may turn out to be the attackers. Islamic terrorists
often make suicide attacks like this, usually inside military bases
where the response is violent and the attackers usually fight to the
death. Al Shabaab says over a hundred civilians were killed. Kenya has
arrested dozens of people believed to have been involved with aiding the
attackers and there is growing public anger at Somalis inside Kenya.
Many foreign nations are also offering more help to Somalia,
including intelligence, commandoes and training for Somali troops.
There are still several thousand armed al Shabaab men in Somalia and
most are staying away from peacekeepers and Somali troops. Al Shabaab is
more interested in raising cash as the group is broke following its
expulsion from Mogadishu and Kismayo over the last two years. There are
fewer opportunities to kidnap foreigners and the pirates, who used to
share ransoms with al Shabaab, have not taken a ransomable ship in over a
year. In short, al Shabaab needs money.
Al Shabaab is believed seeking cash from wealthy Arabs in
Arabia who like to donate to Islamic charities that support Islamic
radicalism. Oil rich Arab countries and their Western allies have been
trying to stop this source of terrorist funding, but have only been able
to reduce it. The money still gets through to Islamic terror groups
that have lots of media coverage. For that reason it is believed al
Shabaab will try to carry out more attacks outside Somalia. This is
easier now because a recent power struggle within the organization has
left the “Foreign” faction in charge. For years al Shabaab had been
divided as the “Somalia” faction opposed the foreign volunteers who
pushed for more efforts to carry out terrorism outside Somalia. The
Somalia faction wanted to hold off on this until they had all of Somalia
under their control. But the Foreign faction believed that would take
too long, especially once the foreign terrorists came to understand how
fragmented Somalia was by clan and warlord politics. The foreigners
concluded that Somalia would never be united, because it had never been
united (for long) in the past. This is something most Somalis do not
want to dwell on. Meanwhile in the past year many prominent al Shabaab
Somalia faction leaders were killed or driven away from al Shabaab,
which now sees itself as an international terrorist organization. Thus
the eagerness of American, Israeli, British and other European countries
to help destroy al Shabaab in Somalia once and for all. As long as al
Shabaab survives in Somalia the organization can reach out to Somali
communities in other countries, especially the West, for donations and
new recruits.
Al Shabaab has been particularly active on the Internet since
the mall attack, making all manner of claims and threats. At the same
time al Shabaab has been quiet in Somalia for the last two weeks. All
their activity seems to be concentrated in Kenya, where al Shabaab
gunmen attacked a mall in Nairobi on the 21st and were not
chased out until three days later. There were also two small al Shabaab
attacks on Kenyan border towns. All three of these attacks may have
involved fewer than ten men. Al Shabaab makes much of its justification
in making these external attacks, insisting it is only doing so because
Kenyan troops invaded southern Somali two years ago. What al Shabaab
does not dwell on is the fact that Kenya went into Somalia only after
years of growing al Shabaab violence on the border, with an increasing
number of al Shabaab men crossing the border and robbing or killing
Kenyans, as well as Somalis in refugee camps near the border. There was
always much Kenyan public opposition to getting involved inside Somalia,
but that changed as the number of Kenyan victims of Somali, especially
al Shabaab violence increased. Al Shabaab also ignores the fact that
Somalis have been raiding into what is now Kenya for centuries. Al
Shabaab is not the victim here, but the Somalis know that there are
benefits to successfully pretending to be one. Meanwhile the Kenyans are
getting tired of constantly being attacked and are less reluctant to
fight back. For Islamic terrorists that sort of thing is just another
form of infidel (non-Moslem) oppression and proof that the West is
making war on the Islamic world.
The loss of Kismayo last year was a major blow to al Shabaab
finances because that port could be used to smuggle illegal goods
(especially ivory) out of the country. Al Shabaab also collected fees on
anything leaving or entering via Kismayo. Now al Shabaab has limited,
and irregular, access to smaller ports on the coast. The loss of income
led to many desertions and the inability to make attacks.
October 1, 2013: Kenya repeated assurances that it would keep
its troops in Somalia and urged Somalia to do more to crush al Shabaab
within Somalia.
September 28, 2013: Om Somaliland police again arrested a
Moslem cleric (Sheikh Mohamud Abdullahi Gelle) for supporting Islamic
terrorists. Gelle has been arrested before, in part because of his
support for al Shabaab.
September 26, 2013: Al Shabaab gunmen attacked the Kenyan
border town of Mandera, killing two policemen, wounding three others and
destroying 11 vehicles with gunfire and grenades.
September 25, 2013: An al Shabaab gunman attacked the Kenyan border town of Wajir, killing one person and wounding four others.
September 24, 2013: Kenya declared the siege of the mall in
Nairobi was over and that security forces were in control of the entire
structure. The mall was now being scoured for evidence.