political nonsense

Ethiopian fighters in Somalia defeated Islamist rebels in less than a day. “We always knew these Islamists weren’t all they were cracked up to be,” Abdirizak Adam Hassan, chief of staff for the transitional president, said.

The Islamists, whom many Western nations had considered a grave and growing regional threat with terrorist connections, were vanquished faster than anyone had expected, or at least removed from power.

On Thursday morning, before most of the troops arrived, the city exploded in anarchy as armed bandits rushed into the streets and fragmented militia units began to fight each other for the spoils of war.

Witnesses said that an intense gun battle raged around a former Islamist ammunition dump, and that clan warlords instantly reverted to setting up roadside checkpoints and shaking down motorists, reminiscent of the years of chaos before the Islamists pacified the city in June.

Still, Mogadishu has been almost a holy grail for the government.

For months, leaders cooped up 150 miles inland in the market town, Baidoa, had spoken of their dreams of returning to the once-beautiful (and now bullet-pocked) city by the sea. But they were blocked on all sides by the Islamist forces, which dominated most of south-central Somalia, including the capital, their stronghold.

All that changed on Sunday when Ethiopia, with tacit approval from the United States, carried out an aggressive counterattack against the Islamist forces. Ethiopia sided with the government because the Islamists had vowed to invade Somali-speaking areas of Ethiopia and wage a holy war against it.

By Wednesday, the Islamist military had been decimated by Ethiopian airstrikes and mass desertions. Clan elders, traditionally the pillars of Somali society, pulled their troops and firepower out of the Union of Islamic Courts, or U.I.C., after a string of back-to-back military loses in which more than 1,000 fighters, mostly teenage boys, were quickly mowed down by the better-trained and equipped Ethiopian-backed forces.
nytimes

Stumble it!

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 30th, 2006 at 8:16 pm and is filed under main, war, the rest of the world, africa. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

Ethiopian fighters in Somalia defeated Islamist rebels in less than a day. “We always knew these Islamists weren’t all they were cracked up to be,” Abdirizak Adam Hassan, chief of staff for the transitional president, said.

The Islamists, whom many Western nations had considered a grave and growing regional threat with terrorist connections, were vanquished faster than anyone had expected, or at least removed from power.

On Thursday morning, before most of the troops arrived, the city exploded in anarchy as armed bandits rushed into the streets and fragmented militia units began to fight each other for the spoils of war.

Witnesses said that an intense gun battle raged around a former Islamist ammunition dump, and that clan warlords instantly reverted to setting up roadside checkpoints and shaking down motorists, reminiscent of the years of chaos before the Islamists pacified the city in June.

Still, Mogadishu has been almost a holy grail for the government.

For months, leaders cooped up 150 miles inland in the market town, Baidoa, had spoken of their dreams of returning to the once-beautiful (and now bullet-pocked) city by the sea. But they were blocked on all sides by the Islamist forces, which dominated most of south-central Somalia, including the capital, their stronghold.

All that changed on Sunday when Ethiopia, with tacit approval from the United States, carried out an aggressive counterattack against the Islamist forces. Ethiopia sided with the government because the Islamists had vowed to invade Somali-speaking areas of Ethiopia and wage a holy war against it.

By Wednesday, the Islamist military had been decimated by Ethiopian airstrikes and mass desertions. Clan elders, traditionally the pillars of Somali society, pulled their troops and firepower out of the Union of Islamic Courts, or U.I.C., after a string of back-to-back military loses in which more than 1,000 fighters, mostly teenage boys, were quickly mowed down by the better-trained and equipped Ethiopian-backed forces.
nytimes

Stumble it!

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 30th, 2006 at 8:16 pm and is filed under main, war, the rest of the world, africa. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.