At least 59 people have been killed and dozens more wounded during French military attacks on the Somali island of Kudhaa near the country's border with Kenya, Press TV reports.

Kenyan military spokesman Maj. Emmanuel Chirchir said the French navy bombed the town of Kuday near the southern al-Shabab stronghold of Kismayo on Saturday night. A Nairobi-based diplomat told The Associated Press last week that France was carrying out military attacks in Somalia; French officials in Paris denied French forces were carrying out any attacks.


http://www.presstv.ir/detail/206296.html

Al-Jazeera claimed French Marine is also involved. Several camps destroyed.

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Jets+po, z/-/index.html



I think it is becoming to much of France in Africa,especially with Nicolas Sarkozy as president.

From ivory coast to Libya to Somalia now.

after years of neglecting the poor country by the west, now things has gotten worse with women and children at the receiving end

in the nearest future, i see US and its NATO allies been consumed with crisis which we are already seeing signs(political,economic,social). Am not wishing them evil but these countries are the devil of this world and very soon God will come to rescue his people

Amen

Let the french continue

I don't blame the french


[size=18pt] French woman kidnapped from Kenya by Somali gunmen earlier this month has died, say French officials.[/size]
Diplomats said they were told of Marie Dedieu's death by contacts through whom they had been negotiating her release.

The exact date and circumstances of her death are not known, but her poor health and the fact medication had been withheld had led to fears this "tragic outcome was highly likely", they said.

Mrs Dedieu, 66, was one of four Westerners recently taken from Kenya.

In September, Briton David Tebbutt was killed and his wife Judith abducted from a luxury resort of Kiwayu on the Kenyan coast.

Earlier this month, two female Spanish aid workers with the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) were seized from the Dadaab refugee camp near the Kenya-Somalia border.

All three kidnapped women are still missing.

Continue reading the main story
Analysis

Will Ross

East Africa correspondent

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Sadly this news has not come as a great surprise to people who knew Marie Dedieu in Lamu. She had been spending the European winters there for several years and her friends say she was in very poor health with cancer and a heart condition making daily medicine a necessity.

If as the French foreign ministry suggests she was denied access to the life saving medicine, her death was tantamount to murder. If the pursuit of a hefty ransom payment was the motive for the kidnapping then taking somebody in poor health who was also severely disabled seems a strange choice. It is not clear who was holding her.

In lawless Somalia, al-Shabab, pirate gangs and bandits are all possible candidates. When money is the goal the groups also co-operate with each other. The Kenyan government is likely to portray Mrs Dedieu's death as another reason to justify the incursion into Somalia to fight al-Shabab. But analysts say there is no concrete proof that al-Shabab was behind the recent kidnappings and the group has denied any involvement in them.
Mrs Dedieu, who was a wheelchair-user and had to take regular medication for cancer and heart problems, had lived part-time in Kenya since the 1990s.

She was taken from her beachfront home on the small island of Manda in the Lamu archipelago on 1 October by an armed gang.

Officials confirmed she had been taken by sea to Somalia and that the kidnappers did not take her wheelchair or medication with them.

In a statement, the French foreign ministry expressed its "indignation at the total lack of humanity and the cruelty shown by the kidnappers of our compatriot".

It demanded that those responsible be brought to justice.

Kenya troops

The Kenyan government said Mrs Dedieu died in the captivity of Somalia's militant Islamist group, al-Shabab.

Somalia tries to get a stable government but it keeps on getting overthrown for some reason. Why??

yesoooooo they should bomb them, and when they finish they should come to northern states in Nigerian and flush out the remaining boko harams roaming sokoto streets and villages.

i like that

If this is true, the Somalis should retaliate and go bomb them some French territories. Is no use crying. Fight back. Even if you might not win.

France is the new USA.

umechuma:

Islam is evil !!!

I'm surprised you folks still don't realize this isn't a religious war anymore! This is territorial control!!! Forget terrorism and Boko Haram.

I personally will support Boko Haram before I support any "western" nation!! Take it from me you are not safe if you are in Nigeria,

A stable Africa means a collapsed Europe and America. We both know Where the rebels in Somalia gets their guns from and it's not from AL Qaeda,

9jaganja:

A stable Africa means a collapsed Europe and America. We both know Where the rebels in Somalia gets their guns from and it's not from AL Qaeda,

Even from you, this is rather brainless.

There are African Union and UN peacekeepers in Somalia now, supporting the fragile Government that offers the only hope for stability in the country.
On the other hand you have the Al Shabaab militia which has very strong ties to Al Qaeda. They use Sov-Bloc era weapons like AKs and RPG-7s which have been handed to them by their brethren in the middle east. Which western country will sell AK-47 rifles to a terrorist group with Al Qaeda affiliations?

Or perhaps you meant to say they get their weapons from you instead?

texazzpete:

Even from you, this is rather brainless.

There are African Union and UN peacekeepers in Somalia now, supporting the fragile Government that offers the only hope for stability in the country.
On the other hand you have the Al Shabaab militia which has very strong ties to Al Qaeda. They use Sov-Bloc era weapons like AKs and RPG-7s which have been handed to them by their brethren in the middle east. Which western country will sell AK-47 rifles to a terrorist group with Al Qaeda affiliations?

Or perhaps you meant to say they get their weapons from you instead?

hahahaha No need to argue with you my friend! Do you have any evidence of Al Qaeda's existence? As in that Al Qaeda has a base or multiple bases where they plan their strategies etc, on how to teach people to blow up themselves, kill their own people etc, Ok you believe Al Qaeda is the problem in Afghanistan? Ethics of war and peace!!!

There's no such thing as a sovereign nation - borders are no longer respected by the west!!

Useless nation smh

about time. One at a time Africa's issues are getting solved.


The Dark Continent accelerates out of the Dark Ages to the soundtrack of clusterbombs and dying dictators.

Brings back sad memories of the American soldier whose dead boby was dragged tied to the back of a truck through the streets of Mogadishu.

And the name of one of the warlords- Farah Aideed, I think.
Sad! Realy Sad!

Soldiers' corpses dragged through Mogadishu
Updated 3/21/2007 4:52 PM | Comment | Recommend E-mail | Print |

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Masked gunmen dragged slain soldiers through the streets of Somalia's capital Wednesday, then set the bodies on fire as jeering crowds threw rocks and kicked the dead after a fierce battle in a neighborhood loyal to Islamic insurgents.

At least 16 people were reported killed and dozens were wounded in the hours-long firefight, which was some of the heaviest fighting in Mogadishu since a radical Muslim militia was driven from the city in December after six months in power.

An Associated Press photographer saw six corpses — all soldiers for the U.N.-backed interim government or their Ethiopian allies — burned and mutilated while masked men shouted "God is great!" Women in head scarves and flowing dresses pounded one charred body with rocks.

A similar scene in Mogadishu grabbed the world's attention in 1993 when militiamen shot down a U.S. Black Hawk helicopter during an attempt to capture a warlord and dragged around dead American soldiers. The Clinton administration pulled out U.S. troops, and U.N. peacekeepers soon followed suit, leaving Somalia to years of anarchy.

One masked man, Abdinasir Hussein, said he dragged a soldier's corpse behind his motorbike. He told AP he wanted to show that Somalis will defeat the "invaders," referring to the troops from neighboring Ethiopia that helped government forces defeat the Islamic militia.

"I'm happy to drag an Ethiopian soldier on the Mogadishu streets," Hussein said.

Ahmed Mohamed Botaan, a clan elder in the neighborhood where the battle erupted before dawn, said he counted 16 bodies, seven of which were government soldiers. Mogadishu's three hospitals reported at least seven dead and 36 wounded.

The fighting began when Somali and Ethiopian soldiers entered the insurgent stronghold in southern Mogadishu seeking to consolidate the government's control. But hundreds of masked gunmen were waiting, and shooting raged for hours.

An insurgent group known as the Popular Resistance Movement in the Land of the Two Migrations, which is linked to the ousted Council of Islamic Courts, claimed it was the target of the government offensive but said its fighters repulsed the attack.

"They were unable to bear the pain of bullets coming from all four directions," the group said in a statement posted on the Islamic militia's website.

A government official, who agreed to discuss the combat situation only if not quoted by name, said the offensive focused on parts of the city controlled by the Habr Gedir clan, which supported more radical elements of the Islamic militia and opposes the interim administration.

The official said there would be more fighting. "The next week will be very hot in Mogadishu," the official said.

President Abdullahi Yusuf's Darod clan and the Habr Gedir are traditional enemies. Habr Gedir elders accuse Yusuf of favoring his own clansmen and recruiting only Darod into the new Somali army, aggravating Somalia's complex mixture of clan, political and religious disputes.

The United States has supported Yusuf's government and accuses the Islamic militia of having ties to al-Qaeda terrorists.

The U.S. ambassador to Kenya, Michael Ranneberger, who also represents American interests in Somalia, condemned Wednesday's bloodshed but said Washington believes things are better in Somalia.

"On balance we do feel that the situation in Somalia is moving forward in a generally positive way," Ranneberger told reporters in Nairobi, Kenya.

Somalia has been without an effective central government since 1991, when clan-based warlords ousted a longtime dictator and then began fighting among themselves.

Yusuf's administration was set up with U.N. help but it has failed to assert control across the country. The African Union has deployed a small peacekeeping force to defend the government, but daily violence grips Mogadishu and civilians caught in the middle are suffering the most.

"The government should learn from today's defeat. Its soldiers were dragged through the streets," said Zainab Abdi, a mother of two children.

She urged the government to reach out to the leaders of the Islamic militia, who are in hiding and promising to wage an Iraq-style insurgency.

"Otherwise, civilians will keep dying," Abdi said. "Who will the government rule if their people are killed every day?"


http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-03-21-somalia_N.htm

Famous, Infamous and Iconic Photos
U.S Soldier dragged through Mogadishu

It was a media war that the United States lost in Somalia, ironic since its involvement was forced by the pictures of famine-stricken people there. In one of the clearest and earliest examples of the CNN effect, the war was repeatedly dogged by the dozens of press photographers. It is an anticipating media, not snipers or enemy combatants, that greeted the U.S landing forces in Mogadishu in December 9th 1992.

For a war that began with memorable images, it is both fitting and ironic that it ended because of another set of dramatic images. The photos taken by Canadian photographer Paul Watson, of a dead American soldier being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu spelled the beginning of the end for U.S.-U.N. peacekeeping force. Domestic opinion turned hostile as horrified TV viewers watched images of the bloodshed—-including this Pulitzer-prize winning footage of Somali warlord Mohammed Aideed’s supporters dragging the body of U.S. Staff Sgt. William David Cleveland through the streets of Mogadishu, cheering. President Clinton immediately abandoned the pursuit of Aideed, the mission that cost Cleveland his life and gave the order for all American soldiers to withdraw from Somalia by March 31, 1994. Other Western nations followed suit.

When the last U.N. peacekeepers left in 1995, ending a mission that had cost more than $2 billion, Mogadishu still lacked a functioning government. The battle deaths, and the harrowing images prompted lingering U.S. reluctance to get involved in Africa’s crises, including the following year’s genocide in Rwanda. In 1996, Osama bin Laden cited the incident as proof that the U.S. was unable to stomach casualties: when “one American was dragged in the streets of Mogadishu you left; the extent of your impotence and weaknesses became very clear.” Never before or since had a photo altered a nation’s political destinies so much so.

[In the topmost photo, the soldier's genitals are exposed. When Time magazine decided to print it, they decided to cover them up in a controversial decision. Right after Watson took that photo, the crowd turned more violent, and they forced him to enter into a leaving car. He bolted from it and took the middle picture. The people in that photo looked a lot meaner and their eyes were focused on Watson, who defied the order to leave. It was this middle picture that AP ran (AP had tough policies against nudity). Supreme irony was that, as Watson noted, "decision was made to censor something sexually offensive, while the outrageous violence of desecrating a corpse is deemed safe for the general public's consumption."

Time magazine's Stephen Mayes replied: "[It] exposes the sensitivities of a nation that is militarily strong enough to confront one dead soldier but morally too insecure to risk the exposure of a single genital, even in such a non-sexual context?”]

http://iconicphotos./2010/03/10/u-s-marine-dragged-through-mogadishu/

PS: I Have the pictures but would not post them as they dishonour the memories of the fallen soldiers.

I think some Nigeria soldiers were also killed by the Somilian militia in those days.

[b]The battles of 3-4 October were a watershed in U.S. involvement in Somalia. The already complex mission and difficult environment took a dramatic turn with those events. The situation required constant innovation and rapid decisions from all the troops and commanders involved, under conditions that did not allow the American soldiers to take advantage of their great technological superiority. Experience, common sense, group cohesion, and superior tactical training were the virtues that made survival in the new environment possible as the decision-makers in Washington grappled with what to do next.[/b]23


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The Withdrawal from Somalia

In the aftermath of the 3 4 October battle, U.S. military presence in Somalia increased significantly, although temporarily. A company from the 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized) was immediately dispatched from Fort Stewart, Georgia, with Bradley fighting vehicles along with an attached platoon of MI Abrams tanks. They were soon joined by the 1 st Battalion, 64th Armor, with additional support assets. Another unit of the 10th Mountain Division-the 2d Battalion, 22d Infantry-arrived in Somalia soon after, along with a Marine expeditionary unit (MEU) and additional special operations personnel including more AC-130 gunships. These forces were organized under a new Joint Task Force Somalia under the command of Maj. Gen. Carl F. Ernst who was placed under General Montgomery's tactical control but remained under the operational control of the theater commander, General Hoar.

However, it soon became clear that the Clinton administration was focused on using those forces to facilitate the withdrawal of U.S. troops rather than use them to punish Aideed. General Montgomery had clear guidance: protect the force, protect the UN, and bring the force out with a minimum of casualties. In a national security policy review session held in the White House on 6 October, the president directed the acting chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral David G. Jeremiah, to stop all actions by U.S. forces against Aideed except those required in self-defense. He also reappointed Ambassador Oakley as special envoy to Somalia in an attempt to broker a peace settlement and then announced that all U.S. forces would withdraw from Somalia no later than 31 March 1994. Shortly thereafter Secretary Aspin stepped down, taking much of the blame for what was deemed a failed policy. For all intents and purposes, the United States was now determined to withdraw from Somalia as quickly as possible. All additional forces sent would be used solely for self-defense of U.S. soldiers rather than for further offensive operations.

Ambassador Oakley arrived in Mogadishu on 9 October, determined to obtain the release of U.S. helicopter pilot CW2 Michael Durant, captured at the second crash site by Somali forces loyal to Aideed. After intense negotiations, Aideed agreed to release the wounded Durant and a previously captured Nigerian soldier on 14 October as a "goodwill gesture." Despite this gesture and a unilateral cease-fire declared by Aideed, it quickly became apparent that the U.S. role in Somalia was ending and that the UN would receive no substantive cooperation from the warlord and his clan.

24


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Soldiers of Task Force Ranger take cover and return fire during
the 3-4 October battle.

After several months of comparatively limited activity and few further instances of violence, U.S. forces began withdrawing. Most of the American troops were out of Somalia by 25 March 1994, ending Operation CONTINUE HOPE, the follow-on mission to RESTORE HOPE. Only a few hundred marines remained offshore to assist with any noncombatant evacuation mission that might occur in the event violence broke out that necessitated the removal of the over 1,000 U.S. civilians and military advisers remaining as part of the U.S. liaison mission. All UN and U.S. personnel were finally withdrawn almost a year later in March 1995.

All attempts to reconcile the Somali factions had proven futile, and the international community gradually lost its patience with the total lack of political results. Operation UNITED SHIELD, the final UN withdrawal from Somalia, was completed on 3 March 1995. The United States, as part of the international community, had made major contributions to the Somalia humanitarian operations for over two years. Starvation had been stopped and hundreds of thousands of lives saved. The U.S. had accomplished much in the initial stages of the operation, but the political situation had unraveled even as the food supplies increased, allowing Somalia to slide backwards into disorder and anarchy.


http://www.history.army.mil/brochures/somalia/somalia.htm

Analysis

The United States entered Somalia in December 1992 to stop the imminent starvation of hundreds of thousands of people. Although it succeeded in this mission, the chaotic political situation of that unhappy land bogged down U.S. and allied forces in what became, in effect, a poorly organized United Nations nation-building operation. In a country where the United States, perhaps naively, expected some measure of gratitude for its help, its forces received increasing hostility as they became more deeply embroiled into trying to establish a stable government. The military and diplomatic effort to bring together all the clans and political entities was doomed to failure as each subelement continued to attempt to out-jockey the others for supreme power.

The Somali people were the main victims of their own leaders, but forty-two Americans died and dozens more were wounded before the United States and the United Nations capitulated to events and withdrew. American military power had established the conditions for peace in the midst of a famine and civil war, but, unlike later in Bosnia, the factions were not exhausted from the fighting and were not yet willing to stop killing each other and anyone caught in the middle. There was no peace to keep. The American soldier had, as always, done his best under difficult circumstances to perform a complex and often confusing mission. But the best soldiers in the world can only lay the foundation for peace; they cannot create peace itself.

http://www.history.army.mil/brochures/somalia/somalia.htm

thanks for providing some perspective. The somali are simply suffering under the clan lords. If there's a way to break such or reform the country in a manner that ensures they all have sovereignity in their many little fiefdoms, i'm guessing that will solve all the constant fighting.

Somalia will be their next target cus of kidnapping from Kenya border,they have kidnapped french and Britain tourist through Kenyan border and most of their kidnapped victims lost their life's so Obama is not happy with Somalians at all,

This is not a France war.Its Kenya who took the battle to somalia and teamed up with the Somalia Transitional forces plus AU forces.
The US army based in Djibouti(their HQ) has been providing logistical support to help flush them out.
The somalia waters are patrolled by the French Navy ships.This is where they come in because they are trying to block all routes the elshababs use.Elshabab are an arm of alqaeda. That is not a secret or mystery. And do not even think its composed of somalis only.
Those guys are soo ruthless.
Kenya the other day arrested 2 britons belonging to the group. 100 alqaeda members are from US.The rest from Aghanistan,Kenya etc.
The US ,France are not on the forefront of this battle! Infact they said Kenya caught them unawares. And Kenya said they do not need the foreign forces to defend their territory. Provocation came from somalia and Kenya has tolerated their nonsense for long.It was time to act because almost one third of somalia pop lives in Kenya.The poor in Dadaab camp while the rich own estates and property in NBO eastleigh( mini somalia).

pendo89:

This is not a France war.Its Kenya who took the battle to somalia and teamed up with the Somalia Transitional forces plus AU forces.
The US army based in Djibouti(their HQ) has been providing logistical support to help flush them out.
The somalia waters are patrolled by the French Navy ships.This is where they come in because they are trying to block all routes the elshababs use.Elshabab are an arm of alqaeda. That is not a secret or mystery. And do not even think its composed of somalis only.
Those guys are soo ruthless.
Kenya the other day arrested 2 britons belonging to the group. 100 alqaeda members are from US.The rest from Aghanistan,Kenya etc.
The US ,France are not on the forefront of this battle! Infact they said Kenya caught them unawares. And Kenya said they do not need the foreign forces to defend their territory. Provocation came from somalia and Kenya has tolerated their nonsense for long.It was time to act because almost one third of somalia pop lives in Kenya.The poor in Dadaab camp while the rich own estates and property in NBO eastleigh( mini somalia).

you are right!!! here is the evidence



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_oP4Yyp4nA

Ok thing is this,during the Moi era corruption was soo rampant and the war in somali was at its peak.Most somali illegal immigrants came in first to camps and then those who had money bribed their way into the city.
They settled at a place called Eastleigh.Now one thing with worias or somalis,the moment you allow one into ur house they multiply like crazy. So it only took a few rich somalis to buy houses and before long they moved into nbo in droves.
When the pirate activities started,they used their relatives to buy property in nbo's eastleigh and houses.They would offer twice or thrice the amount you are selling at.Very tempting indeed.That is how they bought churches,land and built madrassa and mega businesses.
If you go to eastleigh you will be shocked.Its a small city with names like DXB shopping malls etc. Its a suburb not in the city center.
You do not need to buy stuff from dxb if ur in kenya.Its all in eastleigh.You need a gun you get it in eastleigh lol.
Anyway that is why the goverment is carrying out these operations because they are biting the arm that fed them.

But the good ones are nice.We have lived with them and its only a few rotten potatoes spoiling for them.

pendo89:

And am evidence itself coz as I sit here in my office,I can see the JKIA runway. And I see the planes everyday leaving the airport.
Ok in short am in Nbo and and I report from the ground,lol

that is nice what kind of business are you running over there,and pls are you from Kenya?

Logistics.
Yep am kenyan from kenya. K I am leaving office now.will continue with this later.

pendo89:

Logistics.
Yep am kenyan from kenya. K I am leaving office now.will continue with this later.

ok sweet heart have a good day