Dreams Into Lightning 2

US Attack Kills Eight Terrorists in Somalia

Fox News: 'At least eight foreign and an unspecified number of Somali Islamic militants — including at least one American — were killed in fighting with Somali government forces and during bombardment from a U.S. warship on a remote, mountainous northeastern area, officials said Sunday. The fight against Islamic militants in Somalia has moved to the relatively peaceful northeast of the country. Somali government forces and their allies have previously fought the militants only in the country's south. "Foreign fighters, Somali militants and members of the international terrorists including British nationals, Americans, Swedish, Pakistanis and Yemenis were killed in separate operations carried out by Puntland troops and U.S. navy forces," said a Sunday statement by the government of the semiautonomous northeastern region of Puntland.' Full story at the link.

Somali PM Ali Mohamed Gedi Survives Bomb Attack

CNN :  'MOGADISHU, Somalia (CNN) -- Somalian Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi survived a suicide vehicle bomb blast that heavily damaged his home Sunday, his spokesman said.  A Toyota Land Cruiser loaded with explosives crashed through the security gate of the prime minister's Mogadishu home and exploded, killing six guards and damaging the house that also serves as the prime minister's office, spokesman Abdullahi Odka said.  He said the prime minister was at home at the time, but he was unhurt.'

AP via MSNBC:  'A suicide car bomber drove through a roadblock guarding the home of the Somali prime minister on Sunday and rammed the vehicle into a wall. Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi was whisked to safety, officials said, but at least five people were killed in the explosion.  A top government official blamed the assassination attempt — the third against Gedi since he returned to Somalia in May 2005 — on “terrorists linked to al-Qaida.” ... The suicide bombing took place two days after Somali forces and shelling from a U.S. warship reportedly killed eight foreign Islamic militants in a remote, mountainous northeastern area of the country.'

Somalia: Battle for Baidoa

Fox News: Hundreds reported dead.

MOGADISHU, Somalia — Hundreds have been killed in clashes between Somalia's Islamic militia and the country's secular government, officials said Friday as the U.N. took advantage of a brief lull in fighting to push for peace.

Although sporadic gunfire and shelling could still be heard around the headquarters of the Ethiopian-backed government, residents and officials said the worst of the current fighting was over. New attacks were feared.

Thousands of Somalis have fled their homes as troops loyal to the two-year-old interim administration fought Islamic fighters who had advanced on the regime's only stronghold, Baidoa.

Counterterrorism Blog: Battle for Baidoa begins, Islamic Courts Union employing feint tactics.

I have been covering the situation in Somalia since early June, when Mogadishu fell to the radical Islamic Courts Union (ICU). The ICU has steadily gained control of strategic cities throughout the country since then, confining its secular rival, the transitional federal government (TFG), to the south-central Somali city of Baidoa. This morning I have a major piece of breaking news over at Pajamas Media, where I reveal that the ICU has begun its final push to take Baidoa. An excerpt:

Baidoa is heavily fortified and protected by a large contingent of Ethiopian troops but its defenses will not hold, intelligence sources tell Pajamas Media. Ethiopia has allied itself with Somalia's embattled transitional federal government.

Reached by Pajamas Media, Dahir Jibreel, the transitional government's permanent secretary in charge of international cooperation, confirmed that a massive offensive is underway. Jibreel said that the ICU launched an "offensive on the seat of the government from three directions: Burkhakabo, Idale and Dinsor." ...

t's worth noting that the military intelligence source with whom I spoke believes that the ICU's early attacks on Baidoa -- which got beaten back -- were not intended to take the city, but instead were feint operations designed to make the transitional government and its Ethiopian allies overconfident, and perhaps cause them to advance from their fortified positions. If he is correct that these were feint operations (and this source has been extremely reliable in the past), then the ICU succeeded in driving up the the TFG's confidence. ...

Full details at the links.