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Tag: al-Shabab

  • Mourinho allegedly turns down Al Shabab offer, considers European offers

    Mourinho allegedly turns down Al Shabab offer, considers European offers

    José Mourinho has turned down an offer from Saudi Pro League club Al Shabab to take on the role of their new manager, according to a source from ESPN.

    Domenico Tite, the sporting director of the club, engaged in talks with Jorge Mendes, Mourinho’s agent, immediately after the Portuguese coach was sacked by AS Roma last week.

    Despite expressing his desire to manage in Saudi Arabia in the near future, Mourinho, who turns 61 on Friday, has opted against joining the SPL at this time.

    While he has garnered interest from European clubs, the source mentioned that Mourinho is taking his time to decide on his next move.

    Due to league regulations, he cannot manage another Italian club this season, making potential interest from clubs like Napoli a consideration for the next season.

    Mourinho, who has faced dismissal in his last five coaching positions, including Chelsea, Real Madrid, Manchester United, Tottenham, and Roma, has indicated his preference to stay in Europe, but only for the right project.

    Jose Mourinho shrug

    Al Shabab, currently 11th in the Saudi Pro League, is eager to replace their embattled manager, Igor Biscan, having won just five of their 19 league games this season.

  • Serious combat as Somali forces repel al-Shabab assault

    Serious combat as Somali forces repel al-Shabab assault

    There’s a big battle happening in the middle of Somalia because al-Shabab fighters attacked army bases in Mudug region.

    People told the media they heard a lot of shooting and explosions early in the morning on Wednesday.

    The attack started with a person blowing themselves up, aiming at government special forces.

    Galmudug’s Security Minister Mohamed Abdi Aden told the media that soldiers are still fighting the fighters in Aad village, where the army bases are found.

    The army and local people stopped the attack and caused a lot of harm to the terrorists, according to the Somali National News Agency (Sonna).

    Al-Shabab said they captured five military bases and killed many soldiers.

    Since August 2022, the Somali federal forces have been attacking the al-Qaeda-linked group.

  • 40 members of al-Shabab group reported dead in Somalia

    40 members of al-Shabab group reported dead in Somalia

    Recent military operations conducted by joint Somali special forces, supported by foreign troops, have resulted in the reported deaths of at least 40 members of the al-Shabab militant group, which is affiliated with al-Qaeda.

    These operations involved ground and air strikes in Somalia’s Lower Jubba region.

    According to Somali state media, the operations occurred in Welmarow village near Afmadow town.

    The Somali National News Agency, a state-run outlet, stated that the army successfully seized control of Welmarow village and Hagar town after eliminating al-Shabab hideouts and a weapons depot.

    However, media outlets sympathetic to al-Shabab have reported that the group has subsequently regained control of Hagar town.

    The operations involved the participation of Kenyan forces, as part of the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (Atmis), as reported by Kenya’s Star newspaper.

    Al-Shabab currently holds significant territories in Lower Jubba and the entire Middle Jubba region in southern Somalia.

    In August 2022, the Somali federal government announced a major offensive aimed at retaking control of territories from al-Shabab. These recent operations reflect the ongoing efforts to combat the presence of the militant group in the region.

  • East African leaders vow to ‘destroy’ al-Shabab

    East African leaders vow to ‘destroy’ al-Shabab

    Regional leaders meeting in Somalia have agreed on a joint offensive operation against Islamist militant group al-Shabab.

    The “search and destroy” operation will boost the momentum built up by government forces who have made huge gains over the past few months, including recovering territory controlled by the al Qaeda-affiliated group.

    “The time sensitive campaign will prevent any future infiltrating elements in the region,” said the communique signed by the leaders of Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya

    It did not provide any details about the operation.

    Al-Shabab, which launched mortar shells in Mogadishu ahead of the leaders’ meeting, has not responded to a request for comment, news agency Reuters reports.

    The militant group has been fighting since 2006 to topple Somalia’s central government and establish its own rule based on its strict interpretation of Islamic Sharia law.

    It occasionally attacks hotels, military bases and government establishments in Somalia and in the region.

    Source: BBC

  • Al-Shabab attack on Somali military base kills seven soldiers

    Al-Shabab attack on Somali military base kills seven soldiers

    In October, government troops and militias from affiliated clans reclaimed the base from al-Shabab.

    At least seven soldiers, including the base commander, were killed when fighters from the al-Shabab group stormed a military base in central Somalia that the government had taken back from them last year, according to an officer.

    According to Captain Aden Nur, a military officer in a nearby town, attackers from the al-Qaeda affiliate drove a suicide car bomb into the base in the village of Hawadley on Tuesday before opening fire.

    “We repelled al-Shabab [but] lost seven soldiers, including our commander,” Nur told Reuters.

    Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement, saying it had killed “many apostate soldiers and their commander”.

    The base is located about 60km (35 miles) north of the capital, Mogadishu, and was wrested from al-Shabab’s control in October by government forces and allied clan militias.

    The operation was part of a broader government offensive, which began in August and has made significant gains. On Monday, the government announced it had captured Harardhere, an al-Shabab stronghold on the Indian Ocean coast that it had held for a decade.

    As pressure on al-Shabab has grown, its fighters have struck back. They have stepped up gun and bomb attacks on the military and civilians, including in areas where they have retreated.

    The group has been fighting since 2007 to topple Somalia’s central government and impose its strict interpretation of Islamic law.

    In some regions, residents said al-Shabab’s tactics – including torching houses, destroying wells and killing civilians, combined with demands for taxes during the worst drought in 40 years – has pushed locals to form paramilitary groups to fight alongside the government.

    But in other towns and villages, al-Shabab’s courts are gaining widespread acceptance as constitutional courts struggle with backlogs and a perception of being corrupt.

    The conflict has contributed to a food crisis in Somalia. More than 200,000 Somalis are suffering from catastrophic food shortages, and some parts of central Somalia are on the brink of famine.

    Source: Aljazeera.com

  • Al-Shabab: 14 Iranian fishermen freed years after abduction

    Fourteen Iranian fishermen have returned home after years in captivity by al-Shabab militants in Somalia.

    They were freed after “lengthy negotiations with government officials, tribal chiefs and Somali elders,” Iranian news agency ISNA reports.

    They were flown back to Iran late on Saturday before being taken to their hometown of Chabahar, in the south.

    Some of them had been held for as long as eight years after being kidnapped in international waters close to Somalia.

    The fishermen were freed almost a month after Somali police said they had found 20 foreigners – 14 Iranians and six Pakistanis – near land controlled by militants.

    According to the AFP news agency, police said at the time that some of the fishermen had been seized by al-Shabab in 2014 and others had been kidnapped in mid-2019.

    The group of fishermen was welcomed by family members in a ceremony at the main international airport in Tehran on Saturday night.

    The Islamist militant group al-Shabab has carried out several attacks in Somalia in recent months, including twin car bomb explosions in the capital Mogadishu in October, in which 120 people died.

    The government has launched a large-scale offensive against al-Shabab, working together with local clan militia.

    Al-Shabab militants have been active in Somalia for more than 15 years, have control over large rural areas and continue to mount attacks in urban centres.

    Source: BBC

  • Gunmen from Al-Shabab attack a military base in central Somalia

    The latest attack comes just days after al-Shabab carried out a suicide bombing near a military base in Mogadishu, the capital.

    According to the defense ministry, suspected al-Shabab fighters attacked a Somali military base in the central Galgaduud region on Monday, just days after the area was captured by government forces.

    The army repelled an attack on a base housing national and local troops in Qayib, a village recaptured from al-Shabab last week, according to defense ministry spokesman Abdullahi Ali Anod, who spoke to the state-run news agency SONNA.

    The attack began around 5 a.m. local time (02:00 GMT), followed by hours of heavy fighting, according to Ahmed Hassan, a military officer in the nearby town of Bahdo.

    It was not immediately clear how many people had been killed in the raid, Hassan said.

    In a statement, al-Shabab spokesman Abdiasis Abu Musab said the group launched the assault in Qayib using suicide car bombs before its fighters attacked from different directions. The fighters killed several soldiers and stole weapons and military vehicles, Abu Musab said.

    Government forces, supported by clan militias, have made a number of battlefield gains against al-Shabab in the last three months, regaining territory long held by the group.

    In response, al-Shabab killed at least 100 people in twin car bombings at the education ministry in the capital, Mogadishu, on October 29, the deadliest blasts in five years.

    A suicide bomber also killed at least five people and wounded 11 others in an incident near a military training camp in Mogadishu on Saturday.

    Al-Shabab, an al-Qaeda-allied armed group fighting in Somalia for more than a decade, is seeking to topple the country’s central government and establish its own rule based on a strict interpretation of Islamic law.

    Its fighters were driven out of Mogadishu in 2011 by the African Union peacekeeping forces. But it still controls swaths of Somalia’s countryside and has stepped up attacks since President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud took office in May and pledged an “all-out war” against the group.

  • Somalia prohibits use of the name al-Shabab

    Somalia’s religious affairs ministry has banned the use of the name al-Shabab – “the youth” in Arabic – and asked the public to refer to the militant group as “Khawarij”, a derogatory term meaning a deviant sect.

    In a statement, the ministry also prohibited clerics from dealing with the al-Qaeda-allied militants or meeting them.

    The government said the directive to brand al-Shabab as “Khawarij” was part of the war against the group.

    It is not the first time the Somali government has coined another name for al-Shabab.

    In 2015 the government told the media to refer to the militant group as “Ugus”, a Somali acronym for “the group that massacres the Somali people”.

    In response, the al-Shabab had threatened to punish anyone, including journalists, who obeyed government directives or used the term.

    Last month, the federal authorities banned local media outlets from reporting on al-Shabab activities.

    Source: BBC

  • Two Islamic State militants executed in Somalia

    Two Islamic State (IS) militants were executed by firing squad in Somalia.

    According to the state-owned Somali National News Agency (Sonna), a military court found the two “guilty of assassination” in Mogadishu and Bosaso town in the north-eastern Bari region.

    The two were identified as Adan Mohamed Ali Mohamud and Mohamed Ali Mohamed Farah.

    Local media reports said many al-Shabab and Islamic State militants are still in prisons waiting to be executed after being sentenced to death.

    The Islamic State insurgents mainly operate in north-eastern Puntland where they had claimed attacks in the past.

     

  • Al-Shabab disturbed after Somalia media ban

    Islamist militant group al-Shabab has cautioned independent Somali media and journalists from adhering to a government directive that banned use of media materials created by the group.

    The government published a list of banned pro-militant websites on Saturday and asked internet service providers to block them.

    40 social media accounts that spread al-Shabab propaganda were also suspended and the government warned Somali journalists that it would “regard all al-Shabab-related propaganda coverage – including their terrorist acts and their ideology – as punishable crimes”.

    In response, al-Shabab issued a statement accusing the government of a campaign “to silence the truth”.

    The group also warned internet providers against blocking its affiliated media outlets.

    Al-Shabab has a sophisticated media machinery that includes several affiliated media outlets and dozens of accounts across social media platforms.

    The group’s outlets produce a daily mix of audio, text and video material containing the group’s activities and messages that are aimed at winning public support.

  • Co-founder of Al-Shabab slain in a strike in Somalia

    Abdullahi Nadir, a co-founder and top al-Shabab member, was reportedly killed on Saturday in the Middle Jubba region of southern Somalia, according to the Somali authorities.

    The director of al-religious Shabab’s indoctrination unit, Nadir, was the target of a $3 million (£2.7 million) US bounty, according to the Somali communications ministry.

    It added that al-Shabab considered Nadir a potential successor to its current leader, Ahmed Omar Diriye, aka Abu Ubaidah, who has long been rumoured to be “in poor health”.

    Private media reported that Nadir was killed in a drone strike.

    The information ministry said that Somali security forces and international partners killed Nadir in an operation, but did not mention a drone strike.

    The US Africa Command, which frequently targets top al-Shabab militants and positions, has not yet commented on the development.

  • Al-Shabab: Islamists kill 10 in Somali hotel – reports

    10 people have been killed after al-Shabab militants stormed a hotel in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, security officials say.

    Police said attackers detonated two explosives outside the hotel before entering the building and opening fire.

    They were reported to be holed up on the top floor of the Hotel Hayat, hours after the attack began.

    A special police unit is said to have rescued dozens of guests and staff from the hotel.

    “The security forces continued to neutralise terrorists who have been cordoned inside a room in the hotel building. Most of the people were rescued, but at least eight civilians were confirmed dead so far,” said an official, Mohamed Abdikadir.

    Earlier, a website affiliated to al-Shabab said a group of militants had “forcibly entered” the hotel and were “carrying out random shooting”.

    The Hayat is described as a popular location for employees of the federal government to meet.

    Nine people were injured and carried away from the hotel, the head of Mogadishu’s Aamin ambulance services, Abdikadir Abdirahman told Reuters news agency earlier.

    Unverified images circulating on social media appeared to show smoke billowing from the hotel while shouting and loud bangs can be heard.

    “Two car bombs targeted Hotel Hayat,” a police officer told the Reuters news agency in a statement. “One hit a barrier near the hotel, and then the other hit the gate of the hotel. We believe the fighters are inside the hotel.”

    An affiliate of al-Qaeda, al-Shabab has engaged in a long-running conflict with the federal government.

    The group controls much of southern and central Somalia but has been able to extend its influence into areas controlled by the government based in Mogadishu.

    In recent weeks fighters affiliated with the group have also attacked targets along the Somalia-Ethiopia border, which has raised concerns about a possible new strategy by al-Shabab.

    The attack on Friday marks the first in the capital by the group since Somalia’s new president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, was elected in May.

    Source: BBC

  • Al-Shabab militants in shoot-out in Somalia prison

    At least 10 people have been killed in a shoot-out between jailed militant Islamists and security officers at a prison in Somalia, government spokesman Ismail Mukhtar has said.

    The al-Shabab militants had attempted to escape from the heavily guarded prison in the capital, Mogadishu.

    An investigation is under way into how the militants obtained weapons.

    Some reports suggested that an inmate managed to disarm a warden and then a group of them raided the armoury.

    The BBC’s Bella Sheegow in Mogadishu says Monday’s incident is highly embarrassing for the government as the prison, the second biggest in Somalia, is guarded by elite forces.

    The attack was repelled after reinforcements were called in.

    ‘No prisoners escaped’

    The most dangerous al-Shabab militants are kept in the prison, including those serving life sentences or awaiting execution after being sentenced to death.

    Inmates had also attempted to break out of the prison in 2017, and the government was under pressure to prevent further such incidents, our reporter adds.

    Somali government soldiers on a Military vehicle are seen outside the SYL hotel in Mogadishu on December 11, 2019
    Somali troops have been battling to curb the insurgency / GETTY IMAGES

    “We will not leave anything to chance. The government is investigating how this happened and who was responsible for what happened as well as who facilitated the inmates to get the weapons,” Acting Justice Minister Hassan Hussein Haji said.

    Mr Mukhtar said none of the prisoners had managed to escape.

    He said four militants were killed in the shoot-out.

    He did not give details on who the other six were, except to say that the prison guards had also suffered casualties.

    Al-Shabab, which is linked to al-Qaeda, has been waging a brutal insurgency in Somalia for more than a decade.

    It has been pushed out of Mogadishu by government and African Union troops, but the group still carries out bombings and assassinations in the city.

    Source: bbc.com

  • ‘Al-Shabab militants raid Kenyan police station’

    Militants from the Somalia-based Islamist group al-Shabab raided a police station in Kenya’s north-eastern region of Wajir, the Daily Nation newspaper reports.

    The militants attacked Dadajabula police station in Wajir South in the early hours of Wednesday with heavy artillery, including rocket-propelled grenades, the newspaper reports.

    Read:Al-Shabab says it has killed UK and US spies

    A local government official is quoted as saying that the attack is linked to the arrest of two members of the group who were being held at the police station.

    The two militants in police custody were killed in the ensuing gunfight, while two police officers and a reservist were injured, the newspaper reports.

    Read:Kenya attack: 50 still missing after al-Shabab hotel raid

    Source: bbc.com