Somali militants threaten U.S. attacks to avenge leader's death
Tue Sep 9, 2014 2:42pm GMT
* Al Shabaab tells Obama to prepare for 'shocking news'
* Recorded message also threatens attacks in east Africa
* Toll from Monday's Al Shabaab bombings in Somalia hits 18
* Anniversary of Nairobi's Westgate mall bombing nears
By Abdi Sheikh
MOGADISHU, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Somali Islamist militants have threatened
attacks in east Africa and the United States, warning President Barack Obama
he would hear "shocking news" as punishment for a U.S. missile strike that
killed the rebel group's leader last week.
Al Shabaab made the threats late on Monday, hours after launching twin
attacks inside Somalia against African peacekeepers and a government convoy.
The death toll from those bombings rose to at least 18 on Tuesday, police
said.
"Let our mujahideen (fighters) wait for good news. And let Obama wait for
shocking news," senior al Shabaab official, Fuad Mohamed Khalaf Shongole,
said in a recorded message, promising to avenge the death of Ahmed Godane in
a U.S. raid on Sept. 1.
Al Shabaab demonstrated its ability to strike abroad on Sept. 21, 2013, when
the group launched an attack on the upscale Westgate shopping mall in
Nairobi, Kenya, that killed 67 people.
Godane publicly claimed responsibility for that assault, saying it was
revenge for Kenyan and Western involvement in Somalia and noting its
proximity to the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United
States.
He was also the group's leader in 2010 when a series of bombs it let off in
the Ugandan capital Kampala killed 74.
Shongole's message, which was released over the Internet, threatened further
attacks in Kenya and Uganda.
"As you have killed (Godane), many Americans will be killed in New York and
Washington. This is real. Men have already been prepared," he added.
'LIFESPAN ENDING'
Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud told state radio he was confident al
Shabaab's "lifespan is ending", referring to a campaign launched by African
force AMISOM and Somalian forces to drive the militants out of their
remaining strongholds.
"We say to the terrorists, your time has ended," he said.
The group was driven out of Mogadishu in 2011 but has continued to hold
other towns and tracts of territory. AMISOM and Somali troops regained
several towns earlier this year from the group, whose stronghold is south
and central Somalia.
Al Shabaab has staged hit-and-run bomb and gun attacks even as it has lost
ground, with Monday's strikes coming shortly after the group named a new
leader, Ahmad Umar, who is also known as Abu Ubaidah, to replace Godane.
All those killed on Monday came in the first blast, when a car bomb targeted
an AMISOM convoy and ripped apart a nearby minibus.
"The bus was carrying over twenty people and only two survived," Major
Hussein Ahmed, a senior police officer, told Reuters. "We are afraid the
death is higher than that, as some mothers were carrying their babies on
their laps."
A nurse at a Mogadishu hospital, Halima Ibrahim, said 25 people were being
treated - 16 civilians from the first car bomb and nine soldiers from a
second attack on a Somali security convoy. Many were seriously hurt and
burnt, she said.
Al Shabaab, which literally means "the Youths", wants to impose its strict
version of Islam on Somalia. (Writing by Edith Honan; Editing by Edmund
Blair and John Stonestreet)
C Thomson Reuters 2014 All rights reserved
(Adds new al Shabaab threat, U.S. government comment)
By Abdi Sheikh and Feisal Omar
MOGADISHU, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Somalia's Islamist rebel group bombed African
peacekeepers and government vehicles on Monday in twin attacks that left at
least 12 civilians dead, marking al Shabaab's first major attack since
promising revenge for the killing of its leader last week.
The blasts within an hour of each other on the same road southwest of
Mogadishu targeted a convoy of African Union (AU) troops and a Somali
government convoy of police and national security forces. Civilian buses
near the first blast were hit.
"We are behind the two car bombs driven by mujahideen (fighters)," Sheikh
Abdiasis Abu Musab, spokesman for al Shabaab's military operations, told
Reuters.
The attacks were a reminder that al Shabaab, which wants to impose its
strict version of Islam on Somalia, remains a potent threat capable of
launching major attacks, even after losing its leader Ahmed Godane in a U.S.
strike last week.
A senior leader with al Shabaab issued a new set of threats later on Monday,
promising revenge on the United States, as well as Kenya and Uganda - two of
the countries that have contributed troops to the African Union force in
Somalia.
"If you think jihad will stop after killing men, we say, that is a lie,"
Fuad Mohamed Khalaf Shongole said in an audio recording. "You non-believer
Obama, we tell you now is the time for war for the sake of God."
He also vowed to capture Kampala and Nairobi, east African cities that have
been targeted by al Shabaab before.
The militants carried out attacks in the Ugandan capital of Kampala in 2010,
leaving left 74 dead and dozens more injured. Nearly a year ago, the group
carried out a dramatic attack on the upscale Westgate shopping mall in
Nairobi that killed 67 people.
Experts had warned Godane's death may lead to more attacks. On Sunday,
Somalia's national security minister put the armed forces on higher alert
and said the government was preparing for possible attacks on hospitals or
schools.
Al Shabaab appointed a new leader at the weekend and said the group's
enemies would reap "bitter fruits" of revenge.
Abdikadir Mohamed Sidi, governor of the Lower Shabelle region south of
Mogadishu, told Reuters by telephone he was driving behind the AU convoy at
the time of the first blast and saw three civilian vehicles in the same
area.
He said more than 12 people were killed in one minibus. Two African Union
soldiers were injured in that attack, about 20 km (13 miles) from the
capital.
The rebels said four American soldiers and a South African soldier were
among those killed in the attack on the convoy. But a U.S. government
official said no U.S. military forces were involved.
"It is a disaster. The flesh of the people was mixed up and stuck to the
tarmac road and the debris of the vehicle," said Major Hussein Ahmed, a
senior police officer, describing the scene near the African Union convoy
where minibuses were hit.
More than two dozen people were wounded in the first blast, including two
African soldiers, the governor said. At least two people were injured in the
second blast, said major Hussein Ahmed.
A Reuters witness saw an AU vehicle being towed and the burned remains of
passengers inside one of the minibuses.
Al Shabaab, which emerged as a fighting force in 2006, lost control of the
Somali capital to African forces in 2011 but has continued hit-and-run gun
and bomb attacks. The African Union launched a new offensive this year to
retake territory in al Shabaab strongholds in southern and central Somalia.
Following Godane's death last Monday, rebels pledged allegiance to their new
leader, the little-known Sheikh Ahmed Umar Abu Ubaida, and reaffirmed its
affiliation to al Qaeda. (Reporting by Edith Honan; Editing by Sonya
Hepinstall)