(Mogadishu, Somalia) The African Union (AMISOM) peacekeeping force of 5,000 has been battling al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab for control of Mogadishu. The conflict has been characterized by roadside bombs, suicide bombs and artillery. Residential and commercial neighborhoods are shelled daily, killing scores of innocents.
Burundi and Uganda have each supplied about 2,500 troops to the AMISOM Mogadishu peacekeeping effort. On Thursday, they were blamed by al-Shabaab for a mortar attack on the capital's Bakara market area which killed at least 30 people. An AMISOM spokesman denied any involvement.
Nevertheless, al Shabaab vowed to retaliate against Burundi and Uganda.
“We shall make their people cry,” Sheikh Ali Mohamed Hussein, al Shabaab’s self-styled governor of Banadir region, which includes Mogadishu, told reporters late on Thursday.Although better armed and organized than the Islamists, AMISOM has been "unable to do much more than secure the city’s airport, sea port, presidential palace and a few roads in between." AMISOM is waiting for reinforcements promised by several African nations.
“We shall attack Bujumbura and Kampala ... We will move our fighting to those two cities and we shall destroy them,” he said.
Waiting for reinforcements in Mogadishu has a familiar ring to it. Isn't that what the U.S. Army Rangers were doing just before being slaughtered back in the early 1990s?
You know, this would be the perfect place to segue into a generic jab at leaders who sit on their thumbs while troops are pleading for reinforcements. But I won't do that.
Companion post at The Jawa Report.
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