Somalia

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3 Pirates Killed in In-Fighting Aboard Hijacked Tanker

Defiant Somali pirates demand $20M for cargo of tanks, weapons

(Newser) - Three pirates were killed today as in-fighting broke out aboard a hijacked Ukranian tanker, reports the Guardian. Tensions about what to do with the tanker, its crew, and the 33 tanks aboard it rose yesterday as American destroyers and cruisers continued to move in to ensure that the weapons—bound...

Islamists Eye Weapons on Pirate Ship

Ukrainian vessel surrounded by Western warships off Somalia

(Newser) - Islamic extremists are preparing to unload anti-aircraft guns and grenades from a Ukrainian ship captured by Somali pirates, the Times of London reports, though the ship, taken Thursday as it approached Kenya, is surrounded by US and European warships. Speaking via satellite phone, the seized vessel’s captain said one...

Aid Worker Murders Cripple Somali Relief

As crisis reaches flashpoint, 'organized terror campaign' drives out help

(Newser) - Aid workers are fleeing Somalia, even as global food prices soar and a full-blown famine is feared, in response to what officials say is an organized campaign of violence. Messages posted in the capital and sent to aid organizations threaten: “We know all the so-called aid workers. We promise...

UN Boosts Members' Powers to Fight Africa Piracy

Navy vessels can follow hijackers into Somali waters

(Newser) - With piracy a growing problem off the Horn of Africa, the UN will allow its members to combat pirates using “all necessary means,” including chasing them into Somali waters, CNN reports. Somalia’s transitional government supports the move. More than two dozen pirate attacks have been reported in...

Pirates Hijack Relief Ship Off of Somalia

Attack is third within weeks off the coast long plagued by pirates

(Newser) - Pirates hijacked a Jordanian relief ship off the Somalia coast early yesterday, reports the BBC, and its 12-member international crew are now traveling north with its cargo of 4,000 tons of sugar. Jordan is reportedly working with the Danish embassy in Mogadishu, near where the boat was seized, to...

Two Shot in Somalia Food Riots
 Two Shot in Somalia Food Riots 

Two Shot in Somalia Food Riots

Thousands protest over inflation and soaring prices

(Newser) - Soldiers shot and killed at least two people in Somalia as thousands rioted over inflation and soaring food prices. A recent rash of counterfeiting has led some merchants to only accept US dollars, instead of local shillings, the BBC reports. In response, angry Somalis threw rocks and burned tires, shouting,...

US Airstrike Kills al-Qaeda Boss in Somalia

Ayro led Iraq-style insurgency; at least 12 others dead

(Newser) - American war planes killed more than a dozen people in a town in the west of Somalia today, including one said to be the leader of that country's branch of al-Qaeda. Reuters reports that the airstrike on a band of Somali insurgents killed Aden Hashi Ayro, whose militants are blamed...

Spain Speeds to Save Pirate Hostages

Fishing boat is latest target of Somali brigands

(Newser) - A Spanish naval frigate is steaming to the waters off Somalia to rescue crew members of a tuna boat seized by pirates, reports the BBC. The boat was grabbed just days after French commandos freed hostages from a luxury yacht comandeered by Somali pirates. The tuna boat's 26 crew members...

Ignore Pirates or Face Asylum Claims, UK Says

Navy argues blind eye not best policy

(Newser) - In an odd new take on piracy, the British Royal Navy has been told by the Foreign Office not to detain pirates—or they may seek asylum to escape death sentences in their home countries. It's not a strategy roundly hailed. “These people commit horrendous offenses. It’s a...

Somali Pirates Free French Yacht Hostages

No word on whether ransom changed hands

(Newser) - Somali pirates have freed the crew members of the French yacht they commandeered last week, AFP reports. All 30 hostages, including 22 French nationals, were handed over “without incident” in a deal negotiated by the military, Nicolas Sarkozy said.

Pirates Grab French Yacht Off Somalia

France joins regional force to save 30 crew members

(Newser) - Pirates overran a French yacht off the coast of Somalia today and took 30 crew members hostage, AFP reports. Vowing a quick end to the hijacking, France has joined a US-led regional force and may use its own "relatively major military resources within this zone," Prime Minister Francois...

10 Killed as Somalia Forces Battle Insurgents

Government fires on market as Somalia teeters on collapse

(Newser) - At least 10 people were killed and 35 seriously injured in Somalia’s capital yesterday as insurgents fired mortars at the presidential palace, where Somalia’s president and Ethiopia’s foreign minister were meeting. The government responded by firing artillery shells and mortar in the direction of the attack, a...

US Fires Missiles at al-Qaeda Target in Somalia

Strike killed 3 women, 3 children, wounded 20

(Newser) - The US military has fired missiles at a terror target in southern Somalia, CNN reports. The strike destroyed two houses, killing three women and three children and wounding 20 others, a local commissioner reports. A US official says the strike was aimed at a "facility where there were known...

Hillary Was Adviser, Not Decider
Hillary Was Adviser, Not Decider

Hillary Was Adviser, Not Decider

First Lady didn't handle intel but was a presidential sounding board

(Newser) - Hillary Clinton spent her 8 years in the White House informally advising her husband and jetting around the world mediating social crises, the New York Times says, but the first lady had little direct experience with war or terrorism. She didn’t do “the heavy lifting of foreign policy,...

UN Food Aid Restored in Somalia
UN Food Aid Restored in Somalia

UN Food Aid Restored in Somalia

Mysterious obstacles disappear as help is allowed again to devastated region

(Newser) - United Nations food aid has been restored to Somalia today after it was suspended yesterday, when the government hiked road tolls to $500 a truck and prevented two ships from delivering food to the problem-plagued Lower Shabelle region. UN aid teams were given no explanation for the trouble. But a...

6,000 Killed in Mogadishu in 2007
6,000 Killed in Mogadishu in 2007

6,000 Killed in Mogadishu in 2007

700,000 displaced as brutal Somalian civil war grinds on

(Newser) - Somalia's bloody civil war between the Ethiopian-backed provisional government and Islamic insurgents has killed 5,960 people this year in Mogadishu alone, according to the country's oldest human rights group. And more than 700,000 Somalians have been displaced, the AP reports, though data gathering has become more difficult since...

Mogadishu Residents Flee
Mogadishu Residents Flee

Mogadishu Residents Flee

Somalians escape violence between government troops and Islamist rebels

(Newser) - Civilian exodus from Mogadishu continued today as government forces and Ethiopian allies fought Islamist rebels in the Somalian capital, sparking a humanitarian crisis. Tens of thousands of residents have fled the city in the past week as troops try to root out insurgents and their weapons stockpiles. "We had...

US Pursues Hijacked Ship in Somali Waters

Pirates take Japanese cargo vessel loaded with benzene

(Newser) - A US warship is hot on the trail of a Japanese cargo vessel hijacked by pirates off Somalia. USS Porter sank pirate skiffs that had been tied to the Golden Mori when it sent distress signals Sunday. But after the bombardment, authorities learned that the Panamanian-flagged Mori contains benzene, a...

Protect Her Like You Promised
Protect Her Like You Promised

Protect Her Like You Promised

Dutch must keep free-speech advocate alive, Rushdie and Harris argue in the LAT

(Newser) - Former Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi deserves “the freedoms of speech and conscience we take for granted," argue Salman Rushdie and Sam Harris—who urge the Dutch to keep protecting her from Islamic killers. The Dutch promised protection in 2002, and should “recognize a scandal in the making”...

Danish Police Arrest 8, Foil Terror Plot

Officials say the men, with Mideastern backgrounds, are tied to Al Qaeda

(Newser) - Danish police have arrested eight men they say were plotting a terror attack and were tied to Al Qaeda. The arrest comes after months of surveillance, an intelligence official told a press conference in Copenhagen today, but he declined to say what country was the target of the attack. "...

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