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Conflict With Al-Shabaab in Somalia

At Least Six Dead After Bombing in Mogadishu

  • A vehicle equipped with a bomb exploded in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, leaving six dead and several wounded (Al Jazeera)

Car Bomb Kills Four in Mogadishu

  • A car bomb at a military checkpoint in Somalia’s capital killed at least four soldiers (Al Jazeera)

Pentagon May Propose Expanded Somalia Operations

  • The Pentagon reportedly recommended that the White House give the military greater flexibility in launching air strikes and increase the number of U.S. special forces based in the country (VOA)

Kenyan Court Rules Dadaab to Stay Open

  • A Kenyan court ruled that the government could not close the Dadaab refugee camp, the largest in the world, and force more than two hundred thousand people to return to Somalia (Guardian)

Somali Presidential Election Begins Amid Lockdown

  • Mogadishu is on lockdown as members of the legislature gather to cast their votes among more than twenty candidates vying for the presidency. The election will determine the top three candidates to proceed to a second round of voting (BBC)
  • In the past week, militants shot mortar rounds at the election venue and gunmen killed four guards at a hotel in the semi-autonomous Puntland region (Associated Press)

Al-Shabab Publicly Executes Suspected Spies

  • Al-Shabab confirmed local reports of the execution of four men accused of spying for Somalia’s government, the United States, and Kenya (Reuters)

Al-Shabab Claims Attack on Kenyan Military Base

  • Al-Shabab, the al-Qaeda-affiliated militant group, claimed it killed more than fifty soldiers and seized weaponry and vehicles in an attack on a Kenyan military base in southern Somalia (BBC)
  • The number of casualties has not been confirmed by Kenyan officials

Al-Shabab Claims Responsibility for Mogadishu Attack

  • Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for two explosions that reportedly killed at least twenty-one people and wounded fifty more outside the Dayah Hotel in Mogadishu (CNN)

Regional Troops Reportedly Kill Seven Islamic State Militants

  • Somali regional troops in Puntland killed seven militants supporting the self-proclaimed Islamic State, in the first confrontation between the two forces (VOA)

Government Delays Presidential Election

  • Somalia’s electoral commission delayed the presidential election for the third time due to claims of fraud, bribery and voter intimidation (AP)

United States to Expand Counterterrorism Authority to Somalia

  • The Obama administration is expected to publically disclose next month that it has added the Islamist group al-Shabab to its targets for airstrikes and counterterrorism operations (New York Times)

September U.S. Drone Strike Reportedly Killed Members of Allied Force

  • A U.S. drone strike said to have killed Islamist militants in September instead reportedly killed members of an armed group aligned with the United States, according to an internal investigation yet to be made public (Washington Post)

Al-Shabab Seizes Town from Government Forces

  • Al-Shabab seized a town from government forces as the militant group tries to topple the country’s Western-backed government. One Somali soldier was killed, an army official said (Reuters)

Militants Linked to Islamic State Seize Somali Town

  • Militants linked to the self-proclaimed Islamic State have seized an ancient port town after security forces withdrew in Somalia’s semi-autonomous state of Puntland, according to local residents (New York Times)

Al-Shabab Strikes African Union Base

  • A suicide bomber drove a vehicle loaded with explosives into an African Union military base in central Somalia, a Somali security official said. (Al Jazeera)

Suspected Al-Shabab Suicide Car Bomb Kills One in Mogadishu

  • A suspected Al-Shabab suicide car bombing killed at least one person and wounded two others in Mogadishu. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack which occurred near a temporary shelter for internally displaced persons (Reuters)

Al-Shabab Attack Leaves Several Dead

  • At least ten soldiers and civilians were killed after al-Shabab carried out a suicide attack in the city of Afgoye. The clashes started when a car bomb was detonated near a police station and an African Union base. Gunmen then attacked military bases in the strategically-located city (Al-Jazeera)

Security Forces Shut Down Newspaper and Arrest Editor

  • Somali security forces shut down the Xog Ogaal newspaper and arrested its editor, in what the National Union of Somali Journalists said is a “prevailing situation of persecution of independent voices in the Somali media” (Reuters)

UN Approved Arms Imports Resold in Mogadishu, Diplomats Say

  • Guns imported by the Somali government with approval from the UN are being resold by arms dealers on the black market in Mogadishu, two Western diplomats say (Reuters)
  • The sales violate a deal which exempts government weapons from a UN arms embargo in order to equip forces fighting al-Shabab militants

U.S. Forces Under Fire in Somalia

  • U.S. forces came under fire in two separate incidents in Somalia over the past week, leading to the American Special Operations Forces to call in airstrikes to fight off the attackers (Military Times)

Somali Officials Accuse United States of Killing Twenty-Two Soldiers

  • A Somali defense official said a U.S. air strike in northern Somalia killed as many as twenty-two soldiers after officials from a rival region requested the strike, claiming the targets were from the militant group Al-Shabab (Reuters)

UN: Food Scarce for Five Million in Somalia

  • Food shortages and malnutrition due to weather and displacement affect five million people in Somalia, including three-hundred thousand children, according to the United Nations (BBC)

Somali General, Bodyguards Killed by Bomber

  • A suicide car bomber attacked the convoy of a Somali general near the defense ministry headquarters in Mogadishu, killing the official and six of his bodyguards. The attack was claimed by the militant group al-Shabab (BBC)

Somalia Hosts First International Meeting in Forty Years

  • East African leaders met in Somalia’s capital of Mogadishu on Wednesday, the first time the country has hosted an international summit in four decades (VOA)
  • Authorities put the capital city on lockdown during the Intergovernmental Authority on Development meeting