Reuters
by THOMAS D. WILLIAMS, PH.D.15 Jan 201628
In an early morning ambush, Islamic terrorists of the radical al-Shabaab group attacked an African Union military base in southern Somalia Friday, breaching the walls by exploding a car bomband overrunning the base.
According to the officials of the Somali army, the blast demolished the entrance to the military base in in the town of El-Ade, Somalia, slaughtering dozens of Kenyan soldiers and allowing heavily armed jihadist militants to storm the base.
The African Union base is operated by Kenyan peacekeeping forces and is located about 340 miles west of Mogadishu, near the Somali border with Kenya.
The latest official statement issued by al-Shabaab military operations spokesman Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab claims that 61 Kenyan soldiers have been killed, and that the base and the nearby town of Ceel Cado are now in the hands of the Islamists.
“Our fighters went in and after a heavy exchange of gunfire we took over the base,” Musab said, and residents have reported sporadic gunfire inside the military compound.
The jihadists also claim to have seized large number of weapons and vehicles at the military base.
The troops of the African Union number around 22 thousand soldiers in total from various African nations. This is not the first time the peacekeeping force has found itself the target of the Islamist terrorists.
Born as an offshoot from the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), the al-Shabaab group, which in Arabic means “youth,” has been seeking to overthrow the Western-backed Somalian government and impose a strict form of Islamic sharia law.
The group has been responsible for a number of deadly attacks in Kenya, such as the raid on Garissa University in April of last year that killed 148 mostly Christian students, presumably in opposition to the country’s participation in an African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia.
Since February 2012 al-Shabaab has been affiliated with al-Qaeda, though it has been insistently courted by the Islamic State. In October, a portion of its fighters pledgedallegiance to the Islamic State, resulting in tensions within the group.
Ousted from control of the Somali capital of Mogadishu in mid-2011, the terrorist group took over vast rural areas of Somalia from which it launches guerrilla warfare and suicide bombings, both in Somalia and in Kenya.
Follow Thomas D. Williams on Twitter @tdwilliamsrome
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EXCLUSIVE – Hamas Paying Off Islamic State to Smuggle Weapons into Gaza
Abid Katib/Getty Images
by AARON KLEIN AND ALI WAKED15 Jan 20164
TEL AVIV – Hamas has warned Israel against provoking another violent conflict, saying the movement is ready to fight.
Top Hamas official Ismail Haniyeh declared earlier this week that the movement’s military wing will “stun the whole world with its power of resistance.”
“We’re building our strength above and below the ground, beyond the enemy lines, in the air, sea, and land, and not just to defend Gaza because, despite the siege, the Strip is liberated,” Haniyeh said during a ceremony marking 20 years since the elimination of the movement’s explosives expert, “the engineer” Yahye Ayash, by Israel.
“We’re doing it for the sake of the whole of Palestine. Al Qassam Brigades, who stunned the entire world in the last war, will do it again whenever they face the enemy.”
Although Hamas regularly threatens Israel, several sources in the movement toldBreitbart Jerusalem that Haniyeh’s speech reflects the group’s increased confidence following successful tests of new missiles and rockets that have recently been smuggled into the Strip or developed in the Hamas-controlled territory.
Hamas’ efforts to rebuild its military power have been boosted thanks to Hamas’ cooperation with Welayat Sinai, the local branch of the Islamic State.
Breitbart Jerusalem previously reportedthat Shadi al-Menai, one of the leaders of Wilayat Sinai, visited Gaza in a bid to mediate between Hamas and local Salafi groups after clashes erupted, resulting in the arrests of dozens of jihadists by Hamas forces.
Now, a leading Salafi source reveals that Menai mediated a deal whereby Hamas would give the Gaza Salafi opposition groups more leeway in exchange for Wilayat Sinai’s help in bypassing the Egyptian army’s restrictions on smuggling rocket parts into Gaza
The resumption of arms smuggling, combined with renewed Iranian financial support, have greatly beefed up the training of Hamas’ military wing.
Abu Khaled, head of the media office of the Al Qassam Brigades, told Breitbart Jerusalemthat he declined to comment on matters of national security.
This is not the first report of Hamas-IS cooperation in arms smuggling.
A Middle East think tank charged last month that there is information Hamas has been paying off the Islamic State’s Sinai branch to smuggle weapons into Gaza. “Over the past two years, IS Sinai helped Hamas move weapons from Iran and Libya through the peninsula, taking a generous cut from each shipment,” stated a report by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
Despite the rapprochement between Hamas and IS-Sinai, tensions between the ruling faction and Gazan Salafi opposition groups are rampant.
The Army of Islam, a Salafi group that aspires to become IS’s sole representative in Palestine, recently released an acerbic videoin which it blames Hamas for straying from Sharia law and cooperating with anti-Islamic players, including Shi’ite Iran.
Last month, Breitbart Jerusalem reportedHamas in the Gaza Strip has been hard at work attempting to manufacture rockets capable of reaching Tel Aviv. It has also shared its rocket-making capabilities with other terrorist organizations in the coastal enclave, according to security sources familiar with the matter.
Many Gaza residents say that the number of explosions heard across the Strip has greatly increased.
The Israeli army confirmed to Breitbart Jerusalem that Hamas has been engaged in more rocket test launches into the sea.
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