Somolia, Land of Civil War; Death

[rottenflesh]

The Somali Civil War, which began in 1991, has caused destabilization and instability throughout the country.

The Somali Revolution started in 1986 when Siad Barre began attacking clan-based dissident groups opposed to his rule with his special forces, the "Red Berets" (Duub Cas). After his ousting from power on January 26, 1991, a counter-revolution took place to attempt to reinstate him as leader of the country.

UN Security Council Resolution 794 was unanimously passed on December 3, 1992, which approved a coalition of United Nations peace-keepers led by the United States to form UNITAF, tasked with ensuring humanitarian aid be distributed and peace be established in Somalia.

Critics of US involvement pointed out that "just before pro-U.S. President Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991, nearly two-thirds of the country's territory had been granted as oil concessions to Conoco, Amoco, Chevron and Phillips. Conoco even lent its Mogadishu corporate compound to the U.S. embassy a few days before the Marines landed, with the first Bush administration's special envoy using it as his temporary headquarters."

In the period between June and October 1993, several gun battles in Mogadishu between local gunmen and peacekeepers resulted in the death of 24 Pakistanis and 19 US soldiers (total US deaths were 31), most of whom were killed in the Battle of Mogadishu. 1000 Somali militia were killed in that battle.

The incident later became the basis for the book and movie, Black Hawk Down. The UN withdrew on March 3, 1995, having suffered more significant casualties. Order in Somalia still had not been restored.

In 2004, the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) was founded in Nairobi, Kenya. Matters were still too chaotic inside Somalia to convene in Mogadishu. In early 2006, the TFG moved to establish a temporary seat of government in Baidoa.

During the early part of 2006, the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT) was formed as an alliance of mostly secular Mogadishu-based warlords. They were opposed to the rise of the Sharia law oriented Islamic Courts Union (ICU), which had been rapidly consolidating power. They were backed by funding from the US CIA. This led to increasing conflict in the capital.

By June 2006, the ICU succeeded in capturing the capital, Mogadishu, in the Second Battle of Mogadishu. They drove the ARPCT out of Mogadishu, and succeeded in persuading or forcing other warlords to join their faction. The Islamic movement's growing power base and militancy led to increasingly open warfare between the Islamists and the other factions of Somalia, including the Transitional Federal Government (TFG). The ICU allegedly obtained the support of Ethiopia's rival, Eritrea and foreign mujahideen, and declared Jihad against Ethiopia in response to its occupation of Gedo and deployment around Baidoa.

In December 2006, the ICU and TFG began the Battle of Baidoa. Fighting also broke out around the Somali town of Bandiradley in Mudug and Beledweyn in the Hiran region. The ICU aimed to force the Ethiopians off Somali soil. However, they were defeated in all major battles and forced to withdraw to Mogadishu. After the brief final action at the Battle of Jowhar on December 27, the leaders of the ICU resigned.

In January 2007, the United States officially militarily interceded in the country for the first time since the UN deployment of the 1990s by conducting airstrikes using AC-130 gunships against Islamist positions in Ras Kamboni, as part of efforts to catch or kill Al Qaeda operatives supposedly embedded within the ICU forces. Unconfirmed reports also stated that US advisors had been on the ground with Somali and Ethiopian forces since the beginning of the war. Naval forces were also deployed offshore to prevent escape by sea, and the border to Kenya was closed.

No sooner had the ICU been routed from the battlefield than their troops dispersed to begin a guerrilla warfare against Ethiopian and Somali government forces. Simultaneously, the end of the war was followed by a continuation of existing tribal conflicts.

To help establish security, a proposed African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM) was authorized to deploy as many as 8,000 peacekeepers to the country. This mission widened the scope of countries that could participate over the earlier proposed mission led by the Horn of Africa-based nations of IGAD. The Islamist group leading the insurgency, known as the Popular Resistance Movement in the Land of the Two Migrations (PRM), vowed to oppose the presence of foreign troops.

In December 2008, Ethiopian soldiers withdrew from Somalia, leaving behind an African Union contingent of several thousand troops to help the fragile coalition government and its troops enforce their authority. Following Ethiopia's withdrawal from Somalia, the southern half of the country rapidly fell into the hands of radical Islamist rebels. The rebels quickly routed the government and AU troops in several key provinces, establishing sharia law in areas under their control. On May 7, 2009, the rebels attacked the capital city of Mogadishu, capturing most of the city but failing to overthrow the government, which maintained control over a few square kilometers of the city.

Casualties in this ongoing conflict are to be estimated between 300,000 to 400,000.
With the establishment of Sharia law, stonings and deaths of women has been on the rise as well as just plain barbarism that is associated with the Wahhabist philisophical sect of Islam.

tl;dr: dead folk in Africa.

The white bodies would be that of U.S. Army rangers killed in the 1994 raid portrayed by the movie "Black Hawk Down."

[talleys]

Somebody tell me why we don't nuke this country??

[MeaningfulDeath]

Originally Posted by talleys

Somebody tell me why we don't nuke this country??

You mean something like this?

[Airbornemama]

^^^^^awesome!!!!

[talleys]

haha I love that pic

[Den777]

And we allow hundreds and thousands of them to immigrate to the US. 20+ of them have been documented by the FBI as returning to the middle east for terrorist training. Two have carried out suicide bombings. There is a reason their society was failing. Their genetics are flawed. It's called survival of the fittest and is natures way. For the same reason we have no dodo birds.

[Zero Pulse]

[Rusty666]

nice

[Faline]

[fritter]

Originally Posted by talleys

Somebody tell me why we don't nuke this country??