A Somali soldier in Bakara market, Mogadishu. Tensions are growing between al-Shabaab fighters and the foreign jihadists but President Ahmed's Government is too weak to take advantage of the differencesWest Warns That Somalia Is Becoming A Haven For International Terrorists -- Times Online
Pass beyond what is described as government territory in the Somali capital — a few blocks between the airport, the harbour and the presidential palace — and you are at the mercy of al-Shabaab, the extremist Islamic group that holds sway across southern and central Somalia. Where it rules, it has implemented laws and punishments reminiscent of Afghanistan under Taleban rule.
It has banned bras, football, dancing and musical ringtones. This weekend al-Shabaab decreed that men must grow beards and shave their moustaches. Its fighters have destroyed Sufi tombs and disinterred colonial-era Italian corpses. Its Sharia courts have ordered public floggings, the chopping off of hands and feet of thieves, the stoning to death of adulterers and beheadings of apostates and spies.
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My Comment: On the one hand, the Times makes a convincing case for massive foreign intervention in Somalia. On the other hand, the West has no stomach for such involvement.
The only thing that we can do is limit the naval piracy, conduct drone strikes against suspected terror leaders, and provide some minimal food assistance so that Somalia's problems do not migrate to neighboring countries.