Shabab and Hisbul Islam In SomaliaTurn on Each Other.
Mahdi Haile
October 28, 2009
The Somali insurgency group is splitting, with loyalists to the Hisbul Islam now fighting al-Qaida-backed Shabab. Could it be a turning point in the country´s 18 years of civil war?
There are two very different opinions about what happened. "One of Hisbul Islam men was going To return to the Yaqshid police station," is the Shabab version of events. "The Hisbul Islam Army shot him and that started the battle."
The Hisbul Islam Army tells a different story. "We went to the Yaqshid police station to take back," they say. "It is no longer acceptable what these people are doing to our neighborhoods: They´re ghost town where nobody can live. That´s why it came to a fight."
The battle in Yaqshid district currently Mogadishu´s most dangerous district, is still continues. according top the residents, the dead littered the streets and even the last inhabitants of the Yaqshid area had fled. No one counted the actual number of casualties, since the Somali police, army and others no longer come to this part of Yaqshid.. Here terror, insurgency, murder and violence are left to fester undisturbed.
Still, the carnage in Yaqshid and Port city of Kismayu is a cause of hope for some. Until recently, the Shabab branch of the global terrorist network al-Qaida had good ties to the Hsibul Islam leaders Dahir Aways, is a radical islamist who was taking part in the country´s insurgency. The two groups used to congratulate each other on the Media whenever they managed to commit suicide or blow up AMISOM trucks or attach a group of government and AMSIOM troops.
But that has all changed. Now the two sides are locked in a bitter battle in the cities of KIsmayu lower juba and now Mogadishu. Instead of offering mutual congratulations, they use the media as a platform to condemn each other over the battle for the Kismayu and now Yqashid.
Shabab now calls the members of the Hisbul Islam "dogs," while they warn the Madooba Hisbul Islam leader who fought against Shabab in Kismayu to prepare for Qiyamah -- the Last Judgment -- and the wrath of Allah.
The Somali government and the AMISOM military have both acknowledged the new internal Islamist´s internal conflict with cautious optimism. They consider Alshabab to be the worst of the problems plaguing the war-torn country. The terrorist offspring of the late Islamist leader Hashi Ayrowi -- who was killed, last year -- aren´t interested in Somalia as a nation, nor do they care about the plight of the Somali people. What they want is the war that they´ve successfully fueled through a series of attacks and suicide bombings.
For some, groups like the Hisbul Islam, are a lesser evil. They too murder, kidnap and execute with abandon, but what differentiates them from Alshabab is that they are Somali outfits. Many of their leaders are former military officers and police from Siad Bare´s deposed regime. Western Somali experts have designated them as part of the "national insurgency." They have high-level contacts with Asmara based group and they are even more dependent on the goodwill of the Somali population than al-Shabab is.
However, fundamental disagreements between the groups, which had been papered over in common cause against the Ethiopian invasion, are now surfacing again. And, according to reliable sources the Ethiopian commanders are now arming Ahlu Sunah wajamaca a Somali Sufi section central regions to help them fight al-Shabab.
"We have three enemies," says Somali parliamentarian who refused to be named . that our "Enemy number one is al-Qaida, enemy number two is Alshabab, number three is the Eretria."
How can al-shabba suddenly be the enemy, considering many people who used to call the leaders of the Shabab terrorist group "the lions of resistance" in Somalia? Many Somalis inside and outside the country now feels al-Shabab is fundamentally un-Somali: "They kill Somali civilians, they kill our imams, and they slay honored 1977 war veterans. They become a global organization that exists only to destroy Somali and Islam´s reputation."
Many Somalis quickly adds that, more than anything, al-Shabab allows for no gods other than themselves. Whoever refuses to join their umbrella organization "Islamic State of Somalia´ can be executed simply on suspicion, without trial or evidence, he says. Hisbul Islam Dhair Awes s old loyalists apparently have a problem with al-Shabab´s totalitarianism.
There are two very different opinions about what happened. "One of Hisbul Islam men was going To return to the Yaqshid police station," is the Shabab version of events. "The Hisbul Islam Army shot him and that started the battle."
The Hisbul Islam Army tells a different story. "We went to the Yaqshid police station to take back," they say. "It is no longer acceptable what these people are doing to our neighborhoods: They´re ghost town where nobody can live. That´s why it came to a fight."
The battle in Yaqshid district currently Mogadishu´s most dangerous district, is still continues. according top the residents, the dead littered the streets and even the last inhabitants of the Yaqshid area had fled. No one counted the actual number of casualties, since the Somali police, army and others no longer come to this part of Yaqshid.. Here terror, insurgency, murder and violence are left to fester undisturbed.
Still, the carnage in Yaqshid and Port city of Kismayu is a cause of hope for some. Until recently, the Shabab branch of the global terrorist network al-Qaida had good ties to the Hsibul Islam leaders Dahir Aways, is a radical islamist who was taking part in the country´s insurgency. The two groups used to congratulate each other on the Media whenever they managed to commit suicide or blow up AMISOM trucks or attach a group of government and AMSIOM troops.
But that has all changed. Now the two sides are locked in a bitter battle in the cities of KIsmayu lower juba and now Mogadishu. Instead of offering mutual congratulations, they use the media as a platform to condemn each other over the battle for the Kismayu and now Yqashid.
Shabab now calls the members of the Hisbul Islam "dogs," while they warn the Madooba Hisbul Islam leader who fought against Shabab in Kismayu to prepare for Qiyamah -- the Last Judgment -- and the wrath of Allah.
The Somali government and the AMISOM military have both acknowledged the new internal Islamist´s internal conflict with cautious optimism. They consider Alshabab to be the worst of the problems plaguing the war-torn country. The terrorist offspring of the late Islamist leader Hashi Ayrowi -- who was killed, last year -- aren´t interested in Somalia as a nation, nor do they care about the plight of the Somali people. What they want is the war that they´ve successfully fueled through a series of attacks and suicide bombings.
For some, groups like the Hisbul Islam, are a lesser evil. They too murder, kidnap and execute with abandon, but what differentiates them from Alshabab is that they are Somali outfits. Many of their leaders are former military officers and police from Siad Bare´s deposed regime. Western Somali experts have designated them as part of the "national insurgency." They have high-level contacts with Asmara based group and they are even more dependent on the goodwill of the Somali population than al-Shabab is.
However, fundamental disagreements between the groups, which had been papered over in common cause against the Ethiopian invasion, are now surfacing again. And, according to reliable sources the Ethiopian commanders are now arming Ahlu Sunah wajamaca a Somali Sufi section central regions to help them fight al-Shabab.
"We have three enemies," says Somali parliamentarian who refused to be named . that our "Enemy number one is al-Qaida, enemy number two is Alshabab, number three is the Eretria."
How can al-shabba suddenly be the enemy, considering many people who used to call the leaders of the Shabab terrorist group "the lions of resistance" in Somalia? Many Somalis inside and outside the country now feels al-Shabab is fundamentally un-Somali: "They kill Somali civilians, they kill our imams, and they slay honored 1977 war veterans. They become a global organization that exists only to destroy Somali and Islam´s reputation."
Many Somalis quickly adds that, more than anything, al-Shabab allows for no gods other than themselves. Whoever refuses to join their umbrella organization "Islamic State of Somalia´ can be executed simply on suspicion, without trial or evidence, he says. Hisbul Islam Dhair Awes s old loyalists apparently have a problem with al-Shabab´s totalitarianism.
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