CAIRO: Osama bin Laden is urging militants in Somalia to continue to make war against the African nation’s new, moderate president.Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed was elected president of Somalia as part of a peace push in the lawless country.The Al-Qaida chief urged Somali militants to topple him in a new audio recording posted on the Internet today.The 11-and-a half-minute recording was released by al-Qaida’s media arm and posted on web sites known as clearinghouses for Islamic messaging.Somalia, a nation of about 8 million people, has not had a functioning government since warlords overthrew a dictator in 1991 and then turned on each other.According to law enforcement and U.S. intelligence officials, as many as 20 young Somali men have traveled from the U.S. to Somalia, causing concern both among security officials and members of Somali communities.
BAGHDAD: Nearly 500 U.S. Army combat engineers who specialize in clearing roads of explosives started shifting to southern Afghanistan."We are probably going to be the beginning of the influx you are going to see to Afghanistan," Lt. Col. Kevin Landers, commander of the Fort Carson, Colo.-based 4th Engineer Battalion, said as crews packed crates and cleaned vehicles for the flight to Kandahar.Obama has ordered 17,000 more U.S. soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan to bolster the 38,000 American troops already battling the resurgent Taliban."We are going to take this footprint out of Iraq," said Landers, whose battalion received word of its reassignment last month just after taking command of clearing roads in Baghdad of bombs and debris.
Comments