Islamist group - The African Mirror

Mar

2024

Al Shabaab launches deadly attack on military base in Somalia

AT least 17 people were killed in Somalia after the Islamist group al Shabaab attacked a military base. The Busley base, in the Lower Shabelle region in the country's southwest, was briefly occupied by the attackers, security officials and the group said. Armed fighters from al Shabaab battled their way to the facility using suicide car bombs, a Somalia military officer told Reuters. He declined to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the media. "Several suicide car bombs attacked the base after fierce fighting...al Shabaab briefly captured the base," the officer said. "Then, government reinforcement fiercely…

Feb

2024

By NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI

Israel bombards Gaza, with biggest functioning hospital under siege

WORLD

GAZA'S largest functioning hospital was under siege in Israel's war with Islamist group Hamas, leaving patients and doctors helpless in the chaos, as warplanes struck Rafah, the last refuge for Palestinians in the enclave, officials said. Israeli forces said on Thursday they had raided the medical complex as footage showed shouting and gunfire in dark corridors in an incursion that raised fresh alarm over the fate of hundreds of patients and medical workers and the many displaced Palestinians who had sought shelter there from the fighting. Israel's military called the raid on Nasser Hospital "precise and limited" and said it was based on information…

Sep

2023

By The African Mirror

Truck bomb kills at least 10 in Somalia

NEWS

A truck bomb exploded at a checkpoint in the central Somali town of Beledweyne, killing at least 10 people and obliterating nearby buildings, a police officer said. It was not immediately clear who was responsible but the Islamist group al Shabaab frequently carries out bombings in the Horn of Africa country. "So far I have seen 10 dead people including soldiers and civilians and over a dozen others injured, but the death toll is sure to rise," police officer Ahmed Aden told Reuters. Beledweyne is in central Somalia's Hiran region which has recently witnessed battles between the military and al…

Jun

2023

By The African Mirror

Uganda detains 20 rebel ‘collaborators’ after student massacre

NEWS

UGANDAN authorities said 20 people had been detained for questioning about their possible role in the massacre of 42 people, mostly students, by the Islamist group Allied Democratic Forces (ADF). "At least 20 suspected ADF collaborators have been arrested, to assist with our investigations," the country's police force said in a statement. Those detained, police said, included the school's headteacher. A group of fighters from the Islamic State-linked rebels stormed the Lhubirira Secondary School in Mpondwe, a town on Uganda's border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, at around 11:30 p.m. on Friday. They torched one dormitory that housed boys…

Jan

2023

By The African Mirror

Kenyan security forces kill 10 suspected al Shabaab fighters

NEWS

KENYAN security forces have killed 10 fighters from Somalia's al Shabaab Islamist group in eastern Kenya, a government official said. They also recovered rocket-propelled grenades and improvised explosive devices after fighting the militants on Wednesday in the village of Galmagalla in Garissa county, said Thomas Bett, deputy county commissioner of the Bura East sub-county. "The operation to flush out the Somalia militants' group in the region was carried out by our multi-agency team ... and (they) managed to neutralise 10 Islamist group militants and recovered assault weapons," he told Reuters. Spokespersons for al Shabaab, who frequently have their phones switched…

Nov

2022

By The African Mirror

Somalia army says at least 100 al Shabaab fighters killed in clashes

NEWS

SOMALIA'S army and allied clan militias have killed at least 100 al Shabaab fighters in heavy clashes in the central Hiran region, the defence ministry said, days after twin bombings killed at least 120 people in the capital. Al Shabaab, an al Qaeda franchise, claimed responsibility for two car bombs that blew up outside the education ministry in Mogadishu on October 29, the deadliest incident since a truck bomb killed more than 500 people at the same location five years previously. The Islamist group have killed tens of thousands of people in bombings since 2006 in their fight to overthrow…

Nov

2022

By The African Mirror

Somalia car bombings death toll rises to 120

NEWS

THE number of people killed by two car bombs that exploded outside the education ministry in Somalia's capital Mogadishu has risen to at least 120 people, the health minister said. The al Qaeda-linked Islamist group al Shabaab claimed responsibility for Saturday's blasts, Somalia's deadliest since a truck bomb killed more than 500 people at the same location five years ago. The first of the explosions hit the education ministry at around 2 p.m. on Saturday. The second hit minutes later as ambulances arrived and people gathered to help the victims. Health minister Ali Haji Aden said the death toll stood at…

Apr

2022

By The African Mirror

“White mercenaries involved in Mali massacre”

NEWS

PAUL LORGERIE IT was market day in the town of Moura in central Mali when Malian troops backed by white mercenaries descended in helicopters and opened fire on bewildered residents, according to witnesses' accounts. Stall-owner Amadou saw the soldiers fan out across town on the morning of March 27, and ran home. They arrested him hours later and took him to a riverbank on the outskirts of town, where thousands of men sat with their hands tied. Over the next four days, the men stayed in the blazing sun with little food or water and watched as soldiers gradually took…

Sep

2021

By The African Mirror

‘Boko Haram’s bomb material seized’

NEWS

Islamist group Boko HaramNIGERIAN troops have seized 14 tonnes of fertiliser that the insurgent Islamist group Boko Haram had planned to turn into roadside bombs, the army has announced. Boko Haram has killed hundreds of people in bombings during its 12-year war against the armed forces in northeast Nigeria, a conflict that has spilled over into neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon and caused an estimated 350,000 deaths. The army said it had broken up a urea fertiliser syndicate that supplied the insurgents with materials to make IEDs or improvised explosive devices. Troops seized 281 bags of urea, each weighing 50kg,…

Sep

2021

By The African Mirror

Taliban, opposition battle for Panjshir Valley, Pakistan spy chief flies to Kabul

WORLD

TALIBAN and opposition forces were fighting on Saturday for control of the Panjshir Valley north of Kabul, the last province in Afghanistan holding out against the Islamist group, according to reports. Taliban sources said its fighters had taken the valley, although the resistance denied it had fallen. The Taliban have so far issued no public declaration that they had taken the valley, which resisted their rule when they were last in power in Kabul from 1996 to 2001. The National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, which groups opposition forces loyal to local leader Ahmad Massoud, said Taliban forces reached the Darband…