Mogadishu's Last Stand

Mansur the American


Street fighting in Mogadishu


Today ends the ultimatum given by the southern somali Mujahedin Youth movement, al Shabab, issued to the transitional government in Mogadishu. They have (through the means of a cassette tape delivered to the government) called for the government to lay down their arms and give up the capital or face being driven out by force.
The government refuses and relies on fresh weapons from the US funneled via Ugandan AU troops. The street battles are only hardening by the day. But there are also signs that the tension in the capital is becoming too great, with not only ordinary civilians among the over 200.000 refugees, but parliament members seeking refuge in autonomous Somaliland, which is generally unfriendly to the TFG.
At the same time comes a salafist recorded tape response to president Obamas trip to Africa tomorrow. In the tape the young, slim man known as Mansur the American engages in bombastic language. According to the FBI Mansur was born in the US and speaks perfectly good english, but has lived for a long time in Somalia and speaks arabic with an american accent. He commands a group of other salafist international tourist fighters for the Youth.
He now lashes out against the US, President Obama, moderate clerics, the somali President and transitional government, and makes a request of biblical proportions: he demands in a lengthy argument that the entire muslim population in the US must emigrate to a muslim country or burn in hell.
But few somalis are convinced of Mansur and his friends' hardline interpretation of Islam. They may go far with their guns, but if they really manage to capture Mogadishu the Youth movement may well find that their reign only lasts as long as the fear they can create with their weapons. They will only be more hated for every beheading they make, and there will be outrage, and there will be resistance.