Somali News Roundup

The Somali and Ethiopian forces continue to attack the al Qaeda/Islamist stronghold near the Kenyan border. Meanwhile, the US is providing air support and engaging in operations against al Qaeda inside Somalia. It's using the AC-130 gunships that proved to be quite useful in the fight against the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan and has seen heavy usage in Iraq in support of coalition ground forces because it can drop massive amounts of firepower on pinpoint targets.

Somalia's interim president made his first visit to Mogadishu today, and also commented on US proposals to try and bring some of the more moderate Islamists into the government. That's a real bad idea, and the Somali president,Abdullahi Yusuf, concurred.

In a rebuff to the United States, Somalia's interim president, Abdullahi Yusuf, on Monday rejected U.S. requests to bring moderate Islamists into his weak transitional government.

Negotiations with Islamists "will not happen," he told Al Jazeera television before flying to Mogadishu, Somalia's lawless seaside capital. "We will crack down on the terrorists in any place around the nation."

Yusuf had indicated the opposite position in meetings in the Kenyan capital over the weekend with assistant U.S. secretary of state Jendayi Frazer, U.S. officials said.

There was no immediate reaction from U.S. officials, but Yusuf's remarks underscored the difficulties that Western governments face as they try to shore up Somalia's fragile regime after Ethiopian troops ousted Somalia's popular Islamist rulers last month.

The Somali interim president has a better grasp of what it means not to give into the jihadis by giving them any opening.

An East African al Qaeda cell was apparently flushed out of Mogadishu and we've been hunting them down. The cell contains members of the terrorist group that were involved in the 1998 terrorist bombings of the US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya that killed more than 200 people. Hot Air, Taylor Marsh and Gateway Pundit has more details.

The Somali government may hold talks with Kenya about reopening the common border within the next week. The Ethiopians are saying that they're not going to let the situation devolve into a situation like Iraq. Good luck with that - I hope that they're right, but count on the UN and EU to make the Ethiopians' job that much more difficult.

Javier Solana of the EU thinks that UN peacekeepers should be sent to Somalia. That's not a good idea at all, considering that the UN rules of engagement would give the Islamists free rein to reestablish themselves as a significant threat to the official government.

Rox Populi has more on why we need to concern ourselves with what's going on in the Horn of Africa.

UPDATE:
Michelle Malkin has more background on the embassy bombers, Mudville Gazette has more on the military operations, and See Dubya may have seen visions or something...

Others blogging: Sister Toldjah, Dan Riehl, Ace of Spades, Jammie Wearing Fool, Bill's Bites, Stop the ACLU, The Jawa Report, and Webloggin'.