The exact details of who is holding the upper hand in the battle for Mogadishu is still murky, but the human toll from the conflict is crystal clear. Meanwhile, Al-Shabaab is vowing deadlier war tactics. More on this story from All Africa:
Al-Shabaab’s spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamud Raghe alias Sheikh Ali Dhere, has announced that his movement is going to change the war tactics it has employed until now against the pro-government forces.
The sheikh was reacting to the defeat his fighters experienced on Sunday when soldiers serving the African Union Mission in Somalia, Amisom, used huge armoury in Mogadishu.
“As from today, the first phase of the war against the government and Amisom is over,” announced Sheikh Ali Dhere. “You will see the second phase with deadlier consequences,” he added.
Sheikh Ali Dhere indicated that the new tactics will be identical to the one his movement used against the Ethiopian troops that withdrew from Somalia in January, this year. “The war methodology had given us positive results and we are going to repeat it,” said the sheikh.
The cleric emphasized that his movement will particularly target Amisom peacekeepers that he referred as mercenaries.
On Sunday, Amisom forces took their heavy weaponry to the battle fronts, especially in the northern sections of Mogadishu. The tanks and armed personnel carriers forced the Islamist fighters of Al-Shabaab and Hizbu Islam to abandon vast areas.
Nevertheless, Amisom forces came back to their camps after midday on Sunday. The TFG forces also retreated to their original positions held on Saturday. Although proud to have regained territory, the development earlier in the day angered Al-Shabaab leaders who are vowing to use more severe measures to counter both Amisom peacekeepers and TFG forces.The sheikh did not elaborate the means his movement is going to use.
Hundreds of milk producers and farmers demonstrated in front of the European Parliament in Strasbourg to protest against the EU agriculture policy. The demonstrators are seeking to debate with the MEPs the way out of the quota dilemma and milk prices which are considered as too low, provoking a decrease in milk production throughout the EU.
“The Honduran people ask why there has been no condemnation of the warlike threats against our country. If the inter-American system is limited to protecting democracy at the ballot box but not in fostering good government, the prevention of political, economic and social crisis, it doesn’t do any good to react tardily in the face of them.” Conference of Honduran Bishops
Men touted as a possible next pope of the Roman Catholic Church rarely get involved in public debates over a coup d’etat or wars of words with heads of state. But that’s what Tegucigalpa Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga has done recently in the the political crisis in his country, Honduras. Before the overthrown President Manuel Zelaya made his failed attempt to return home, Rodriguez issued a statement in a televised address declaring his ouster legal and warning Zelaya could spur “a bloodbath” if he came back to Honduras.
The July 3 televised statement, signed by the 11 bishops of Honduras, exhorted Hondurans to seek a peaceful solution to the political crisis and rejected international criticism of Zelaya’s ouster even as it condemned the manner he was kicked out of the country.
Rodriguez, one of the Latin America’s most prominent Catholic leaders, was frequently mentioned as a possible next pontiff in 2005 when he and his fellow cardinals gathered to elect a successor to Pope John Paul. There was much talk at the time that a cardinal from the developing world, where the majority of the world’s 1.1 billion Catholics live, took over at the Vatican. When the conclave opted for Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the German was called “the last European pope.” The Latin Americans could win the next conclave if they could only rally behind one candidate, the Italian media speculated. Rodriguez, then a young 62, was often mentioned as the man with the best chances.
In the meantime, Rodriguez, a former president of the Latin American Episcopal Conference (CELAM), has taken over as president of Caritas Internationalis, the worldwide Catholic charity organisation. That gives the polyglot prelate an international profile bound to boost his name recognition among other cardinals.
Like Roberto Micheletti, who was appointed president by Honduran lawmakers after the June 28 coup, Rodriguez argued that kicking Zelaya out of office was fully backed by Honduran law. Rodriguez said Zelaya’s bid for a nationwide referendum that could have extended presidential term limits violated an article in the Honduran constitution, which states that anyone who seeks to change a prohibition on presidential reelection immediately loses any office they hold.
But Rodriguez also backed off from supporting the staging of the coup, noting that the government’s move to forcibly deport Zelaya was blatantly illegal. He went on to scold the Organization of American States for not paying closer attention to the crisis brewing in Honduras as Zelaya prepared to hold his referendum. He also took a veiled swipe Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who was building a growing alliance with Zelaya.
Ahead of the Afghan presidential elections next month, US Marines and British troops launch major new offensives against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan. Inside Story asks: Is this the start of an extended operation in Afghanistan?
The tropical lowland and highland forests of Borneo, including vast expanses of rainforest, have decreased rapidly after the end of the second world war. Forests are burned, logged and clear, and commonly replaced with agricultural land, built-up areas or palm oil plantations.
In the first of a three part series, Al Jazeera’s Tony Birtley reports from Sarawak, Malaysia, on the politics of deforestation.
Here’s an interview with Adam Tomasek, the WWF’s Director for the Borneo-Sumatra Program: Living On Earth: Borneo.
Ah the grand games of the Pakistanis continue. In this interview with India’s NDTV, Pakistan Army spokesperson General Athar Abbas said that in the ongoing Pakistan-Taliban conflict in its tribal areas, hostile intelligence agencies were supporting the militants. He fell short of naming India.
Pakistan can’t seem to bring itself to accept that its ISI has rogue elements with ties to Islamist militants. The handled have outgrown the handlers but Pakistan prefers to cast aspersions elsewhere rather than face the brutal truth.
Ambassador Richard Holbrooke speaks on the topic of Afghanistan’s upcoming election and their importance to Afghanistan and to US policy in the region.
Charles Taylor, the former Liberian president, is being tried at the International Criminial Court at the Hague for war crimes during the brutal 1991-2001 civil war in neighbouring Sierra Leone.
Al Jazeera’s Yvonne Ndege went to Freetown, Sierra Leone’s capital, where she found that many people feel disconnected from the proceedings in the Netherlands.
Somalia’s beleaguered Transitional Federal Government on Tuesday night sent out an S.O.S. It is calling for the urgent deployment of extra African union troops into the Horn of Africa state. Yassin Juma reports on the volatile situation in Mogadishu and the diplomatic efforts in Nairobi.