More bad news from Somalia:
Posted by armand at June 19, 2009 02:46 PM | TrackBack | Posted to International AffairsThe death of Omar Hashi Aden and at least 20 others in a suicide bomb attack on a hotel in central Somalia could shift power towards the country’s main militant Islamist group, al-Shabaab, which claimed responsibility for the attack.
Mr. Aden’s killing was "a very severe blow", said one western diplomat. "He was the man everyone was putting their hopes on to organise a counter-offensive and reverse some of the positions al-Shabaab had taken."
President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, a moderate Islamist who the militants accuse of being a western stooge, said the attack was the latest evidence that al-Qaeda was using al-Shabaab to bring global jihadism to his country.