Uganda is ready to send an additional 2,000 peacekeeping troops to Somalia despite threats from hard-line Somali Islamists of more attacks if peacekeepers are not withdrawn, an army spokesman said on Friday.

Coordinated explosions ripped through two nightspots in the Ugandan capital Kampala on Sunday, killing 73 people watching the World Cup final.

“If we’re called on to contribute a stronger force in Somalia, we’re ready to send an extra 2,000,” spokesman Felix Kulayigye told Reuters by telephone.

The al Qaeda-linked al-Shabab group, which claimed the Kampala strikes, said it was avenging the killing of civilians by the African Union peacekeeping force. Ugandan forces form the backbone of the 6,100-strong deployment in Somalia.

Regional allies have promised to send an extra 2,000 soldiers to Somalia by mid-August.

The News:
http://www.markacade … 2010/20100716_1e.htm

Somalia’s al-Shabaab Islamist group yesterday confirmed it had carried out the two bomb blasts that killed at least 74 people in Kampala and threatened more attacks if the country kept its peacekeeping troops in Somalia. “Al-Shabaab was behind the two bomb blast in Uganda,” Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage, al-Shabaab’s spokesman, told reporters in the Somali capital Mogadishu.

“We thank the mujahideens that carried out the attack. We are sending a message to Uganda and Burundi, if they do not take out their AMISOM troops from Somalia, blasts will continue and it will happen in Bujumbura too.”

The claim reaffirms the earlier suspicion by the Inspector General of Police Maj. Gen. Kale Kayihura that the militant group was behind the deadly attacks.

The News:
http://www.monitor.c … /x22umx/-/index.html

At least 3 security forces of Puntland administration have been killed and 4 others wounded after explosion targeted to the government soldiers in the centre of port and businesses town of Bosaso of Bari region in Puntlnad, witnesses told Shabelle radio on Sunday.

Reports say that the blast was a land mine explosion buried under the high way of the town and occurred overnight as the security forces of the semi-autonomous region of Puntland had been patrolling there, killing three, and wounding 4 others.

The News:
http://www.shabelle. … diers-in-bosaso-town

Reports reaching us from the battlefield in Ogaden, where the unflinching Ogaden National Liberation Front [ONLF] forces are fighting to rid the Ogaden of colonial Ethiopian army, say that at least 9 battles occurred there last few week alone.

Senior ONLF military officers told Ogaden Online reporters that fighting has mostly been taking place at colonial army bases in the Ogaden. They added that the era when battles were fought in villages and rural areas was over.

Ogaden Online reporters operating in the Ogaden have reported that Ethiopian forces have started digging huge trenches around major towns for fear of attacks by ONLF fighters.

The News:
http://www.ogaden.co … hting-in-ogaden.html

At least 6 people were killed and more others injured in north and south of Mogadishu, witnesses told Shabelle radio on Tuesday.

Heavy fighting between the Islamist clerics of Ahlu Sunna Walajama’a and Harkat al-Shabaab Mujahideen forces started between Dabka and Bakara intersections in Mogadishu, killing 4 civilians, wounding several others there.

On the other hand 5 people were killed and 16 others including several journalists were wounded in north Mogadishu as fighting and heavy shelling between both rivals continued.

The News:
http://www.shabelle. … njuries-in-mogadishu

Somalia’s Al Qaeda-inspired al-Shabaab warned voters in the northern self-proclaimed state of Somaliland not to vote in the presidential elections, in an audio message obtained by AFP Friday.

“Those who take part in those so-called elections will face the consequences,” Ahmed Abdi Godane, the overall leader of the al-Shabaab group, said in the message released ahead of Somaliland’s Saturday polls.

Godane, also known as “Abu Zubayr” and a native of the Somaliland capital Hargeisa, said the elections were organised by the anti-Islamic forces in Somalia.

Somaliland’s presidential polls, which were delayed three times since 2008, are due to go ahead on Saturday, 50 years to the day after the territory obtained its independence from Britain.

The News:
http://somalilandpre … aliland-voters-16627

Gun fights between Somali government troops and Islamist rebels in the capital Mogadishu has killed 20 people, including more than a dozen civilians, officials said on Saturday.

The clashes took place after heavily-armed, al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab insurgents attacked a government military base in Dharkenley district, south of the capital on Friday. The fighting was over by the end of the day.

“We pushed them back and killed 13 of al Shabaab’s fighters. We are still at our bases,” Abdiazis Ali, a senior Somali military officer, told Reuters.

The News:
http://somalilandpre … dishu-kills-20-16407