Word: somali
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Most Australians know very little about Somalia and even less about the al-Shabaab group that has been fighting for control of the war-torn African nation since 2006. But on Tuesday, Aug. 4, they quickly began to learn the pronunciation of the Somali terrorist group's name. Just before dawn, approximately 400 police from state and federal departments fanned out across Melbourne and its southwest, raiding 19 properties and arresting four men and questioning others. The police claim they had foiled a suicide plot by Al-Shabaab supporters to storm a Sydney military base and kill as many soldiers...
...seven months, Australian police and undercover security agents had been tracking the suspects, gathering information on them by way of phone taps and other forms of surveillance. Those arrested appear to be Australian citizens of Somali or Lebanese descent. An estimated 16,000 Somalis have found refuge in Australia since the beginning of their country's civil war 17 years ago. "Potentially this would have been, if it had been able to be carried out, the most serious terrorist attack on Australian soil," Federal Police Assistant Commissioner Tony Negus said. The alleged plan was to attack Holsworthy Army Barracks...
...Somalia A Nation at the Precipice Somali President Sheik Sharif Ahmed declared a state of emergency after "witnessing the intensifying violence" between Western-backed government forces and al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab insurgents. The clashes have claimed hundreds of lives and displaced thousands. Sharif is urging international intervention to save the war-torn state...
...Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga met his Somali counterpart, Omar Abdirashid Sharmarke, in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi to discuss the seven-week onslaught by the Islamists that has killed hundreds, including several senior government figures, and displaced more than 100,000 - adding to the millions of Somalis already living as refugees and dependent on food aid. After the meeting, Sharmarke said, "In this critical time of our history, I think you might help. We are dealing with a threat that can engulf the entire region. Our security forces need military assistance, and we hope the world [will...
...Despite the presence of up to 2,000 U.S. special-forces troops in Djibouti, to Somalia's north, and an unprecedented international naval force involving more than 20 countries off the Somali coast to fight the piracy that has grown, in part, out of the chaos on land, non-African countries consistently reject the notion of intervening onshore. This is partly out of fear of the consequences: a U.N.-backed U.S. intervention in Somalia in 1993 cost 18 American lives in events later portrayed in the book and film Black Hawk Down...