# MANPAD Watch:  Somalia



## The Bread Guy (18 Sep 2008)

From the Federation of American Scientists - another link to more info below, with .pdf of both attached in case links don't work....


> CNN and AFP are reporting that the Shabaab, a militant wing of a Somali insurgent group, the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), has threatened to treat “as an enemy combatant” any plane that attempts to land at Mogadishu Airport.  According to AFP, the threat, which was posted on the Internet, was confirmed by Shabaab leader Mukhtar Robow.  The web posting reportedly includes a list of grievances used to justify the threat, including the airport’s use by “Ugandan and Bulgarian mercenaries,” money generated by the airport for the Ethiopian government, and harassment of “Somali religious personalities” by “US and Israeli secret services…”  The warnings are accompanied by a graphic of a man pointing a shoulder-fired missile at a plane as it is landing.
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> The threat is not to be taken lightly. Last year, the FAS identified Somalia as one of three MANPADS proliferation hotspots worldwide in response to numerous reports of illicit missile activity, most of which involved the ICU and the Shabaab.  In 2006, UN investigators identified at least six shipments of MANPADS and other weapons to the violent Insurgent group, including a shipment of “50 units” of ”shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles and second generation infrared-guided anti-tank weapons” from Eritrea, “45 units” of surface-to-air missiles from Iran, and three surface-to-air missiles from Syria.  In each case, the missiles were part of larger arms shipments that also included dozens of assault rifles, machine guns, and other small arms and light weapons.  The Associated Press later reported that the ICU had received 200 shoulder-fired missiles from Eritrea alone.
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## geo (1 Jan 2009)

Smirnoff has been a failed state for the last 10 or 15 years.
It's been in a constant state of civil war for more like 20 years.
This will not change anything.
Portable air defence missiles threatening Mogadishu airfield..... so I guess theat no further commercial airliner / cargo carrier will ever land in Somalia - until such time as the country pulls itself out of it's own mess ... or they wipe each other (factions) off the map.

My suggestion.... surround the perimeter of Somalia - provide a safe place for Somali refugees who want to leave the violence... let everyone else kill themselves.


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