MOGADISHU: Crowds of Somalis joined a demonstration on Monday against the jihadist group Al-Shabab at the site of a deadly beachfront attack in the capital Mogadishu last week.
A suicide bomber and gunmen attacked the popular Lido Beach on Friday evening, killing 37 people and wounding scores more, in one of the deadliest strikes in the East African country in months.
“We came here to Lido Beach to show we can’t be intimidated,” said one of the protesters, Abdisalam Ahmed Abdullahi.
“Mogadishu people are not afraid of Kharijite enemy,” he said, using a government term for the Al-Qaeda-linked Islamist militants who have carried out numerous attacks in the predominantly Muslim country for years.
Survivors of Friday’s assault described how following an explosion, gunmen stormed onto the beach intending to “kill everyone they could,” with graphic video shared online showing bloodied bodies on the sand.
Al-Shabab has been waging a bloody insurgency against Somalia’s fragile federal government for more than 17 years and has previously targeted the Lido beach area, which is popular with business people and government members as well as ordinary Somalis.
“Somali people in general, and those in Mogadishu particularly, need to unite in fighting against the enemy,” said Livestock Minister Hassan Hussein, one of several government officials who joined the rally.
He described Al-Shabab militants as “bedbugs.”
Amina Ibrahim Halane said she joined the rally to show sympathy for the victims of Friday’s attack, saying they were simply “innocent men... enjoying their city.”
‘We won’t be intimidated’: Somalis protest after Al-Shabab attack
https://arab.news/vr5h7
‘We won’t be intimidated’: Somalis protest after Al-Shabab attack
US bombers join Japanese jets in show of force after China–Russia drills
- Japan says US B-52 bombers flew with Japanese F-35s and F-15s
- South Korea and Japan have scrambled jets during Chinese and Russian drills
TOKYO: US nuclear-capable bombers flew over the Sea of Japan alongside Japanese fighter jets on Wednesday, Tokyo said, in a show of force following Chinese and Russian drills in the skies and seas around Japan and South Korea.
Japan and the US “reaffirmed their strong resolve to prevent any unilateral attempt to change the status quo by force and confirmed the readiness posture of both the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) and US forces,” Japan’s defense ministry said in a press release on Thursday.
The flight of two US B-52 strategic bombers with three Japanese F-35 stealth fighters and three F-15 air-superiority jets was the first time the US had asserted its military presence since China began military exercises in the region last week.
The display follows a joint flight of Chinese and Russian strategic bombers in the East China Sea and western Pacific on Tuesday and separate Chinese aircraft carrier drills that prompted Japan to scramble jets that Tokyo said were targeted by radar beams.
The encounter drew criticism from Washington, which said the incident was “not conducive to regional peace and stability” and reaffirmed that its alliance with Japan was “unwavering.”
Both Japan and South Korea host US forces, with Japan home to the biggest concentration of American military power overseas, including an aircraft carrier strike group and a US Marine expeditionary force.
China denied Tokyo’s accusation, saying Japanese jets flying near the carrier had endangered its air operations south of Japan.
South Korea’s military said it also scrambled fighter jets when the Chinese and Russian aircraft entered its air defense identification zone on Tuesday, an area that extends beyond its airspace and is used for early warning.
Regional tensions have risen since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi triggered a dispute with Beijing last month with her remarks on how Tokyo might react to a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan.
China claims democratically governed Taiwan and has not ruled out using force to take control of the island, which sits just over 100 km (62 miles) from Japanese territory and is surrounded by sea lanes on which Tokyo relies.
