The suspect allegedly trained at al Qaida linked camps in Somalia

The government has an extensive confession from an African man charged with providing support to an African terror organization linked to al-Qaida, a federal prosecutor said today.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher LaVigne made the revelation during a plea proceeding Tuesday for Mohamed Ibrahim Ahmed in Manhattan. Ahmed's lawyer, Sabrina Shroff, entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.

A senior insurgent leader from Hizbul Islam has been shot to death in Mogadishu, deepening a leadership crisis inside the Islamist rebel group.  The official, Bare Ali Bare, was an outspoken critic of Hizbul Islam's one-time ally, al-Shabab, raising speculation that the militant group carried out the assassination.

Eyewitnesses say Bare Ali Bare was walking alone in Mogadishu's open-air Bakara market Tuesday, when he was approached by two gunmen.  The gunmen shot the Hizbul Islam military leader several times in the head and escaped on foot.

No one has yet claimed responsibility.  But Bakara market is a stronghold of al-Qaida's proxy in Somalia, al-Shabab.

A new offensive against Islamist militias is a sign of hope for Somalia's fragile western-backed government.

Transitional Federal Government (TFG) soldiers are preparing to launch an offensive against Islamist militia in Mogadishu. Photograph: POOL/REUTERS

Long-suffering residents of Mogadishu are steeling themselves for a new round of fighting as the western-backed transitional federal government (TFG) prepares to launch an offensive to expel Islamist militiamen from the Somali capital. Yet grim though the prospect is of renewed violence, the looming attack is a sign the tide may be turning in Somalia: the "good guys" are fighting back.

Speaking in London on Tuesday, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, Somalia's president, declined to detail his plans to wrest control from the hardline al-Shabaab militia, which currently holds most of the city. Asked about reports that the US military may provide air cover during the forthcoming offensive, he said he would welcome any support the Americans and British chose to offer.

Gordon Brown pledged British support for the transitional government of Somalia yesterday as its Western-backed president prepared to launch an offensive to seize control of Mogadishu from al-Qaeda linked fighters.

Britain has offered £5.7 million to fund the build-up of an official Somalian security force and has dramatically increased British aid to Somalia tenfold to £30 million since Sheikh Sharif Ahmed was installed as president last year.

President Ahmed said he welcomed foreign support as he targets al-Shabaab, the fundamentalist movement that has appealed for British Somalis to train as suicide bombers.

Civilians are victims heavy shelling of the capital.  Many parts of Mogadishu is now a ghost town

Mogadishu (insidesomalia.org) - Heavy fighting has started this morning between government forces supported by African Union forces (AMISOM) and Islamist rebels Al-Shabaab.

It is reported that number of heavy weapons are being used namely anti-aircraft, multiple rocket launchers, and light armour vehicles.

The fighting started around six am and many of citizens have started to flee when houses started to shake with bombings and heavy noises.  Many of residences have already fled the city and in particular to build up of this battle which government wants to take more land from rebels.  The government controls only small sections of the capital, namely airport, port, presidential palace "Villa Somalia" (along the Indian Ocean).

Mogadishu — Officials of the transitional government of Somalia have said that they are in the final stage for preparing the big offensive against the Islamist rebels in parts of the country, an official said on Sunday.

Minister of the interior of the TFG Sheik Abdukadir Ali Omar held a press conference in Mogadishu on saturday afternoon saying that the government was commited to start its big war that the government had planned to take over control of the Somali capital Mogadishu in the coming days.

The minister said that their main aim was to restore the peace and stability of southern Somalia, mainly Mogadishu.

A foreign official from Somali militants group al Shabaab has died for gunshot wounds in parts of Lower Shabelle region in southern Somalia, Radio Mogadishu reported on Saturday.

The officials named, Abdiqadir Al Muqraawi was wounded in fighting between government soldiers and al Shabaab in Mogadishu on Friday.  The report says, the foreign official which his country origin is not known, died while he was being taking to Kismayo in Lower Jubba region for medical treatment.

Foreces of the transitional gov in Somalia control only a part of the capital, Mogadishu.  The city is full of traps and tough for conventional army to take control

MOGADISHU, Somalia — The Somali government is preparing a major offensive to take back this capital block by crumbling block, and it takes just a listen to the low growl of a small surveillance plane circling in the night sky overhead to know who is surreptitiously backing that effort.

“It’s the Americans,” said Gen. Mohamed Gelle Kahiye, the new chief of Somalia’s military, who said he recently shared plans about coming military operations with American advisers. “They’re helping us.”

That American assistance could be crucial to the effort by Somalia’s government to finally reassert its control over the capital and bring a semblance of order to a country that has been steeped in anarchy for two decades. For the Americans, it is part of a counterterrorism strategy to deny a haven to Al Qaeda, which has found sanctuary for years in Somalia’s chaos and has helped turn this country into a magnet for jihadists from around the world.

The United States is increasingly concerned about the link between Somalia and Yemen, a growing extremist hot spot, with fighters going back and forth across the Red Sea in what one Somali watcher described as an “Al Qaeda exchange program.”

The shelling began after government soldiers in the city were pushed back from positions they had taken by reinforcements sent in by the Islamist militia, witnesses said.

“The government soldiers were reinforcing newly taken positions when they came under attack from Islamist fighters,” Mowliid Abdifatah Igal, a local elder in the Hodan district, said by phone today. “Later, heavily armed Islamists streamed through the district and both sides started shelling each other.”

The United Nation Monday called on foreign governments to stop meddling with Somali affairs, as the country celebrated the first anniversary of the government led by Prime Minister Omar Abidirashid Ali Sharmarke.