| *sigh* |
This isn't Islamist propaganda, of course. WaPo would never fall for something as obvious as that...
Led by Ugandan and Burundian troops, the force has intensified shelling in recent weeks as Somalia's al-Shabab militia, which is linked to al-Qaeda, has pushed closer toward the fragile government's seat of power. The shells are landing in heavily populated areas, in some cases even neighborhoods controlled by the government.
There aren't any turbans lurking there, of course. And they'd never actually set up artillery in civilian areas.
Al-Shabab leaders say the peacekeepers and the shelling are the key reasons it bombed two venues in Uganda's capital last Sunday, killing 76 people watching broadcasts of the World Cup final.
Otherwise they'd never have done such a thing...
In this war-torn capital, Fatima Umar and Muse Haji were among the latest victims. An artillery shell crashed into their building, killing Umar on the top floor and Haji on the bottom floor. Umar, 15, was a cleaner who earned $7 a month to support her parents.
Oh, the humanity! Hand me a tissue, please!
Haji, 38, was a shopkeeper who was relaxing on his stoop on his day off. Witnesses said the shell was fired from the direction of the airport, which the peacekeepers control. "It was the Ugandans," declared Omar Sharif, a clan elder, as he stood in the rubble next to a shattered bed splattered with Umar's blood. Sunlight glared through a huge hole in the wall.
"A bird sang. All was peace in the wake of devastation..."
"When one kilogram of mortars are fired by al-Shabab, AMISOM replies with 100 kilograms of artillery," said Abdulqadir Haji, director of a volunteer ambulance service, using the acronym for the African Union force. "It is America and the West who support them. America and the West are the silent killers in Somalia's war."
"Oh, damn them! Without them we'd be living in peace and tranquility like we always did in the past!"
The mounting civilian toll is breeding popular resentment that threatens to undermine Somalia's U.S.-backed government, complicating Washington's efforts to combat Islamist militancy in an area where al-Qaeda's affiliates are increasingly posing a threat to U.S. interests and regional stability as they export jihad across borders.
Islamists never kill civilians, not even by accident.
The peacekeepers deny using disproportionate force and say they exercise maximum restraint, even when they are in imminent danger of attack. They say al-Shabab uses civilians as human shields and in some cases has fired mortar shells at civilians and blamed the peacekeepers.
No! Reeeeeeeally?
"AMISOM has never shelled indiscriminately at civilians," said Gaffel Nkolokosa, a spokesman for the force. "Peacekeepers have always avoided civilian shellings and observe international humanitarian laws."
Oh, come now. Everybody knows it's good tactics to waste all your ammunition on random civilian targets, rather than aiming at actual bad guys. They teach that in all the best military academies.
Somali government officials welcome the peacekeeping mission but expressed concern about the civilian deaths.
"Oh, we're so concerned! We don't have any semi-competent troops of our own but we're really concerned by the ones somebody else sent us."
"We are in a dilemma," said Abdirahman Omar Osman, Somalia's minister of information. "For us, al-Shabab is trying to do everything it can to get rid of the government. But when we defend ourselves from al-Shabab, civilians get caught in the middle. We do not want one civilian to die."
"Not even the ones sheltering and supporting al-Shabaab. We care, really we do. Most of us live in Nairobi so we don't accidentally injure any civilians, whether on our side or on the other side."
Mark Zimmer, a public affairs officer for Somalia at the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, said Washington is "proactive" in trying to prevent the peacekeepers from "inadvertently targeting civilians and increasing their sensitivity to avoiding civilian casualties." But he noted that "al-Shabab has increased attacks of late, forcing AMISOM to respond."