A burning car in Madina district of Somalia's capital Mogadishu, on April 16, 2017 after a clash between gunmen and security forces. Feisal Omar / Reuters
A burning car in Madina district of Somalia's capital Mogadishu, on April 16, 2017 after a clash between gunmen and security forces. Feisal Omar / Reuters
A burning car in Madina district of Somalia's capital Mogadishu, on April 16, 2017 after a clash between gunmen and security forces. Feisal Omar / Reuters
A burning car in Madina district of Somalia's capital Mogadishu, on April 16, 2017 after a clash between gunmen and security forces. Feisal Omar / Reuters

US troops to return to Somalia 24 years after Black Hawk disaster


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NEW YORK // American plans to deploy regular troops to Somalia for the first time since 1993, when 18 special forces died during the Battle of Mogadishu, are the latest sign of Donald Trump’s increasingly muscular stance around the world.

The disaster in the Somali capital — later depicted in the film Black Hawk Down — has long haunted American foreign policy, serving as reminder of the risks involved in military intervention.

But as Mr Trump increases the US footprint around the world, sending troops to Iraq and Syria and ordering an aircraft carrier group closer to North Korea, his administration has also ordered a more aggressive push against Somalia’s Al Shabaab extremists.

A US military spokeswoman said several dozen soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division would train and equip Somalia’s army and African Union forces to better combat the Al Qaeda-linked group.

She offered no further details other than to say: “For operational security issues, we will not discuss specifics of military efforts nor speculate on potential future activities or operations.”

The order is the latest sign of how the new administration is stepping up efforts against violent extremism around the world.

Mr Trump last month signed off on a Pentagon plan to accelerate operations against Al Shabaab, including additional air strikes and covert operations.

It designated parts of the war-torn country as an “area of active hostilities”, allowing US commanders in Africa more latitude to conduct attacks.

Capt Jeff Davis, Pentagon spokesman, said at the time: “The additional support provided by this authority will help deny Al Shabaab safe havens from which it could attack US citizens or US interests in the region.”

For years Mr Trump castigated his predecessors for getting bogged down in foreign wars. But since taking office, the new president has adopted an increasingly interventionist stance.

During the past month he has ordered a missile strike on Syria and entered a stand-off with North Korea over its nuclear programme. In Afghanistan, the US military deployed the biggest non-nuclear bomb ever used in combat to destroy caves used by a local branch of ISIL in Afghanistan.

Somalia offers a daunting challenge. It has been racked by war since 1991. A fragile government depends for its survival on international backing and a 22,000 strong African Union peacekeeping force.

Famine stalks the land once again, with the United Nations warning that as many as six million people are at risk of hunger caused by drought and conflict. At sea, piracy is also on the rise after being termporarily thwarted by an international maritime coalition.

And despite being ousted from Mogadishu in 2011, Al Shabaab remains a potent force and its fighters continue to launch attacks freely. On Sunday, two attackers were shot dead in the capital after launching a mortar strike close to the airport.

Last year the group demonstrated its international threat by trying destroy an airliner. A bomb concealed in a laptop blew a hole in the fuselage of a plane shortly after taking off from Mogadishu. The bomber was killed but the flight landed safely.

Several nations are part of an international effort to assist local forces, including the UK, Turkey and the UAE which in 2015 opened a training centre.

The US has maintained up to 50 advisers and special forces operators on the ground.

However, previous administrations have been reluctant to venture further into a country remembered as the scene of one of its most humiliating defeats in recent history.

Disaster struck when US special forces launched a raid to capture two key lieutenants of a feared warlord.

The operation should have lasted less than an hour. Instead it rapidly spiralled into chaos, as US forces were attacked by militias. Fighters used rocket propelled grenades to shoot down two Black Hawk helicopters and rescue squads came under heavy fire. As many as 3,000 Somalis were wounded during 15 hours of frantic fighting.

Once the killing was over, jubilant crowds dragged the bodies of two dead American soldiers through the streets. It was a humiliating spectacle for the world’s sole superpower and president Bill Clinton ordered the troops home soon after.

For America, those images long served as a dark reminder to presidents that their public would not tolerate the human risks of intervention, while to violent ideologues, such as Osama bin Laden, they were an illustration that even superpowers are vulnerable.

* With additional reporting by Agence France-Presse

Key facilities
  • Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
  • Premier League-standard football pitch
  • 400m Olympic running track
  • NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
  • 600-seat auditorium
  • Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
  • An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
  • Specialist robotics and science laboratories
  • AR and VR-enabled learning centres
  • Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
ELIO

Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett

Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina

Rating: 4/5

How to avoid crypto fraud
  • Use unique usernames and passwords while enabling multi-factor authentication.
  • Use an offline private key, a physical device that requires manual activation, whenever you access your wallet.
  • Avoid suspicious social media ads promoting fraudulent schemes.
  • Only invest in crypto projects that you fully understand.
  • Critically assess whether a project’s promises or returns seem too good to be true.
  • Only use reputable platforms that have a track record of strong regulatory compliance.
  • Store funds in hardware wallets as opposed to online exchanges.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
J%20Street%20Polling%20Results
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TRAINING FOR TOKYO

A typical week's training for Sebastian, who is competing at the ITU Abu Dhabi World Triathlon on March 8-9:

  • Four swim sessions (14km)
  • Three bike sessions (200km)
  • Four run sessions (45km)
  • Two strength and conditioning session (two hours)
  • One session therapy session at DISC Dubai
  • Two-three hours of stretching and self-maintenance of the body

ITU Abu Dhabi World Triathlon

For more information go to www.abudhabi.triathlon.org.

BRAZIL%20SQUAD
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Disclaimer

Director: Alfonso Cuaron 

Stars: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline, Lesley Manville 

Rating: 4/5

Earth under attack: Cosmic impacts throughout history

4.5 billion years ago: Mars-sized object smashes into the newly-formed Earth, creating debris that coalesces to form the Moon

- 66 million years ago: 10km-wide asteroid crashes into the Gulf of Mexico, wiping out over 70 per cent of living species – including the dinosaurs.

50,000 years ago: 50m-wide iron meteor crashes in Arizona with the violence of 10 megatonne hydrogen bomb, creating the famous 1.2km-wide Barringer Crater

1490: Meteor storm over Shansi Province, north-east China when large stones “fell like rain”, reportedly leading to thousands of deaths.  

1908: 100-metre meteor from the Taurid Complex explodes near the Tunguska river in Siberia with the force of 1,000 Hiroshima-type bombs, devastating 2,000 square kilometres of forest.

1998: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 breaks apart and crashes into Jupiter in series of impacts that would have annihilated life on Earth.

-2013: 10,000-tonne meteor burns up over the southern Urals region of Russia, releasing a pressure blast and flash that left over 1600 people injured.

MATCH INFO

Tottenham Hotspur 3 (Son 1', Kane 8' & 16') West Ham United 3 (Balbuena 82', Sanchez og 85', Lanzini 90' 4)

Man of the match Harry Kane

Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989

Director: Goran Hugo Olsson

Rating: 5/5

Western Region Asia Cup T20 Qualifier

Sun Feb 23 – Thu Feb 27, Al Amerat, Oman

The two finalists advance to the Asia qualifier in Malaysia in August

 

Group A

Bahrain, Maldives, Oman, Qatar

Group B

UAE, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia

 

UAE group fixtures

Sunday Feb 23, 9.30am, v Iran

Monday Feb 25, 1pm, v Kuwait

Tuesday Feb 26, 9.30am, v Saudi

 

UAE squad

Ahmed Raza, Rohan Mustafa, Alishan Sharafu, Ansh Tandon, Vriitya Aravind, Junaid Siddique, Waheed Ahmed, Karthik Meiyappan, Basil Hameed, Mohammed Usman, Mohammed Ayaz, Zahoor Khan, Chirag Suri, Sultan Ahmed

The 10 Questions
  • Is there a God?
  • How did it all begin?
  • What is inside a black hole?
  • Can we predict the future?
  • Is time travel possible?
  • Will we survive on Earth?
  • Is there other intelligent life in the universe?
  • Should we colonise space?
  • Will artificial intelligence outsmart us?
  • How do we shape the future?
About Karol Nawrocki

• Supports military aid for Ukraine, unlike other eurosceptic leaders, but he will oppose its membership in western alliances.

• A nationalist, his campaign slogan was Poland First. "Let's help others, but let's take care of our own citizens first," he said on social media in April.

• Cultivates tough-guy image, posting videos of himself at shooting ranges and in boxing rings.

• Met Donald Trump at the White House and received his backing.

How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE

When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Sole survivors
  • Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
  • George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
  • Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
  • Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
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