WORLD
Saturday, March 4, 2017
East Oregonian
Page 11A
U.S. steps up in Somalia as
al-Shabab proves a stubborn foe
MOGADISHU, Somalia
(AP) — With frequent suicide
bombings and assaults on
Somalia’s hotels and military
targets, the Islamic extremist
group al-Shabab has proved
more resilient than expected,
leading President Donald
Trump’s
administration
to pursue wider military
involvement here as current
strategies, including drone
attacks, are not enough,
security experts say.
Senior U.S. officials have
said the Pentagon wants to
expand the military’s efforts
to battle the al-Qaida-linked
group.
Recommendations
sent to the White House
would allow U.S special
forces to increase assistance
to the Somali National Army
and give the U.S. military
greater flexibility to launch
more pre-emptive airstrikes.
The U.S. is likely to
find counterterror efforts in
Somalia difficult and expen-
sive, analysts say — espe-
cially with the recent emer-
gence of fighters pledging
alliance to the Islamic State
group.
“The concern in Wash-
ington has been mounting for
some time now. The Trump
administration is simply reit-
AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh, File
In this Feb. 2016 file photo, a Somali government
soldier walks near destroyed buildings, after a suicide
car bomb in Mogadishu, Somalia.
erating what has been policy,
with slight variations,” said
Rashid Abdi, a Horn of
Africa analyst with the Inter-
national Crisis Group. “U.S.
special forces are already on
the ground. Drone attacks
have been scaled up.”
Currently about 50 U.S.
commandos rotate in and out
of this Horn of Africa nation
to advise and assist local
troops. The commandos
have accompanied Somali
forces in several raids
against al-Shabab fighters
in which dozens of militants
were killed, according to
Somali intelligence officials,
who insisted on anonymity
because they were not autho-
rized to speak to the press.
Somalia, which has been
without an effective central
government since the fall
of dictator Siad Barre in
1991, was one of the seven
predominantly Muslim coun-
tries included in Trump’s
recent travel ban. That exec-
utive order has since been
suspended by federal courts.
Al-Shabab emerged amid
Somalia’s years of chaos.
A regional military effort
several years ago pushed
the extremist group from
the capital, Mogadishu, and
most other urban centers. But
experts say that push against
al-Shabab then weakened,
allowing it to regroup and
adapt to operating in the
country’s vast rural areas. It
recently stepped up attacks in
the capital and elsewhere.
The U.S. already has
military bases in Somalia,
although it has not publicly
acknowledged them. They
are often used for drone
attacks against al-Shabab
targets. One of the largest
bases is at Baledogle airfield,
a former Somali air force
base in Lower Shabelle
region where U.S. military
experts also train Somali
forces, according to Somali
officials.
In the past year the U.S.
launched 14 airstrikes —
nearly all drone strikes —
killing some top al-Shabab
leaders, including Hassan Ali
Dhore and Abdullahi Haji
Daud, according to a Somali
intelligence official who
coordinated with the U.S. on
some of them.
The attacks have helped
combat al-Shabab but have
not brought the group to its
knees, the official said.
Thousands flee Mosul overnight, as fighting rages on
MOSUL, Iraq (AP) —
Thousands of civilians fled
Mosul overnight as Iraqi
forces advanced north of a
sprawling military base near
the city’s airport on Friday.
Iraq’s special forces
pushed into the Wadi Hajar
district in western Mosul
and retook the area from the
Islamic State group Friday,
according to Brig. Gen.
Yahya Rasool, spokesman of
the Joint Military Operations.
Special forces Brig. Gen.
Haider al-Obeidi said clearing
operations were ongoing in
the area and his forces were
close to linking up with the
militarized federal police
forces who were pushing up
along the western bank of the
Tigris river.
Iraqi forces, including
special operations forces and
federal police units, launched
an attack on the western part
of Mosul nearly two weeks
ago to dislodge IS. Since the
offensive began, more than
AP Photo/Susannah George
Iraqi federal police forces man a position on a roof of a
house in on the edge of Mosul’s Mamun neighborhood
on Friday.
28,000 people have been
displaced by the fighting,
according to the United
Nations.
Nahla Ahmed, 50 fled
Mosul late Thursday night,
walking more than five
kilometers (three miles) from
her home in the Shuhada
neighborhood.
“All the families were
hiding behind a wall,” she
said, explaining how they
escaped an IS-held part of the
city. “We gave the children
valium so they wouldn’t cry
and (the IS fighters) wouldn’t
catch us.”
Ahmed, like most of the
civilians who have escaped
Mosul in the past week, fled
through Mamun neighbor-
hood. The district is partially
controlled by Iraq’s special
forces.
Maj. Saif Ali, who is
stationed in Mamun, said
huge crowds of civilians
began pouring into the area
from neighboring districts
just after midnight. Ali said
civilians in western Mosul
are becoming increasingly
desperate as food and water
supplies begin to run out.
“In total 7,000 people
fled through this area last
night,” he said. “We were up
all night trying to control the
crowds.”
U.N. spokesman Stephane
Dujarric said Friday “the
latest figures we have of
people recorded leaving
western Mosul is 28,400 and
that’s since operations in west
Mosul started on Feb. 19.
However we’re also tracking
down reports thousands more
people are on the move.”
Muneyoshi Someya/Kyodo News via AP
North Korean Ri Jong Chol, center, who was arrest-
ed in connection with the death of Kim Jong Un’s
half-brother, is transferred from Sepang district
police station in Sepang, Malaysia Friday.
Deported Korean says
Malaysia threatened
to harm his family
KUALA
LUMPUR,
Malaysia (AP) — A North
Korean chemist deported
from Malaysia accused
police of threatening to
kill his family unless he
confessed to the assassi-
nation of the half-brother
of North Korea’s leader,
calling it a plot to tarnish
his country’s honor.
Ri Jong Chol spoke
to reporters in Beijing
early Saturday while on
his way to Pyongyang.
Malaysian authorities have
said there’s insufficient
evidence to charge Ri over
Kim Jong Nam’s killing at
Kuala Lumpur’s airport on
Feb. 13.
Ri was detained four
days after the attack but
police never said what
they believed his role was.
Two women — one Indo-
nesian, one Vietnamese
— have been charged with
murder after police said
they smeared Kim’s face
with VX, a banned nerve
agent considered a weapon
of mass destruction.
Ri said he wasn’t at
the airport the day Kim
was killed but that police
accused him of being a
mastermind and presented
him with “fake evidence.”
He said they showed him
a picture of his wife and
two children, who were
staying with him in Kuala
Lumpur, and threatened to
kill them.
“These men kept telling
me to admit to the crime,
and if not, my whole
family would be killed,
and you too won’t be safe.
If you accept everything,
you can live a good life in
Malaysia,” Ri said. “This
is when I realized that it
was a trap ... they were
plotting to tarnish my
country’s reputation.”
Police did not immedi-
ately respond to a request
for comment Saturday.
Immigration
Direc-
tor-General Mustafar Ali
said Friday that Ri has
been blacklisted from
re-entering Malaysia.
Malaysia is looking for
seven other North Korean
suspects, four of whom
are believed to have left
the country on the day of
the killing. Three others,
including an official at the
North Korean Embassy
and an employee of Air
Koryo, North Korea’s
national
carrier,
are
believed to still be in
Malaysia.
Police on Friday issued
an arrest warrant for the
Air Koryo employee, Kim
Uk Il, but didn’t say why
he is a suspect . Police say
he arrived in Malaysia on
Jan. 29, about two weeks
before Kim was killed.
BRIEFLY
Pentagon: More
than 30 airstrikes
in Yemen since
Thursday
WASHINGTON (AP)
— As part of a sustained
assault on the extremist
group known as al-Qaida in
the Arabian Peninsula, U.S.
warplanes have launched
more than 30 airstrikes in
Yemen the past two days, a
Pentagon spokesman said
Friday.
Navy Capt. Jeff Davis
told reporters that U.S.
airstrikes have targeted
members of the group as well
as their facilities, equipment,
fighting positions and heavy
weapons such as artillery.
Davis said strikes numbering
in the “mid-20s” had been
launched on Thursday,
followed by several more
Friday, putting the combined
total at more than 30.
Without specifying
plans, Davis said the U.S.
is undertaking a sustained
campaign in areas of Yemen
where AQAP is most
active. He said no U.S.
ground troops have been
involved in, or even in the
vicinity of, firefights there
since a late-January special
operations raid that resulted
in the death of a Navy SEAL,
Senior Chief William “Ryan”
Owens.
“U.S. forces will continue
to target AQAP militants and
facilities in order to disrupt
the terrorist organization’s
plots, and ultimately to
protect American lives,”
Davis said, adding that the
group is at least as worrying
as the Islamic State group
that the U.S. has been
attacking with daily airstrikes
in Iraq and Syria for more
than two years.
“AQAP is the
organization that has more
American blood on its
hands,” Davis said. “It is a
deadly terrorist organization
that has proven itself to be
very effective in targeting
and killing Americans,
and they have intent and
aspirations to continue doing
so. We are working to stop
them from that.”
European
Parliament pushes
for reimposition of
visas for U.S.
BRUSSELS (AP) — The
European Parliament is
pushing for the bloc’s
executive to temporarily
reimpose visa requirements
for U.S. citizens visiting the
European Union in a standoff
over Washington’s failure
to grant visa-free travel
for nationals of five EU
countries.
MULTI-MEDIA SALES
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The family of Dr. Hibbert
would like to express their
gratitude to the Pendleton
community for the privilege
of serving you the last 34
years. We received many
letters of sympathy after
his sudden passing.
We want to give a special
thanks to the following
dentists who gave generously of their time over the last
few months: Dr. Loc Vuu, Dr. Blair Smith, Dr. Robert Pratt,
Dr. Edward Dolan, and Dr. Nate Bushman. Their kindness
allowed us to continue serving our loyal patients.
Sincerely,
Debbie Hibbert, Jennifer Hibbert, Carley Hibbert,
Eli Hibbert, Lori Howard, and Eric Hibbert
Hibbert Dental Staff: Heather Gabriel, Sara Kellogg,
Jennifer Scharf, Carley Towne
The legislature on
Thursday urged the
European Commission
to act within two months.
The Commission was
legally bound to propose
by last April that visas
be reintroduced for U.S.
citizens for 12 months but
the 28-nation bloc’s member
countries preferred to take no
action.
U.S. citizens can travel
to all EU countries without
visas but the U.S. hasn’t
granted visa-free travel
to citizens of Bulgaria,
Croatia, Cyprus, Poland and
Romania. The Commission
has cautioned that
suspending the visa waiver
for Americans would also
hurt trade, tourism and the
European economy.
East Oregonian has an
opening for multi-media sales.
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That’s fine, as long as you
understand the importance
of customer service, working
hard and a desire to
enjoy your job.
Could this be you?
Send resume and letter of
interest to
EO Media Group
PO Box 2048
Salem, OR 97308-2048
by fax to 503-371-2935 or
e-mail hr@eomediagroup.com
Base wage plus commissions,
benefits and mileage
reimbursement. Benefits
include Paid Time Off (PTO),
insurances and a 401(k)/Roth
401(k) retirement plan.
UMATILLA COUNTY WEED DEPARTMENT
3920 WESTGATE PENDLETON, OREGON 97801
OFFICE: 541 278-5462 FAX: 541 278-5427
NEWS – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 2017
The Oregon State Weed Board awarded Umatilla County Weed Department $9643.00
to treat tansy ragwort within Umatilla County
For More Information:
Umatilla County Weed Department
theodore.orr@umatillacounty.net • (541) 278-5462
Salem - The Oregon State Weed Board (OSWB) awarded $9643.00 to Umatilla County
Weed Department (UCWD) for tansy ragwort control at their February 9 and 10, 2017,
board meeting in Salem.
The award was one of 50 grants totaling $1.24 million provided to local organizations
statewide to fund projects that restore, protect fish and wildlife habitat, watershed
function, water quality and overall watershed health from invasive noxious weed
impacts.
Umatilla County has two known sites of tansy ragwort located in Umatilla County; One
on Saddle Mountaitn above Milton Freewater and the other on Bear Creek above Pilot
Rock. “Tansy ragwort is toxic to cattle and these two sites are used primarily for grazing.
Our goal is to reduce the seed bank, eradicate, and control the spread of tansy ragwort
throughout the county” says Teddy Orr, UCWD Supervisor.
The 2017 UCWD Tansy Grant will treat 90 gross acres of Tansy; 60 acres in the Saddle
Mountain area above Milton-Freewater, and 30 acres in Bear Creek Drainage. The Weed
Department will continue survey 2500 gross acres between two sites and surrounding
areas. Support the landowners with education, identification, and control of tansy
ragwort. It is expected to begin June 1st and be completed by September 15th. If you
believe you have tansy ragwort on your property you are encouraged to contact the
UCWD for identification and control options.
OSWB grants are funded through partnership with OWEB from Oregon Lottery funds.
Since 1999, the Oregon Lottery has provided over $500 million to OWEB’s grant
program that helps restore, maintain and enhance Oregon’s watersheds. Combined, the
Lottery has earned over $9 billion for watershed enhancements, public education, state
parks and economic development. For more information about the Oregon Lottery visit
www.oregonlottery.org
For additional information about this project contact Teddy Orr by email at
theodore.orr@umatillacounty.net. For additional information about OSWB
Noxious Weed Grant Program, contact Tristen Berg at tberg@oda.state.or.us.