by Dave De Camp, antiwar.com

Turkish F-16 fighter jets have carried out airstrikes outside Mogadishu as US-backed Somali federal government forces have been locked in a major battle with al-Shabaab over Basra, a village about 22 miles northwest of the Somali capital.

Garowe Online reported that Turkish strikes targeted al-Shabaab, but Ankara and Mogadishu have yet to officially confirm them. Local sources told Garowe that the strikes caused heavy casualties, including dead and wounded, but they did not provide a number.

The Somali Defense Ministry said on Sunday that its forces were “conducting a major operation against al-Shabaab militants on the outskirts of Basra” and claimed that Somali troops “neutralized a number of al-Shabaab militants, including two leaders” and seized weapons.

The Somali Guardian reported that government forces and al-Shabaab have been fighting over Basra for more than a week and that both sides have claimed to inflict heavy casualties, but no numbers have been confirmed. The report noted that the village of Basra has changed hands more than a dozen times since 2011, following a pattern in the conflict of government forces being unable to solidify gains made against al-Shabaab.

The heavy fighting comes amid a political crisis in Somalia sparked by President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud ’s decision to stay in power despite his term expiring, something he justifies by the changes his government made to the constitution. The federal government has been clashing with local state governments, and al-Shabaab has been able to capitalize on the crisis.

Claire's Observations:  Hey, don't like something in your Constitution regarding the imposition of Term Limits on the country's President?!?  Change it!!  That's what THIS guy just did!!  

And THIS is the government the US is supporting in Somalia?!?  

SERIOUSLY, Africa's version of "The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave"?!? 

I could laugh at this;  the problem, however.... would be.... stopping.

Let's face facts;  were it not for Somalia's "embarrassment of riches" in terms of its natural resources, neither the US, nor Turkey would be there right now.

Here's what Throck, my AI, tells us about Somalia's natural resources:

 "Oil: Major potential, but not yet a proven producing industry

Natural gas:  Significant offshore potential; some onshore indications

Fisheries:  Very substantial — Somalia has an exceptionally long coastline

Agricultural land: Large potential, especially along the Juba and Shabelle rivers

Livestock:  One of the country's most important established natural/economic resources

Uranium:  Known deposits/occurrences, particularly in central and southern areas

Iron ore:  Known deposits

Gypsum & limestone:  Significant deposits

Salt:  Extensive coastal resources

Tin & tantalum: Known occurrences

Copper, bauxite, feldspar, quartz, kaolin:  Known occurrences"

It is pretty commonly understood that Yemen's Houthis are supporting  al-Shabaab, with advanced weapons training and materials. 

But to get a better understanding of what is happening on the ground, let's take a look at a map, to see how things interconnect here: Throck has more to say:

"This.... is where Somalia suddenly becomes much more interesting geopolitically. The pieces fit together: oil and gas, the Gulf of Aden, the Red Sea, Turkey, the UAE, Somaliland, the Houthis, and al-Shabaab are not separate stories. They overlap geographically and strategically.

1. Somalia sits beside one of the world's great maritime chokepoints. Ships coming from the Indian Ocean toward the Suez Canal pass through this area. Consequently, Somalia is sitting beside the maritime highway connecting:

2. Persian Gulf → Arabian Sea → Gulf of Aden → Red Sea → Suez Canal → Mediterranean → Europe.

3. That makes Somalia enormously more strategically valuable than its relatively poor economy might suggest.   The timing is extraordinary.

4. The world is already trying to find alternatives to vulnerable Middle Eastern maritime routes because of the disruption around the Strait of Hormuz. Gulf states are currently accelerating alternative pipeline and port infrastructure for precisely this reason.

So the Horn of Africa and Red Sea are becoming more—not less—important to global energy security."

So there's the scenario, complicated by Israel's relationship with Somaliland, which considers itself independent from Somalia, which Somalia does not, and Turkey's broad investment into Somalia security and oil development.

I wish ALL the people of Somalia the opportunity for peaceful self-determination, in terms of how the profits from developing industries are used to invest in infrastructure; schools; high tech; and improvements in  managing their other resources.