Somaliland press

Somaliland election free and fair: observers

HARGEISA (Somalilandpress) — Observers said Monday the weekend presidential poll in the breakaway Somali republic of Somaliland was largely free and fair and turnout high despite threats from Islamists.

“Overall, the election seems to have met conditions for a free and fair expression of the popular will of Somalilanders,” said Progressio, the University College of London’s development planning unit, and Somaliland Focus (UK).

The observer bodies praised in a statement a high voter turnout on Saturday in many areas of Somaliland “despite threats from Islamist militant groups to disrupt the process, which thankfully came to nothing”.

They also raised concerns, however, citing “reported misuse of public resources, including vehicles, the time of civil servants and national public media by the incumbent party”.

They also noted “sustained attempts at underage voting and systematic distribution of voter ID cards by unauthorised agents”, the statement said, adding officials from the electoral commission took steps to stop those abuses.

The observer mission said it “looks forward to a speedy and clear result in the election that is accepted by all parties”.

“Notwithstanding the concerns outlined above, we express our confidence that the election process to date is likely to result in a free and fair expression of the popular will.”

Electoral commission chief Isse Yusuf Mohamud said meanwhile there had not so far been any official complaint from any of the political parties.

“The counting process continues and results will be announced during the week,” he said.

President Dahir Riyale Kahin ran against two opposition candidates: Ahmed Mohamed Silaanyo, whose Kulmiye party is the largest parliamentary bloc, and Faisal Ali Warabe of the Justice and Welfare party.

Somaliland, which is more tribally homogenous than the rest of Somalia, has been striving for international recognition since it broke away in 1991.

Somaliland press

Finnish Citizen in Somaliland Elections

BORAMA (Somalilandpress) — A Finnish citizen, Faisal Ali Farah, is a candidate in Saturday’s presidential election in Somaliland, a region that aims to gain its independence from Somalia.

Faisal Ali Farah lived for several years in Finland.

Finnish observers are among the group of tens of foreigners overseeing the elections.

It is feared extreme Islamic groups ruling in Somalia could try to interfere with the poll and security is tight in the region.

Observers say long queues have formed outside polling stations.

Somaliland proclaimed independence in 1991 but has failed to gained the recognition of other states. Compared to the chaos in Somalia, conditions in the region are calm and stable.

Sources: AP, AFP, YLE News | Saturday, 26 June 2010

Somaliland press

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Former British officer votes in Somaliland election

HARGEISA (Somalilandpress) — On Saturday, June 26th, more than a million Somalilanders including a former British officer queued for hours to cast their historical vote on the historical day.

People either camped over night or rocked to the polling sight as early as 3a.m. amid fears of Al Shabab threats. Most people wanted to be first on the queue and get out as quick as possible before al Shabab militants hid among the large crowds.

Among those people queuing up were former World War II British army officer and author, John Drysdale, who arrived in Somaliland in 1943 in his teen. He served along side Somaliland soldiers during WWII in Burma and Singapore. He returned back to Africa after the defeat of the Nazi regime in Germany and Japan to serve in the British Colonial Service and the Foreign Service where he carried out assignments in Ghana (then the Gold Coast) and in Mogadishu (now under British control with the defeat of Italy).

He became an advisor to three Somali Prime Ministers in post independence Somalia and to three successive UN special envoys to Somalia during the 1992-1993.

Mr Drysdale is regarded as an expert on Somalis including the Somali literature, history, culture and the people. He is an accomplished speaker of Somali.

His work on Somalia which includes The Somali Dispute (1964), Somali The Peninsula and Whatever Happened to Somalia (2002) has became a standard reference works on the Somali people and their politics.

During his long career as diplomat, businessman, and publisher, Drysdale has been a prolific writer and analyst of political events in Africa and Southeast Asia.

Mr Drysdale founded and edited the Africa Research Bulletin in Britain and the Asia Research Bulletin in Singapore in collaboration with the Straits Times Group.

He also founded the Asean Economic Quarterly in Singapore. His book Singapore: Struggle for Success is a recommended reading for all young Singaporeans. Returning to Somaliland in mid 1990s, Mr Drysdale worked as an advisor to the Somaliland government under the late President Mohamed Haji Ibrahim Egal for sometime before setting up his own land survey NGO, Cadastral Surveys. Cadastral Surveys has been surveying and mapping hitherto non-existent farm boundaries in the Gabiley and Dilla districts of south-west Somaliland.

In 2009, Mr Drysdale wore a special Islamic hat to pledge allegiance to the holy Qur’an in a ceremony held in Hargeisa’s main Mosque and changed his name completely to Abbas Idris (Enoch). He took Somaliland citizenship a short time later.

This year he made history by becoming the first British born to vote in Somaliland election which fell on the exact day when Somaliland gained it’s independence from Great Britain 50 years ago.

Mr Dyrsdale/Idris said he was happy to be part of Somaliland’s election. “Today I am here to be part of Somaliland’s democracy and to cast my vote freely. I am extremely happy to see so many of the public who came out to vote. This marks a turning point for Somaliland in the sense that it could make a great progress in the right direction. As a result, I have voted since I’m a citizen,” he told Haatuf newspaper while casting his vote in Hargeisa.

Mr Drysdale maintains strong contact with his family and friends back in UK and Singapore but is at peace with himself in Somaliland and might be his final home.

More than a million voted on Saturday’s historical vote and the National Electoral Commission is expected to announce the final result on Friday or Saturday.

Experts Gather in New York Wednesday to Discuss Jihadism in Somalia

VOA News.com English

Professor Kenneth Menkhaus of Davidson College says counter-terrorism efforts might have further strengthen Islamic groups in Somalia

James Butty | Washington, D.C.30 June 2010

 

Photo: AP Islamist insurgent fighters during clashes with Somali     government soldiers in   southern Mogadishu's Wardhigley neighborhood, Somalia, 24 June   2010

A U.S. based university professor has said counter-terrorism efforts by both U.S. and Ethiopian governments to marginalize or defeat Islamic groups in Somalia might have had the unintended consequence of further strengthening the groups.

But, Kenneth Menkhaus, professor of political science at Davidson College in North Carolina, said he was encouraged by policy shifts both in Ethiopia and the United States to reduce external factors that he said sometimes inflame radicalism in Somalia.

His comments came as a two-day summit on peace and security opens Wednesday in New York City to explore a variety of conflict situations in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, and their possible effect on national security.

A workshop at the summit is expected to consider the possible impact of the global jihadist movement on Somalia and whether the global jihad problem has been created by U.S. counter-terrorism efforts.

AF

Somali Islamist fighters

Professor Menkhaus said Somalia is a security threat to its neighbors and the West because of the dramatic rise of the jihadist group al-Shabaab.

“Since 911, and most specifically since around 2004-2005, the rise of the jihadist group al-Shabaab has dramatically increased the security threat that Somalia poses to its neighbors and possibly to Western countries, and the United States. Al-Shabaab has directly affiliated itself with al Qaida, at least rhetorically. It has declared war on both Ethiopia and Kenya. It has a physical presence inside Kenya. That puts it in the position to potentiaP Photolly launch a terrorist attack on that country if it chose to do so,” he said.

Menkhaus said, while over 200 years of international exploitation and colonialism might have contributed greatly to Somalia’s current instability, it is ultimately the responsibility of the current Transitional Federal Government (TFG) to pull Somalia out its quagmire.

“There’s a lot of blame to go around for what has gone wrong in Somalia. Certainly, external actors during the Cold War provided support to a dictatorship that gave rise to these armed liberation movements and devolved into criminal militias fighting one another. Having said that, it is the Somali leaders’ responsibility to pull the nation out of this mess,” Menkhaus said.

He said the international community continues to support Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government despite its weakness because the cost of abandoning the government is high.

AFP Photo

African Union peacekeeper in Somalia

“We supported the Transitional Federal Government not because it’s a good option, but because it’s been the best of bad options. There’s real frustration both in Somalia and in the international community about what to do with the TFG. The costs of abandoning it are fairly high. Most observers still don’t want to consign Somalia to yet another round of national reconciliation talks,” Menkhaus said.

Menkhaus reiterated his belief that foreign military intervention has been a significant source of radicalization.

“This has become a vicious circle in which both Ethiopian and U.S. efforts to reduce, or marginalize, or defeat Islamic radicals in Somalia has had the unintended consequence of strengthening them or empowering them in ways that (we) could never have imagined five years ago,” he said.

But, he said he was encouraged by policy shifts both in Ethiopia and the United States to reduce external factors that he said sometimes inflame radicalism in Somalia.

The new genaration of somalia /Lifeline international network .

Foreign fighters gain influence in Somalia’s Islamist al-Shabab militia.

Foreign fighters trained in Afghanistan are gaining influence inside Somalia’s al-Shabab militia, fueling a radical Islamist insurgency with ties to Osama bin Laden, according to Somali intelligence officials, former al-Shabab fighters and analysts.

The foreigners, who include Pakistanis and Arabs, are inspiring the Somali militants to it al-Qaeda’s ideology and brutal tactics from Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. A significant number of Americans are also being drawn to the Somali conflict. Two New Jersey men were arrested in New York on Sunday and charged with planning to travel to Somalia to join al-Shabab.

In April, suicide bombers drove a white truck filled with explosives into an African Union peacekeepers base, mirroring recent bombings in Baghdad or Kabul. Within hours, a grainy photo emerged on local Web sites of a young, gap-toothed man clutching a sign in Arabic over the words “Distributed by al-Shabab.” It declared the operation revenge for the U.S.-aided killings of Abu Ayyub al Masri and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the top leaders of the insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq.

“The foreign jihadists were once in the shadows,” said Rashid Abdi, a Somalia analyst in Nairobi with the International Crisis Group, a conflict research organization. “Now, there is no doubt they have taken control of the movement.”

Foreigners are increasingly foot soldiers in Somalia as well.

The two New Jersey suspects, Mohamed Mahmood Alessa, 20, and Carlos Eduardo Almonte, 24, appeared in U.S. District Court in Newark on Monday on charges of conspiring to kill, maim and kidnap people outside the United States. They told a judge they understood the charges against them, and they were ordered held pending a bond hearing Thursday, officials said. Their attorneys did not immediately return phone calls Monday. The two men face up to life in prison if convicted.

In September, a Somali American from Seattle drove a truck bomb into an African Union base in Mogadishu, killing 21 peacekeepers. In December, a Dane of Somali descent blew himself up at a hotel in the capital, killing 24 people, including three government ministers.

In February, al-Shabab formally declared ties to al-Qaeda. The militia has received praise from bin Laden and radical Yemeni American cleric Anwar al-Aulaqi, who has been linked to the suspect in last year’s shootings at Fort Hood, Tex., and the suspect in an attempted attack aboard a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day. Aulaqi has been cited as inspiration by the Pakistani American held in last month’s attempted bombing in Times Square.

Al-Shabab’s main rival, Hezb-i-Islam, also has proclaimed bin Laden welcome. “We are both fighting the Christian invaders in Somalia,” said Mohamed Osman Aruz, a spokesman for the group, referring to the West and to Somalia’s mostly Christian neighbors who back the government.

The rise of the foreign fighters suggests a growing internationalization of the conflict, part of a trend emerging from Yemen to Mali, where al-Qaeda’s regional affiliates are showing increasing ambitions nearly a decade after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Today, U.S. officials consider the vast, ungoverned lands of the Arabian Peninsula and Africa the second-biggest terrorism threat after Afghanistan and Pakistan. As the United States focuses its military muscle in those regions, there is concern that more al-Qaeda-linked fighters could migrate to this part of the world.

“The lesson of the last 10 to 15 years of counterterrorism is that as pressure goes on the network in one place, it moves elsewhere,” Michael Chertoff, former Department of Homeland Security chief, said during a recent visit to Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde.

‘Brainwashing our people’

Somalia is where the United States and the West are quietly engaged in the most ambitious effort outside the theaters of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq to halt the spread of radical Islam and al-Qaeda’s influence.

The United States and its allies are providing weapons, training, intelligence and logistical support to the fragile government. They are also funding the African Union peacekeeping force that protects — many say props up — the government. Yet al-Shabab, or “The Youth” in Arabic, now controls large patches of south and central Somalia. The government, divided by political infighting, controls less than five square miles in Mogadishu.

In the capital, al-Qaeda-inspired tactics have altered the landscape. Hotels are tucked behind steel gates. Peacekeepers use high-tech gadgets to frisk visitors for explosive belts. Ordinary Somalis avoid empty, parked cars.

The foreign fighters in Somalia number 300 to 1,200, according to Somali and U.S. intelligence estimates. Most are from neighboring countries such as Kenya, Tanzania, Yemen and Sudan. But they include Afghans, Pakistanis and Arabs, say former al-Shabab fighters. At least 20 Somali Americans have joined the militia, including a top field commander, Omar Hammami, an Alabama native whose nom de guerre is Abu Mansoor al-Ameriki. He has starred in propaganda videos to attract more foreign fighters.

“The foreign fighters are brainwashing our people,” Mohammed Sheik Hassan, the head of Somalia’s National Security Agency, said in a recent interview in Mogadishu. “They want one Islamic nation under the leadership of bin Laden. But the ambition of Somalis is only to gain power locally.”

Al-Qaeda operatives who perpetrated the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania that killed hundreds use Somalia as a haven, according to U.S. and Somali officials. “There’s a parallel, converging interest between the al-Qaeda operatives in East Africa and al-Shabab,” said a U.S. intelligence official. “There certainly is collusion, cooperation, probably training and some operational level of support.”

‘Orders from outside’

Foreigners in Somalia are the main link to al-Qaeda’s central body, said Somali officials and former al-Shabab fighters. They train new recruits, both in weapons and ideology. Somalis who waged jihad in Afghanistan with bin Laden now lead the al-Shabab militia, which is loosely knit of at least 100 clan-based cells. Over cups of sweet Somali tea in Mogadishu recently, a group of clan leaders said the foreign fighters were turning al-Shabab against them, eroding the traditional authority of the clans, Somalia’s most important social unit

“All of us have been targeted,” said Mohamed Hassan Haad, a senior figure of the powerful Hawije clan. “They are getting orders from outside.”

Sheik Mohammed Asad Abdullahi, a former top al-Shabab commander who defected in November, said that bin Laden never gave direct orders but that al-Shabab commanders regularly consulted with al-Qaeda’s central body. Literature and CDs on al-Qaeda tactics and ideology were regularly handed out to the rank and file, he said.

“I believed I was part of al-Qaeda,” Abdullahi said.

He defected because he could no longer bear the suicide missions, which he described as orchestrated by the foreigners.

“If they conquer Somalia, they will not be satisfied,” he said. “They will cross the borders.”

With the United States expanding its counterterrorism operations in Yemen, U.S. and Somali officials said they are worried that al-Qaeda’s Yemen branch and al-Shabab could join forces. Still, many Somalis interviewed said they felt a growing anger toward the foreign fighters.

At the scene of last month’s truck bombing, police commander Abdi Fatah Hassan stared at the damage and lamented the violence brought by outside radicals bent on martyrdom on Somali soil. “What kind of people believe they will enter paradise by killing poor Somalis?” he said.

A few days later, Abdullahi Abdurahman Abu Yousef, a top commander of a moderate Sufi Islamist militia fighting al-Shabab, echoed that sentiment in a rousing speech to his militiamen. “They are destroying our home for the sake of Iraqis?” he bellowed. “The foreign devil is leading them.”

Source:      Washington Post mpor http://maqaal.com/news/2629.html

MADAALE.COM

Sheekh Umal oo sheegay in Al-Shabab ay yihiin khawaarij, qofkii dila ama ay dilaanna uu jannada galayo.

February 2, 2010 by MD  

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Sheekh Umal ayaa  sheegay in Al-Shabab ay yihiin khawaarij, qofkii dila ama ay dilaanna uu jannada galayo.

Sh Maxamed Umal oo ah sheekh ka mid ah culimada ugu waaweyn ee somalida aha kuna nool magaalada nairobi ee waddanka kenya, ayaa sida laga soo wariyey ilo warar oo fara badan waxaa uu khudba kulul oo uu ka jeediyey masaajid isla magaaladaas ku yaalla, ku dhaleeceeyey kooxda hubaysan ee Al-Shabab la baxday, kuna tilmaamay in ay yihiin KHAWAARIJ.

Sheekh umal waxaa uu ka mid ahaa dadkii markii hore taageersanaa kacdoonkii ay kooxdii maxkamaduhu kula jireen ciidamadii Ethopia ee soo galay cariga soomaaliyeed,Al-Shababna waxaa ay ka mid ahaayeen firqo ka tirsan kooxdaas Maxaakinta Islaamiga ee markaa dagaalamayey. In dhoweydba waxaa isasoo tarayey falal foolxun oo ay ku kacayeen kooxda Al-Shabab oo ka kooban dhalin wajiga duubatay iyo sida la sheegay dad ajnabi ah oo ka kala yimi waddamo ay ku dagaalamayaan gaalo iyo islaam, sida chechniya, afghanistan iyo kuwo kale.Falalkaas oo ay u cuskanayaa ayaa waxaa dad badan oo ahlu diin ah ay cadeeyeen in aysan marra meel ka soo galin diinta islaamka.

WAA MAXAY KHAWAARIJ…

Waa koox jirtay ilaa wakhtigii Sayid Cali  . waxaa diintu sheegtay in ay yihii dhalinyaro quraanka si fiican u taqaanna laakiin uusan cunaha ama kalxamaha uusan  u dhaafsiisnayn. Waxaase ugu weyn calaamadaha lagu garto: Gaalaynta qof allaale iyo qofkii aan 100% ku raacsanay afkaartooda.

waxaa kaloo lagu gartaa :

1. Aayadaha Gaalada ku soo dagay Ayay Dusha Kasaraan Mu,miniinta

2. Kitaabka ilaahay Ayay Dadka ugu Yeerayaan Waxbana Kama aha.

3. Waxay Kasoo Baxaan Meel Aan Maamul Kajirin

4. Waxay Kabaxayaan Diinta Sida Gamuunku Uga Baxo Falaarta .

5. Qofkastoo Oo Ka Hor Yimaada Afkaartooda Waxay Ku Yiraahdaan Gaal Iyo Murtad.

Hadaba sheekhu waxaa uu guudahaa Soomaalida uga digay kooxda Al shabaab oo uu ku sheegay in ay yihiin Khawaarijta aan soo sheegnay. Waajibna ay taha, waa sida uu Sheekhu u yiri e, in lala dagaalamo layskana qabto, Dofkii ay dilaan ama iyada dilaha uu yahay ahlu janna.

MD

PREES TV

Jundallah leader Rigi executed in Iran

Sun, 20 Jun 2010 02:34:14 GMT

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Iran says it has executed ringleader of the Pakistan-based Jundallah terrorist group Abdolmalek Rigi arrested while preparing to launch a new round of attacks on the country.

Rigi was hanged on Sunday morning in Tehran's Evin prison upon a ruling issued by the country's Islamic Revolution Court, Fars news agency reported.

The Jundallah ringleader was charged with 79 counts of various crimes including armed robbery, bombing operations in public places, armed attacks on the army, police personnel, and ordinary civilians, assassination attempts, disrupting regional stability, kidnapping and murder.

Rigi's execution comes as Iranian security forces arrested him on February 23 in eastern Iran while he was on a flight from Dubai to Kyrgyzstan.

Following his arrest, Iranian Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi said that Rigi was at an American base 24 hours before his capture, and that the United States had forged an Afghan passport for him.

Rigi, accompanied by his lawyer, appeared in court for the first time on May 27 in the presence of the families of the victims killed by his terrorist group.

In the court session, Iranian prosecutors demanded the death penalty for him.

Following the demand, Rigi claimed responsibility for the crimes committed by his terrorist group, acknowledging that his acts were in violation of the Islamic and human regulations.

After pleading guilty to all charges against him, the Jundallah ringleader went on to ask for forgiveness and made an appeal against the decision for his execution.

Head of Iran's Judiciary Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani, however, rejected the appeal and ordered his execution.

The terrorist leader had earlier confessed to having links with NATO officials in Afghanistan and foreign spy agencies like the CIA and Mossad.

Jundallah, which is based in Pakistan, has carried out numerous bombings, assassination attempts, and terrorist attacks in Iran. One of the cited attacks left 40 people dead, including several senior commanders of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps, in Iran's southeastern city of Pishin.

SF/CS/HRF

Somaliland press

Afghan man kills son of ex-Somali leader

BORAMA (Somalilandpress) — A “REMORSELESS” teenager has been jailed for life for stabbing Hassan Kul Hawadleh to death in Harrow Weald.

Abdul Khan, 19, of no fixed address, had denied killing Mr Hawadleh - who used to study at Harrow College - at High Weald Service Station in High Road at 7.30pm on February 19 last year but was convicted by a jury at the Old Bailey.

The victim, who died from a single fatal stab wound to the heart, was the son of a former prime minister of Somalia and lived in Colindale, north London. He was an engineering student at the University of East London.
Khan was sentenced to life for the murder this morning at the conclusion of the three week trial and was ordered to serve a minimum of 22 years.

He had already admitted to violent disorder and causing grievous bodily harm to Mr Hawadleh’s friend, student Abdiwahab Guiled, 19.

Mr Guiled was stabbed in the buttocks as Mr Hawadleh filled his silver Ford Focus with petrol at the petrol station.

Judge Paul Worsley told Khan, an Afghan refugee, of XXX, that he had destroyed Mr Hawadleh’s life and that of his “respectable, peace-loving family”.

The judge said the attack was in revenge for what Khan perceived was his humiliation in a one-to-one fight three days earlier with Guiled’s cousin..
The judge said: “Abdiwahab was set upon, stabbed deeply in the buttocks. `Not satisfied with that, within moments, you carried out an attack on his friend, who had gone back to help him.
“You stabbed him in the shoulder and then stabbed him through the heart. You have shown no flicker of remorse.”

The judge said Khan fled to France and then Germany following the murder.

Afterwards, Detective Inspector Martin Ludlow, of the Met’s Homicide and Serious Crime Command, said: “Kul was a promising university student with a bright future ahead of him. He has been described to me by the people closest to him as a loving, loyal, bright, and good natured young man who was highly regarded by his family and friends.

“Kul was fatally stabbed as he rushed to the aid of a close friend who was being assaulted. He was left to die on the petrol station forecourt.

“I, along with the investigation team, pay tribute to Kul Hawadleh and all of his friends and family who have shown immense bravery throughout this investigation and long and difficult trial.”

Source: Harrow Observer | Thursday, June 10, 2010

Welcome to Kenya: Police Abuse of Somali Refugees

Welcome to Kenya: Police Abuse of Somali Refugees

“Welcome to Kenya” | Human Rights Watch

“Welcome to Kenya” | Human Rights Watch

Suicide blast hits Algeria police

AL Jazeera English NEWS AFRICA

Suicide blast hits Algeria police

Conflict started in 1992 after the army cancelled the second round of multiparty elections [AFP] At least nine people have been killed in a village east of the Algeria's capital after a suicide bomber drove a lorry into the barracks of an elite police unit. The bombing happened on Friday in the town of Timizar in the Kabylia region, police officials said. The dead included four police officers and a Chinese worker who was involved in the construction of a highway in the area, the officials said. The suicide bomber died when he drove the vehicle, packed with explosives, into the barracks. Police then shot and killed two suspected attackers who were following the lorry in another vehicle, the police said. All of the dead officers belonged to a rapid-reaction unit of the military police, officials said. Over the past year violence has escalated in the mountainous and forested terrain of Kabylia, where isolated fighter groups have aligned with al-Qaeda and staged a series of bombings. Security forces killed seven men on Wednesday near the village of Toughrast, located at least 40km north of Kabylie's main town, Tizi Ouzou, a security official said. Acting on a tip-off from two suspected members of a network that supports armed opposition groups in the region, security forces swooped as the group were preparing to buy supplies, the official said. Security forces seized automatic weapons, ammunition, food and pharmaceuticals, the official said. Such attacks in Algeria started in 1992 after the army cancelled the second round of the country's first-ever multiparty elections, stepping in to prevent likely victory by the Islamic Salvation Front, commonly known by its French acronym, FIS. Armed opposition groups turned to force to overthrow the government, with up to 200,000 people killed in the violence that ensued.

AL Jazeera English

NEWS MIDDLE EAST

Israel warns Lebanon aid ships

Nine people were killed when an aid flotilla  heading to Gaza was raided by Israeli soldiers on May 31 Israel has told the UN that it will use "all necessary means" to stop ships from Lebanon from carrying humanitarian aid to the besieged Gaza Strip. In a letter to Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, and to the Security Council on Friday, Gabriela Shalev, Israel's UN ambassador, also called on the Lebanese government to prevent the ships from leaving. Shalev said it appeared a small number of ships planned to sail from Lebanon and that while the organisers said they wished to take aid to Gaza, "the true nature of their actions remains dubious". She also called on the international community to use its influence to stop the boats departing and to discourage their nationals from taking part in the action. A group of Lebanese women activists joined by Europeans and journalists are planning to sail for Gaza in the latest bid to break Israel's blockade of the coastal enclave. International outcry International fury and condemnation erupted after Israeli soldiers stormed a six-ship aid flotilla heading for Gaza on May 31, killing eight Turks and a Turkish-American on board. IN DEPTH Israeli leaders say the troops acted in self-defence after the flotilla activists attacked them. But preliminary autopsy reports revealed that the nine activists were shot a total of 30 times, some in the back of the head or in the back. The head of the UN criticised Israel's investigation into the attack and said the inquiry lacked international credibility. The UN wants its own investigation, but Israel is refusing. Hezbollah denial Meanwhile, the Lebanese group Hezbollah has denied it was backing the all-women aid flotilla, saying it did not want to give Israel a pretext to attack peaceful aid activists. "Hezbollah confirms that it decided from the very beginning to stay away from this humanitarian act in terms of organisation, logistic support and participation so as not to give the Israeli enemy any pretext to attack the participants," Hezbollah said in a statement. "Hezbollah firmly believes this peaceful, civilian effort will succeed. The organisers had not announced a departure date for the ship, christened Mariamin honour of the Virgin Mary. Following international outcry, Israel said on Thursday that it was easing the land blockade on Gaza, which for the past three years has been controlled by a Hamas-led government. But it said the sea blockade would continue. The International Committee of the Red Cross said that the blockade was illegal and described it as a violation of the Geneva Conventions.