WThe Somali Civil War is an ongoing civil war taking place in Somalia. It grew out of resistance to the military junta led by Siad Barre during the 1980s. By 1988–1990, the Somali Armed Forces began engaging various armed rebel groups, including the Somali Salvation Democratic Front in the northeast, the Somali National Movement in the northwest, and the United Somali Congress in the south. The clan-based armed opposition groups overthrew the Barre government in 1991.
WThe 2009–present phase of the Somali Civil War is concentrated in southern and central Somalia and portions of north eastern Kenya. It began in early February 2009 with the conflict between the forces of the Federal Government of Somalia, assisted by African Union peacekeeping troops, and various militant groups and factions. The violence has displaced thousands of people in the southern part of the country. The conflict has also seen fighting between the Sufi Ahlu Sunna Waljama'a and Al-Shabaab.
WThe Ethiopian Invasion Of Somalia, also known as the Somali War, was an armed conflict involving largely Ethiopian and Transitional Federal Government forces and Somali troops from Puntland against the Islamic Court Union, and militias afilliated to them for control of the country.
WThe Advance of the Islamic Courts Union is the period in the Somali Civil War that began in May 2006 with the Islamic Courts Union's (ICU) conquest of Mogadishu from the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT) and continued with further ICU expansion in the country.
WThe Battle of Mogadishu, also known as the Black Hawk Down incident, and as Battle of Bakara Market in Malaysia, was part of Operation Gothic Serpent. It was fought on 3–4 October 1993, in Mogadishu, Somalia, between forces of the United States—supported by UNOSOM II—and Somali militiamen loyal to the Mohamed Farrah Aidid. It was part of the broader Somali Civil War, which had intensified since 1991 and threatened famine; the UN had become engaged to provide food aid, but eventually shifted their mission to establish democracy and restore a secure government.
WThomas M. Montgomery is an American soldier who retired from the United States Army in 1997 at the rank of Lieutenant General. A native of Indiana and graduate of Indiana University, he entered military service in 1963 and commanded an armored company during the Vietnam War, during which he was decorated with the Silver Star for gallantry in the face of the enemy. During the Somali Civil War, he served as deputy commander of the military element of UNOSOM II and would later spend three years as U.S. representative to the NATO Military Committee.
WOperation Enduring Freedom – Horn of Africa (OEF-HOA) is the United States military operation to combat militant Islamism and piracy in the Horn of Africa. It is one component of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), which includes eight African states stretching from the far northeast of the continent to the oil-rich Gulf of Guinea in the west. The other OEF mission in Africa is known as Operation Enduring Freedom – Trans Sahara (OEF-TS), which, until the creation of the new United States Africa Command, was run from the United States European Command.
WThe Puntland–Somaliland dispute is a territorial dispute over the northern Somali provinces of Sool, Sanaag and Ayn (Khatumo-SSC) between the self-declared Republic of Somaliland and the Puntland state of Somalia.
WThe Somali Democratic Republic was the name that the Marxist–Leninist military government gave to Somalia under President Major General Mohamed Siad Barre, after seizing power in a coup d'état on 21 October 1969. The coup came a few days after a bodyguard assassinated Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, the nation's second President. Barre's administration ruled Somalia for the next 21 years until Somalia collapsed into anarchy in 1991.
WA technical, in professional military parlance often called a non-standard tactical vehicle (NSTV), is a light improvised fighting vehicle, typically an open-backed civilian pickup truck or four-wheel drive vehicle mounting a machine gun, anti-aircraft gun, rotary cannon, anti-tank weapon, anti-tank gun, ATGM, mortar, multiple rocket launcher, recoilless rifle or other support weapon, somewhat like a light military gun truck or potentially even a self-propelled gun.
WThe Unified Task Force (UNITAF) was a United States-led, United Nations-sanctioned multinational force which operated in Somalia from 5 December 1992 until 4 May 1993. A United States initiative, UNITAF was charged with carrying out United Nations Security Council Resolution 794 to create a protected environment for conducting humanitarian operations in the southern half of the country.