Somalia: Jihadists with rocket-propelled grenades attack Doctors Without Borders

Jihad Watch

We're often told that poverty causes jihadist terrorism -- a claim for which numerous counterexamples are readily available. But much less attention is paid to how jihad and the strictures of Sharia help to perpetuate poverty, illness, misery, and underdevelopment, as in this case. "Doctors Without Borders Clinic Attacked in Somalia," from VOA News, May 6: Officials with the aid group Doctors Without Borders say they do not know why Islamist insurgents attacked one of the group's clinics near the Somali capital, Mogadishu. The attack Wednesday forced the clinic to shut down.

There is growing concern for thousands of internally displaced people who relied on the clinic for free medical care.

The aid group Doctors Without Borders says it is still investigating the attack on its Hawa Abdi clinic, located about 20 kilometers south of Mogadishu, on a road that connects the capital to the town of Afgoye. Officials with the group, known by its French acronym MSF, declined to speculate on a motive for the attack.

Perhaps they figure the ill, the crippled, and the dead are less inclined to engage in haram behavior, or to resist the imposition of Sharia.

Witnesses say heavily-armed Hizbul Islam insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades at the clinic before storming it. The attack sparked a firefight between the insurgents and security guards at the clinic, killing one guard and wounding others.

Hizbul Islam fighters briefly detained 20 local staff before shutting down the clinic. The closure has reportedly spread fear and panic among tens of thousands of internally displaced people who have received free consultations and medical care at the clinic since 2007. Hizbul Islam, one of Somalia's two main radical Islamist insurgent groups, has not responded to claims it targeted the clinic.

More than 250,000 internally displaced people live along the Afgoye corridor in harsh conditions. The majority fled there from Mogadishu three years ago, following the start of the violent, Islamist-led insurgency against the U.N.-backed Transitional Federal Government....click here to continue reading