title: Birbal

text: Modern Hindu scholars assert that he made Akbar make bold decisions and the orthodox Muslims in the court despised him, since he made Akbar renounce Islam. But no evidence is present that he influenced Akbar's beliefs. Though sources suggest he influenced Akbar's policies to some extent. It was Akbar's affection for him, his religious tolerance and social liberalism which was the reason for this and Birbal was not the cause. Historically, he was more of a supporter of Akbar's religious policy and his religion, Din-i-Ilahi. "Ain-i-Akbari" mentions an incident involving prostitutes, where Akbar wanted to punish him, contrary to how he is portrayed as a deeply religious man.


title: Birbal

text: Akbar and Birbal folk tales are featured in "Amar Chitra Katha" and "Chandamama" children's comics and many books are available containing these collections. There are various paperback editions, films, textbooks, booklets and plays with his character as the lead. The television channel "Cartoon Network "in India", "has two featured animated series based on him, "Chota Birbal" and "Akbar & Birbal." Salman Rushdie's novel "The Enchantress of Florence "has the character of Birbal. "Akbar Birbal" is a 2014 historical comedy show originally broadcast by Big Magic, it was followed by "Hazir Jawab Birbal" in 2015. "Akbar Ka Bal Birbal" is another historical comedy show about Akbar and Birbal that aired on Star Bharat in 2020.


title: Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex

text: Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, KG, PC (; 10 November 1565 – 25 February 1601) was an English nobleman and a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I. Politically ambitious, and a committed general, he was placed under house arrest following a poor campaign in Ireland during the Nine Years' War in 1599. In 1601, he led an abortive "coup d'état" against the government of Elizabeth I and was executed for treason.


title: Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex

text: Devereux was born on 10 November 1565 at Netherwood near Bromyard, in Herefordshire, the son of Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex, and Lettice Knollys. His maternal great-grandmother Mary Boleyn was a sister of Anne Boleyn, the mother of Queen Elizabeth I, making him a first-cousin-twice-removed of the Queen.


title: Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex

text: He was brought up on his father's estates at Chartley Castle, Staffordshire, and at Lamphey, Pembrokeshire, in Wales. His father died in 1576, and the new Earl of Essex became a ward of Lord William Cecil of Burghley House. In 1577, he was admitted as a fellow-commoner at Trinity College, Cambridge; in 1579, he matriculated; and in 1581 he graduated as a Master of Arts.


title: Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex

text: On 21 September 1578, Essex's mother married Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, Elizabeth I's long-standing favourite and Robert Devereux's godfather.


title: Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex

text: Essex performed military service under his stepfather in the Netherlands, before making an impact at court and winning the Queen's favour. In 1590, he married Frances Walsingham, daughter of Sir Francis Walsingham and widow of Sir Philip Sidney, by whom he had several children, three of whom survived into adulthood. Elizabeth was against the marriage. Sidney, who was Leicester's nephew, had died from an infected gun wound in 1586, 31 days after his participation in the Battle of Zutphen in which Essex had also distinguished himself. In October 1591, Essex's mistress, Elizabeth Southwell, gave birth to their son Walter Devereux (died 1641).


title: Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex

text: Devereux first came to court in 1584, and by 1587 had become a favourite of the Queen, who relished his lively mind and eloquence, as well as his skills as a showman and in courtly love. In June 1587 he replaced the Earl of Leicester as Master of the Horse. After Leicester's death in 1588, the Queen transferred the late Earl's royal monopoly on sweet wines to Essex, providing him with revenue from taxes. In 1593, he was made a member of her Privy Council.


title: Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex

text: It is reported that his friend and confidant Francis Bacon warned him to avoid offending the Queen by attempting to gain power and underestimating her ability to rule and wield power.


title: Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex

text: Essex underestimated the Queen, however, and his later behaviour towards her lacked due respect and showed disdain for the influence of her principal secretary, Robert Cecil. On one occasion during a heated Privy Council debate on the problems in Ireland, the Queen reportedly cuffed an insolent Essex round the ear, prompting him to half draw his sword on her.


title: Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex

text: In 1589, he took part in Francis Drake's English Armada, which sailed to Spain in an unsuccessful attempt to press home the English advantage following the defeat of the Spanish Armada, although the Queen had ordered him not to take part. The English Armada was defeated with 40 ships sunk and 15,000 men lost. In 1591, he was given command of a force sent to the assistance of King Henry IV of France. In 1596, he distinguished himself by the capture of Cádiz. During the Islands Voyage expedition to the Azores in 1597, with Walter Raleigh as his second-in-command, he defied the Queen's orders, pursuing the Spanish treasure fleet without first defeating the Spanish battle fleet.


title: Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex

text: When the 3rd Spanish Armada first appeared off the English coast in October 1597, the English fleet was far out to sea, with the coast almost undefended, and panic ensued. This further damaged the relationship between the Queen and Essex, even though he was initially given full command of the English fleet when he reached England a few days later. Fortunately, a storm dispersed the Spanish fleet. A number of ships were captured by the English and though there were a few landings, the Spanish withdrew.


title: Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex

text: Essex's greatest failure was as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, a post which he talked himself into in 1599. The Nine Years' War (1595–1603) was in its middle stages, and no English commander had been successful. More military force was required to defeat the Irish chieftains, led by Hugh O'Neill, the Earl of Tyrone, and supplied from Spain and Scotland.


title: Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex

text: Essex led the largest expeditionary force ever sent to Ireland—16,000 troops—with orders to put an end to the rebellion. He departed London to the cheers of the Queen's subjects, and it was expected the rebellion would be crushed instantly, but the limits of Crown resources and of the Irish campaigning season dictated otherwise.


title: Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex

text: Essex had declared to the Privy Council that he would confront O'Neill in Ulster. Instead, he led his army into southern Ireland, where he fought a series of inconclusive engagements, wasted his funds, and dispersed his army into garrisons, while the Irish won two important battles in other parts of the country. Rather than face O'Neill in battle, Essex entered a truce that some considered humiliating to the Crown and to the detriment of English authority. The Queen herself told Essex that if she had wished to abandon Ireland it would scarcely have been necessary to send him there.


title: Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex

text: In all of his campaigns, Essex secured the loyalty of his officers by conferring knighthoods, an honour the Queen herself dispensed sparingly, and by the end of his time in Ireland more than half the knights in England owed their rank to him. The rebels were said to have joked that, "he never drew sword but to make knights," but his practice of conferring knighthoods could in time enable Essex to challenge the powerful factions at Cecil's command.


title: Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex

text: He was the second Chancellor of the University of Dublin, serving from 1598 to 1601. He was educated at Trinity College Dublin.


title: Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex

text: Relying on his general warrant to return to England, given under the great seal, Essex sailed from Ireland on 24 September 1599 and reached London four days later. The Queen had expressly forbidden his return and was surprised when he presented himself in her bedchamber one morning at Nonsuch Palace, before she was properly wigged or gowned. On that day, the Privy Council met three times, and it seemed his disobedience might go unpunished, although the Queen did confine him to his rooms with the comment that "an unruly beast must be stopped of his provender."


title: Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex

text: Essex appeared before the full Council on 29 September, when he was compelled to stand before the council during a five-hour interrogation. The Council—his uncle William Knollys, 1st Earl of Banbury included—took a quarter of an hour to compile a report, which declared that his truce with O'Neill was indefensible and his flight from Ireland tantamount to the desertion of duty. He was committed to the custody of Sir Richard Berkeley in his own York House on 1 October, and he blamed Cecil and Raleigh for the queen's hostility. Raleigh advised Cecil to see to it that Essex did not recover power, and Essex appeared to heed advice to retire from public life, despite his popularity with the public.


title: Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex

text: During his confinement at York House, Essex probably communicated with King James VI of Scotland through Lord Mountjoy, although any plans he may have had at that time to help the Scots king capture the English throne came to nothing. In October, Mountjoy was appointed to replace him in Ireland, and matters seemed to look up for the Earl. In November, the queen was reported to have said that the truce with O'Neill was "so seasonably made... as great good... has grown by it." Others in the council were willing to justify Essex's return from Ireland, on the grounds of the urgent necessity of a briefing by the commander-in-chief.


title: Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex

text: Cecil kept up the pressure and, on 5 June 1600, Essex was tried before a commission of 18 men. He had to hear the charges and evidence on his knees. Essex was convicted, deprived of public office, and returned to virtual confinement.


title: Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex

text: In August, his freedom was granted, but the source of his basic income—the sweet wines monopoly—was not renewed. His situation had become desperate, and he shifted "from sorrow and repentance to rage and rebellion." In early 1601, he began to fortify Essex House, his town mansion on the Strand, and gathered his followers. On the morning of 8 February, he marched out of Essex House with a party of nobles and gentlemen (some later involved in the 1605 Gunpowder Plot) and entered the city of London in an attempt to force an audience with the Queen. Cecil immediately had him proclaimed a traitor. A force under Sir John Leveson placed a barrier across the street at Ludgate Hill. When Essex's men tried to force their way through, Essex's stepfather, Sir Christopher Blount, was injured in the resulting skirmish, and Essex withdrew with his men to Essex House. Essex surrendered after Crown forces besieged Essex House.


title: Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex

text: On 19 February 1601, Essex was tried before his peers on charges of treason. Quoting from "State Trials" (compiled by T. B. Howell and T. J. Howell, 33 vols., London, 1809–26, vol. I, pp. 1334-1360), Laura Hanes Cadwallader summarised the indictment:


title: Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex

text: The indictment charged Essex with "conspiring and imagining at London, . . . to depose and slay the Queen, and to subvert the Government." It also stated that Essex had "endeavoured to raise himself to the Crown of England, and usurp the royal dignity," and that in order to fulfill these intentions, he and others "rose and assembled themselves in open rebellion, and moved and persuaded many of the citizens of London to join them in their treason, and endeavoured to get the City of London into their possession and power, and wounded and killed many of the Queen's subjects then and there assembled for the purpose of quelling such rebellion." Essex was charged also with holding the Lord Keeper and the other Privy Councillors in custody "for four hours and more."


title: Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex

text: Part of the evidence showed that he was in favour of toleration of religious dissent. In his own evidence, he countered the charge of dealing with Catholics, swearing that "papists have been hired and suborned to witness against me." Essex also asserted that Cecil had stated that none in the world but the Infanta of Spain had right to the Crown of England, whereupon Cecil (who had been following the trial at a doorway concealed behind some tapestry) stepped out to make a dramatic denial, going down on his knees to give thanks to God for the opportunity. The witness whom Essex expected to confirm this allegation, his uncle William Knollys, was called and admitted there had once been read in Cecil's presence a book treating such matters. The book may have been either "The book of succession" supposedly by R. Doleman but probably by Robert Persons or Persons' "A Conference about the Next Succession to the Crown of England", works which favoured a Catholic successor friendly to Spain. Knollys denied hearing Cecil make the statement. Thanking God again, Cecil expressed his gratitude that Essex was exposed as a traitor while he himself was found an honest man.


title: Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex

text: Essex was found guilty and, on 25 February 1601, was beheaded on Tower Green, the last person to be beheaded in the Tower of London. It was reported to have taken three strokes by the executioner Thomas Derrick to complete the beheading. Previously Thomas Derrick had been convicted of rape but had been pardoned by the Earl of Essex himself (clearing him of the death penalty) on the condition that he become an executioner at Tyburn. At Sir Walter Raleigh's own execution on 29 October 1618, it was alleged that Raleigh had said to a co-conspirator, "Do not, as my Lord Essex did, take heed of a preacher. By his persuasion, he confessed, and made himself guilty." In that same trial, Raleigh also denied that he had stood at a window during the execution of Essex's sentence, disdainfully puffing out tobacco smoke in sight of the condemned man. Essex in the end shocked many by denouncing his sister Penelope, Lady Rich as his co-conspirator: the Queen, who was determined to show as much clemency as possible, ignored the charge.


title: Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex

text: Some days before the execution, Captain Thomas Lee was apprehended as he kept watch on the door to the Queen's chambers. His plan had been to confine her until she signed a warrant for the release of Essex. Captain Lee, who had served in Ireland with the Earl, and who acted as a go-between with the Ulster rebels, was tried and put to death the next day.


title: Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex

text: Essex's conviction for treason meant that the earldom was forfeit and his son did not inherit the title. However, after the Queen's death, King James I of England reinstated the earldom in favour of the disinherited son, Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex.


title: Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex

text: There is a widely repeated romantic legend about a ring given by Elizabeth to Essex. There is a possible reference to the legend by John Webster in his 1623 play "The Devil's Law Case" suggesting that it was known at this time, but the first printed version of it is in the 1695 romantic novel "The Secret History of the most renowned Queen Elizabeth and the Earl of Essex, by a Person of Quality". The version given by David Hume in his "History of England" says that Elizabeth had given Essex a ring after the expedition to Cadiz that he should send to her if he was in trouble. After his trial, he tried to send the ring to Elizabeth via the Countess of Nottingham, but the countess kept the ring as her husband was an enemy of Essex, as a result of which Essex was executed. On her deathbed, the countess is said to have confessed this to Elizabeth, who angrily replied: "May God forgive you, Madam, but I never can". The Queen's Diamond Jubilee Galleries in Westminster Abbey possess a gold ring which is claimed to be this one.


title: Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex

text: Some historians consider this story of the ring to be a myth, partly because there are no contemporaneous accounts of it. John Lingard in his history of England says the story appears to be fiction, Lytton Strachey states "Such a narrative is appropriate enough to the place where it was first fully elaborated — a sentimental novelette, but it does not belong to history", and Alison Weir calls it a fabrication.


title: Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex

text: Nevertheless, this version of the story forms the basis of the plot of Gaetano Donizetti's opera "Roberto Devereux", with a further twist added to the story, in that Essex is cheating on both the Queen and his best friend by having an affair with Lady Nottingham (who in the opera is given the wrong first name of Sarah rather than Catherine): and that this turns out to be (a) the reason why Lord Nottingham turns against his now former friend, when he discovers the ring in question and prevents her sending it, and (b) is the ultimate reason for Queen Elizabeth withdrawing her support for Essex at his trial. The actual question of Devereux's genuine guilt or innocence is sidelined (as is his actual failed rebellion), and the trial is presented as effectively a Parliamentary witch-hunt led by Cecil and Raleigh.


title: Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex

text: Like many other Elizabethan aristocrats Essex was a competent lyric poet, who also participated in court entertainments. He engaged in literary as well as political feuds with his principal enemies, including Walter Raleigh. His poem "" attacks Raleigh's influence over the queen.


title: Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex

text: Other lyrics were written for masques, including the sonnet "" in praise of the queen as the moral power linking Europe and America, who supports "the world oppressed" like the mythical Atlas. During his disgrace, he also wrote several bitter and pessimistic verses. His longest poem, "" (beginning "From silent night..."), is a penitential lament, probably written while imprisoned awaiting execution.


title: Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex

text: Several of Essex's poems were set to music. English composer John Dowland set a poem called "Can she excuse my wrongs with virtue's cloak?" in his 1597 publication "First Booke of Songs": these lyrics have been attributed to Essex, largely on the basis of the dedication of "The Earl of Essex's Galliard", an instrumental version of the same song. Dowland also sets the opening verses of Essex's poem "The Passion of a Discontented Mind" ("From silent night") in his 1612 collection of songs. Orlando Gibbons set lines from the poem in the same year. Settings of Essex's poems "" (set by Richard Martin) and "" (set by Daniel Bacheler) are published in "A Musicall Banquet" (1610), a collection of songs edited by Robert Dowland.


title: Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex

text: Robert Devereux's death and confession became the subject of two popular 17th-century broadside ballads, set to the English folk tunes "Essex Last Goodnight" and "Welladay". Numerous ballads lamenting his death and praising his military feats were also published throughout the 17th century.


title: LGA 1155

text: LGA 1155, also called Socket H2, is a zero insertion force flip-chip land grid array (LGA) CPU socket designed by Intel for their CPUs based on the Sandy Bridge (2nd Gen) and Ivy Bridge (3rd Gen) microarchitectures.


title: LGA 1155

text: It is the successor of LGA 1156 (known as "Socket H") and was itself succeeded by LGA 1150 in 2013. Along with selected variations of LGA 2011 socket, it was the last Intel socket to fully support Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2008.


title: LGA 1155

text: LGA 1155 has 1155 protruding pins to make contact with the pads on the processor. The pins are arranged in a 40×40 array with a 24×16 central void and additional 61 omitted pins (two adjoining the central void, six in each of the four corners, and 35 in groups around the perimeter), yielding the 1600 − 384 − 61 = 1155 pin count. Processors for LGA 1155 and LGA 1156 sockets are not compatible with each other since they have different socket notches.


title: LGA 1155

text: The 4 holes for fastening the heatsink to the motherboard are placed in a square with a lateral length of 75mm for Intel's sockets LGA 1156, LGA 1155, LGA 1150, LGA 1151 and LGA 1200. Cooling solutions should therefore be interchangeable.


title: LGA 1155

text: Cooling systems are compatible between LGA 1155 and LGA 1156 sockets, as the processors have the same dimensions, profile and construction, and similar levels of heat production.


title: LGA 1155

text: Sandy Bridge chipsets, except B65, Q65 and Q67, support both Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge CPUs through a BIOS upgrade. Sandy Bridge based processors officially support up to DDR3-1333 memory, however in practice speeds up to DDR3-2133 have been tested to work successfully.


title: LGA 1155

text: The H61 chipset only supports one double-sided DIMM Memory module (RAM module) per memory-channel and therefore is limited to 16GB instead of the 32GB like the others support. On H61-based motherboards with four DIMM slots, only four single-sided DIMMs can be installed.


title: LGA 1155

text: All Ivy Bridge chipsets and motherboards support both Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge CPUs. Ivy Bridge based processors will officially support up to DDR3-1600, up from DDR3-1333 of Sandy Bridge. Some consumer Ivy Bridge chipsets will also allow overclocking of K-series processors.


title: LGA 1155

text: A PCGHX user wrote an article on the website describing how to take UEFI modules from some Z97 motherboards and use them with an Z77-motherboard to make the latter support booting from an SSD using the NVM Express protocol, instead of the AHCI protocol. That article claims, the Z97 motherboards were the first to officially and fully support the NVMe protocol.


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: Nancy Witcher Langhorne Astor, Viscountess Astor, (19 May 1879 – 2 May 1964) was an American-born British politician who was the first woman seated as a Member of Parliament (MP), serving from 1919 to 1945.


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: Astor's first husband was American Robert Gould Shaw II; the couple separated after four years and divorced in 1903. She moved to England and married Waldorf Astor. After her husband succeeded to the peerage and entered the House of Lords, she entered politics as a member of the Conservative Party and won his former seat of Plymouth Sutton in 1919, becoming the first woman to sit as an MP in the House of Commons. She served in Parliament until 1945, when she was persuaded to step down. Astor has been criticised for her antisemitism and sympathetic view of Nazism.


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: Nancy Witcher Langhorne was born at the Langhorne House in Danville, Virginia. She was the eighth of eleven children born to railroad businessman Chiswell Dabney Langhorne and Nancy Witcher Keene. Following the abolition of slavery, Chiswell struggled to make his operations profitable, and with the destruction of the war, the family lived in near-poverty for several years before Nancy was born. After her birth, her father gained a job as a tobacco auctioneer in Danville, the centre of bright leaf tobacco and a major marketing and processing centre.


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: In 1874, he won a construction contract with the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad, using former contacts from his service in the Civil War. By 1892, when Nancy was thirteen years old, her father had re-established his wealth and built a sizeable home. Chiswell Langhorne later moved his family to an estate, known as "Mirador", in Albemarle County, Virginia.


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: Nancy Langhorne had four sisters and three brothers who survived childhood. All of the sisters were known for their beauty; Nancy and her sister Irene both attended a finishing school in New York City. There Nancy met her first husband, socialite Robert Gould Shaw II, a first cousin of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, who commanded the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, the first unit in the Union Army to be composed of African Americans. They married in New York City on 27 October 1897, when she was 18.


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: The marriage was unhappy. Shaw's friends said Nancy became puritanical and rigid after marriage; her friends said that Shaw was an abusive alcoholic. During their four-year marriage, they had one son, Robert Gould Shaw III (called Bobbie). Nancy left Shaw numerous times during their marriage, the first during their honeymoon. In 1903, Nancy's mother died; at that time, Nancy Shaw gained a divorce and moved back to "Mirador" to try to run her father's household, but was unsuccessful.


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: Nancy Shaw took a tour of England and fell in love with the country. Since she had been so happy there, her father suggested that she move to England. Seeing she was reluctant, her father said this was also her mother's wish; he suggested she take her younger sister Phyllis. Nancy and Phyllis moved together to England in 1905. Their older sister Irene had married the artist Charles Dana Gibson and became a model for his Gibson Girls.


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: Nancy Shaw had already become known in English society as an interesting and witty American, at a time when numerous wealthy young American women had married into the aristocracy. Her tendency to be saucy in conversation, yet religiously devout and almost prudish in behaviour, confused many of the English men but pleased some of the older socialites. Nancy also began to show her skill at winning over critics. She was once asked by an English woman, "Have you come to get our husbands?" Her unexpected response, "If you knew the trouble I had getting rid of mine..." charmed her listeners and displayed the wit for which she became known.


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: The Astors also owned a grand London house, No. 4 St. James's Square, now the premises of the Naval & Military Club. A blue plaque unveiled in 1987 commemorates Astor at St. James's Square. Through her many social connections, Lady Astor became involved in a political circle called Milner's Kindergarten. Considered liberal in their age, the group advocated unity and equality among English-speaking people and a continuance or expansion of the British Empire.


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: With Milner's Kindergarten, Astor began her association with Philip Kerr. The friendship became important in her religious life; they met shortly after Kerr had suffered a spiritual crisis regarding his once devout Catholicism. They were attracted to Christian Science, to which they both eventually converted. After converting, she began to proselytise for that faith and played a role in Kerr's conversion to it. She also tried to convert Hilaire Belloc's daughters to Christian Science, which led to a rift between them.


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: Despite having Catholic friends such as Belloc for a time, Astor had religious views that included a strong vein of anti-Catholicism. Christopher Sykes argues that Kerr, an ex-Catholic, influenced this, but others argue that Astor's Protestant Virginia origins are a sufficient explanation for her Anti-Catholic views. (Anti-Catholicism was also tied to historic national rivalries.)


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: She attempted to discourage the hiring of Jews or Catholics to senior positions at "The Observer", a newspaper owned by her husband. In 1927, she reportedly told James Louis Garvin that if he hired a Catholic, "bishops would be there within a week."


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: Several elements of Viscountess Astor's life influenced her first campaign, but she became a candidate after her husband succeeded to the peerage and House of Lords. He had enjoyed a promising political career for several years before World War I in the House of Commons; after his father's death, he succeeded to his father's peerage as the 2nd Viscount Astor. He automatically became a member of the House of Lords and consequently had to forfeit his seat of Plymouth Sutton in the House of Commons. With this change, Lady Astor decided to contest the by-election for the vacant Parliamentary seat.


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: Astor had not been connected with the women's suffrage movement in the British Isles. The first woman elected to the British Parliament, Constance Markievicz, said Lady Astor was "of the upper classes, out of touch". Countess Markiewicz had been in Holloway prison for Sinn Féin activities during her election, and other suffragettes had been imprisoned for arson. However, as Astor was met as she arrived at Paddington station on the day after her election by a crowd of suffragettes, including unnamed women who had been imprisoned and on hunger strike, one said, "This is the beginning of our era. I am glad to have suffered for this."


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: Astor was hampered in the popular campaign for her published and at times vocal teetotalism and her ignorance of current political issues. Astor appealed to voters on the basis of her earlier work with the Canadian soldiers, allies of the British, charitable work during the war, her financial resources for the campaign and her ability to improvise. Her audiences appreciated her wit and ability to turn the tables on hecklers. Once a man asked her what the Astors had done for him and she responded with, "Why, Charlie, you know," and later had a picture taken with him. This informal style baffled yet amused the British public. She rallied the supporters of the current government, moderated her Prohibition views, and used women's meetings to gain the support of female voters. A by-election was held on 28 November 1919, and she took up her seat in the House on 1 December as a Unionist (also known as "Tory") Member of Parliament.


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: Viscountess Astor was not the first woman elected to the Westminster Parliament. That was achieved by Constance Markievicz, who was the first woman MP elected to Westminster in 1918, but as she was an Irish Republican, she did not take her seat. As a result, Lady Astor is sometimes erroneously referred to as the first woman MP, or the first woman elected to the U.K. Parliament, rather than the first woman MP to take her seat in Parliament.


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: Astor was the first woman to be elected through what has been termed the 'halo effect' of women taking over their husband's parliamentary seat, a process which accounted for the election of ten women MPs (nearly a third of the women elected to parliament) between the two world wars.


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: Astor's Parliamentary career was the most public phase of her life. She gained attention as a woman and as someone who did not follow the rules, often attributed to her American upbringing. On her first day in the House of Commons, she was called to order for chatting with a fellow House member, not realising that she was the person who was causing the commotion. She learned to dress more sedately and avoided the bars and smoking rooms frequented by the men.


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: Early in her first term, MP Horatio Bottomley wanted to dominate the "soldier's friend" issue and, believing her to be an obstacle, sought to ruin her political career. He capitalised on her opposition to divorce reform and her efforts to maintain wartime alcohol restrictions. Bottomley portrayed her as a hypocrite, as she was divorced. He said that the reform bill that she opposed would allow women to have the same kind of divorce she had in America. Bottomley was later imprisoned for fraud, which Astor used to her advantage in other campaigns.


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: Astor made friends among women MPs, including members of the other parties. Margaret Wintringham was elected after Astor had been in office for two years. Astor befriended Ellen Wilkinson, a member of the Labour Party (and a former Communist). Astor later proposed creating a "Women's Party", but the female Labour MPs opposed that, as their party was then in office and had promised them positions. Over time, political differences separated the women MPs; by 1931 Astor became hostile to female Labour members such as Susan Lawrence.


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: Nancy Astor's accomplishments in the House of Commons were relatively minor. She never held a position with much influence and or any post of ministerial rank although her time in Commons saw four Conservative Prime Ministers in office. The Duchess of Atholl (elected to Parliament in 1923, four years after Lady Astor) rose to higher levels in the Conservative Party before Astor. Astor felt if she had more position in the party, she would be less free to criticise her party's government.


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: During this period, Nancy Astor continued to be active outside government by supporting the development and expansion of nursery schools for children's education. She was introduced to the issue by socialist Margaret McMillan, who believed that her late sister helped guide her in life. Lady Astor was initially skeptical of that aspect, but the two women later became close. Astor used her wealth to aid their social efforts.


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: Although active in charitable efforts, Astor became noted for a streak of cruelty. On hearing of the death of a political enemy, she expressed her pleasure. When people complained, she did not apologise but said, "I'm a Virginian; we shoot to kill." Angus McDonnell, a Virginia friend, angered her by marrying without consulting her on his choice. She later told him, regarding his maiden speech, that he "really must do better than that." During the course of her adult life, Astor alienated many with her sharp words as well.


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: During the 1920s, Astor made several effective speeches in Parliament, and gained support for her Intoxicating Liquor (Sale to Persons under 18) Bill (nicknamed "Lady Astor's Bill"), raising the legal age for consuming alcohol in a public house from 14 to 18. Her wealth and persona brought attention to women who were serving in government. She worked to recruit women into the civil service, the police force, education reform, and the House of Lords. She was well-liked in her constituency, as well as the United States during the 1920s, but her success is generally believed to have declined in the following decades.


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: In May 1922, Astor was guest of honour at a Pan-American conference held by the League of Women Voters in Baltimore, Maryland.


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: She chaired the first ever International Conference of Women In Science, Industry and Commerce, a three-day event held London in July 1925, organised by Caroline Haslett for the Women's Engineering Society in co-operation with other leading women's groups. Astor hosted a large gathering at her home in St James's to enable networking amongst the international delegates, and spoke strongly of her support of and the need for women to work in the fields of science, engineering and technology.


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: She was concerned about the treatment of juvenile victims of crime: "The work of new MPs, such as Nancy Astor, led to a Departmental Committee on Sexual Offences Against Young People, which reported in 1925."


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: The 1930s were a decade of personal and professional difficulty for Lady Astor. In 1929, she won a narrow victory over the Labour candidate. In 1931, Bobby Shaw, her son from her first marriage, was arrested for homosexual offences. As her son had previously shown tendencies towards alcoholism and instability, Astor's friend Philip Kerr, now the 11th Marquess of Lothian, suggested the arrest might act as a catalyst for him to change his behaviour, but he was incorrect.


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: Astor made a disastrous speech stating that alcohol use was the reason for England's national cricket team being defeated by the Australian national cricket team. Both the English and Australian teams objected to that statement. Astor remained oblivious to her growing unpopularity almost to the end of her career.


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: Astor's friendship with George Bernard Shaw helped her through some of her problems although his own nonconformity caused friction between them. They held opposing political views and had very different temperaments. However, his own tendency to make controversial statements or put her into awkward situations proved to be a drawback for her political career.


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: After Bobby Shaw was arrested, Gertrude Ely, a Pennsylvania Railroad heiress from Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania offered to provide a guided tour to Moscow for Lady Astor and Bobby. Because of public comments by her and her son during this period, her political career suffered. Her son made many flattering statements about the Soviet Union, and Astor often disparaged it because she did not approve of communism. In a meeting, she asked Joseph Stalin directly why he had slaughtered so many Russians, but many of her criticisms were translated as less challenging statements. Some of her conservative supporters feared she had "gone soft" on communism; her question to Stalin may have been translated correctly only because he insisted of being told what she had said. The Conservatives felt that her son's praise of the Soviet Union served as a coup for its propaganda and so they were unhappy with her tour.


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: Astor was reportedly a supporter of the Nazis as a solution to what she saw as the "world problems" of Jews and communists. In 1938, she met Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., who was a well-documented antisemite. She asked him not to take offence at her anti-Catholic views and wrote, "I'm glad you are smart enough not to take my [views] personally". She highlighted the fact that she had a number of Catholic friends. Astor and Kennedy's correspondence is reportedly filled with antisemitic language, and Edward J. Renehan Jr. wrote:


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: As fiercely anti-Communist as they were anti-Semitic, Kennedy and Astor looked upon Adolf Hitler as a welcome solution to both of these "world problems" (Nancy's phrase). ... Kennedy replied that he expected the "Jew media" in the United States to become a problem, that "Jewish pundits in New York and Los Angeles" were already making noises contrived to "set a match to the fuse of the world".


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: Astor commented to Kennedy that Hitler would have to do worse than "give a rough time... to the killers of christ" for Britain and America to risk "Armageddon to save them. The wheel of history swings round as the Lord would have it. Who are we to stand in the way of the future?" Astor made various other documented anti-Semitic comments, such as her complaint that the "Observer" newspaper, which was owned at the time by her husband, was "full of homosexuals and Jews", and her tense antisemitic exchange with MP Alan Graham in 1938, as described by Harold Nicolson:


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: David Feldman of the Pears Institute for the Study of Anti-Semitism has also related that whilst attending a dinner at the Savoy Hotel in 1934, Astor asked the League of Nations' High Commissioner for Refugees whether he believed "that there must be something in the Jews themselves that had brought them persecution throughout the ages". Dr Feldman acknowledged, however, that it was "not an unusual view" and explained it "was a conventional idea in the UK at the time". Some years later, during a visit to New York in 1947, she apparently "clashed" with reporters, renouncing her anti-Semitism, telling one that she was "not anti-Jewish but gangsterism isn't going to solve the Palestine problem".


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: Astor was also deeply involved in the so-called Cliveden Set, a coterie of aristocrats that was described by one journalist as having subscribed to their own form of fascism. In that capacity, Astor was considered a "legendary hostess" for the group that in 1936 welcomed Hitler's foreign minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, who communicated to Hitler regarding the likelihood of an agreement between Germany and England and singled out the "Astorgruppe" as one of the circles "that want a fresh understanding with Germany and who hold that it would not basically be impossible to achieve". The Sunday newspaper "Reynolds News", also reported, "Cliveden has been the centre of friendship with German influence". To that end, several of her friends and associates, especially the Marquess of Lothian, were involved in the policy of appeasement of Nazi Germany. Astor, however, was worried that the group might be viewed as a pro-German conspiracy, and her husband, William Waldorf Astor, wrote in a letter to the "Times", "To link our weekends with any particular clique is as absurd as is the allegation that those of us who desire to establish better relations with Germany or Italy are pro-Nazis or pro-Fascists". The Cliveden Set was also depicted by war agitators as the prime movers for peace.


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: At the request of her friend Felix Frankfurter, a future US Supreme Court justice who was Jewish, Astor intervened with the Nazis in Vienna and secured the release of Frankfurter's Jewish uncle, Solomon. Astor occasionally met with Nazi officials in keeping with Neville Chamberlain's policies, and she was known to distrust and to dislike British Foreign Secretary (later Prime Minister) Anthony Eden. She is alleged to have told one Nazi official that she supported German rearmament because the country was "surrounded by Catholics". She also told Ribbentrop, the German ambassador, who later became the foreign minister of Germany, that Hitler looked too much like Charlie Chaplin to be taken seriously. Those statements are the only documented incidents of her direct expressions to Nazis.


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: Astor became increasingly harsh in her anti-Catholic and anti-communist sentiments. After the passage of the Munich Agreement, she said that if the Czech refugees fleeing Nazi oppression were communists, they should seek asylum with the Soviets, instead of the British. While supporters of appeasement felt that to be out of line, the Marquess of Lothian encouraged her comments.


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: When World War II began, Astor admitted that she had made mistakes, and voted against Chamberlain, but left-wing hostility to her politics remained. In a 1939 speech, the Labour MP Stafford Cripps called her "The Member for Berlin".


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: Astor's fear of Catholics increased and she made a speech saying that a Catholic conspiracy was subverting the Foreign Office. Based on her opposition to Communists, she insulted Stalin's role (from 1941) as one of the Allied Powers during the war. Her speeches became rambling and incomprehensible; an opponent said that debating her had become "like playing squash with a dish of scrambled eggs". On one occasion she accosted a young American soldier outside the Houses of Parliament. "Would you like to go in?" she asked. The GI replied: "You are the sort of woman my mother told me to avoid".


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: The period from 1937 to the end of the war was personally difficult for Astor: in January of that year she lost her sister Phyllis, followed by her only surviving brother in 1938. In 1940, the Marquess of Lothian died. He had been her closest Christian Scientist friend even after her husband converted. George Bernard Shaw's wife died three years later. During the war, Astor's husband had a heart attack. After this, their marriage grew cold, likely due to her subsequent discomfort with his health problems. She ran a hospital for Canadian soldiers as she had during the First World War, but openly expressed a preference for the earlier soldiers.


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: It was generally believed that it was Lady Astor who, during a World War II speech, first referred to the men of the 8th Army who were fighting in the Italian campaign as the "D-Day Dodgers". Observers thought she was suggesting they were avoiding the "real war" in France and the future invasion. The Allied soldiers in Italy were so incensed that Major Hamish Henderson of the 51st Highland Division composed a bitingly sarcastic song to the tune of the popular German song "Lili Marleen", called "The Ballad of the D-Day Dodgers". This song has also been attributed to Lance-Sergeant Harry Pynn of the Tank Rescue Section, 19 Army Fire Brigade.


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: When told she was one of the people listed to be arrested, imprisoned and face possible execution in "The Black Book" under a German invasion of Britain, Lady Astor commented: "It is the complete answer to the terrible lie that the so-called 'Cliveden Set' was pro-Fascist."


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: Lady Astor believed her party and her husband caused her retirement in 1945. As the Conservatives believed she had become a political liability in the final years of World War II, her husband said that if she stood for office again the family would not support her. She conceded but, according to contemporary reports, was both irritated and angry about her situation.


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: Lady Astor struggled in retirement, which put further strain on her marriage. In a speech commemorating her 25 years in parliament, she stated that her retirement was forced on her and that it should please the men of Britain. The couple began travelling separately and soon were living apart. Lord Astor also began moving towards left-wing politics in his last years, and that exacerbated their differences. However, the couple reconciled before his death on 30 September 1952.


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: Lady Astor's public image suffered, as her ethnic and religious views were increasingly out of touch with cultural changes in Britain. She expressed a growing paranoia regarding ethnic minorities. In one instance, she stated that the President of the United States had become too dependent on New York City. To her this city represented "Jewish and foreign" influences that she feared. During a US tour, she told a group of African-American students that they should aspire to be like the black servants she remembered from her youth. On a later trip, she told African-American church members that they should be grateful for slavery because it had allowed them to be introduced to Christianity. In Rhodesia she proudly told the white minority government leaders that she was the daughter of a slave owner.


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: After 1956, Nancy Astor became increasingly isolated. In 1959, she was honoured by receiving the Freedom of City of Plymouth. By this time, she had lost all her sisters and brothers, her colleague "Red Ellen" Wilkinson died in 1947, George Bernard Shaw died in 1950, and she did not take well to widowhood. Her son Bobbie Shaw became increasingly combative and after her death he committed suicide. Her son, Jakie, married a prominent Catholic woman, which hurt his relationship with his mother. She and her other children became estranged. Gradually she began to accept Catholics as friends. However, she said that her final years were lonely.


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: Lady Astor died in 1964 at her daughter Nancy Astor's home at Grimsthorpe Castle in Lincolnshire. She was cremated and her ashes interred at the Octagon Temple at Cliveden.


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: She was known for exchanges with Winston Churchill, though most of these are not well documented. Churchill told Lady Astor that having a woman in Parliament was like having one intrude on him in the bathroom, to which she retorted, "You're not handsome enough to have such fears."


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: Lady Astor is also said to have responded to a question from Churchill about what disguise he should wear to a masquerade ball by saying, "Why don't you come sober, Prime Minister?"


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: Although variations on the following anecdote exist with different people, the story is being told of Winston Churchill's encounter with Lady Astor who, after failing to shake him in an argument, broke off with the petulant remark, "Oh, if you were my husband, I'd put poison in your tea." "Madame," Winston responded, "if I were your husband, I'd drink it with pleasure."


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: On another occasion, Lady Astor allegedly came upon Churchill, and he was highly intoxicated. She highly disapproved of alcohol, and she said to him "Winston, you're drunk!" To which he replied "And you are ugly. However, when I wake up tomorrow, I shall be sober, and you will still be ugly!"


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: In 1982 the BBC broadcast a nine-part television drama serial about her life, "Nancy Astor", which starred Lisa Harrow. A bronze statue of Lady Astor was installed in Plymouth, near her former family home, in 2019 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of her election to Parliament.


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: Astor's antisemitism has been widely documented and has been criticised in recent years, particularly in light of former Prime Minister Theresa May's 2019 unveiling of a statue in her honour with Prime Minister Boris Johnson in attendance, and more recently after Labour MP Rachel Reeves commemorated Astor in a series of tweets. The then-leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, while opposed to her anti-semitism, recognised she was the first woman MP to take up her place in Parliament and so praised installation of the statue, commenting "I'm really pleased the statue is going up".


title: Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

text: During the George Floyd protests in 2020, the word "Nazi" was spray-painted on its base. The statue was on a list published on a website called "Topple the Racists".


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: The Somali Civil War (2009–present) is a phase of the Somali Civil War which is concentrated in southern and central Somalia. It began in late January 2009 with the conflict mainly between the forces of the Federal Government of Somalia assisted by African Union peacekeeping troops and Al-Qaeda aligned Al-Shabaab militants.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: The conflict began in January 2009 when Ethiopian troops withdrew from Somalia, providing Al-Shabaab with a power vacuum in the country in which to expand. The Islamists achieved arguably their largest success to date with the capture of Baidoa, the interim capital of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG). Al-Shabaab continued the conflict against the TFG and AMISOM throughout 2010, enjoying greater success when fighting the government forces. Local support for the organisation continued to grow, helped in part by the relatively successful law enforcement and justice system introduced in areas governed by Al-Shabaab.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: The Kenyan invasion of southern Somalia, Operation Linda Nchi, began in October 2011. The Kenyan government had become concerned by the growing refugee crisis and instability along its porous northern border, and intended to create a buffer-zone to prevent over-spill of the conflict into Kenyan territory. Al-Shabaab came under increasing pressure from the Kenyan intervention, which joined TFG and AMISOM troops in attacking the group. This combination challenged Al-Shabaab’s position in the south and drove the Islamists from the important port city of Kismayo. Somalia suffered a severe famine during 2011, further weakening Al-Shabaab.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: Despite the growing challenges, Al-Shabaab still controls large swarths of territory in southern Somalia. It remains influential in many rural areas, and it now prioritizes guerrilla and terror attacks over territorial acquisitions. The Islamic State in Somalia (ISS) and Hizbul Islam, have also carried out attacks against both factions. In 2013 Hizbul Islam renounced violence against the government, but as of 2022, ISS remains active in northern Somalia.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: Established in 2004 and internationally recognized, the Transitional Federal Government's (TFG) support in Somalia was waning until the United States-backed 2006 intervention by the Ethiopian military, which helped drive out the rival Islamic Courts Union (ICU) in Mogadishu and solidify the TFG's rule. Following this defeat, the ICU splintered into several different factions. Some of the more radical elements, including al-Shabaab, regrouped to continue their insurgency against the TFG and oppose the Ethiopian military's presence in Somalia. Throughout 2007 and 2008, al-Shabaab scored military victories, seizing control of key towns and ports in both central and southern Somalia. At the end of 2008, the group had captured Baidoa but not Mogadishu. By January 2009, al-Shabaab and other militias had managed to force the Ethiopian troops to withdraw from the country, leaving behind an underequipped African Union (AU) peacekeeping force. A power sharing deal ensued between an Islamist splinter group led by Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed's Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia Djibouti faction (ARS-D) and TFG Prime Minister Nur Hassan in Djibouti. Al-Shabaab, which had separated from the moderate Islamists of the insurgency, rejected the peace deal and continued to take territories. It was joined by Hizbul Islam, which is an amalgamation of four Islamist group including the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia – Asmara faction. Another Islamist group, Ahlu Sunnah Waljama'ah, which was allied with the TFG and supported by Ethiopia, continues to attack al-Shabaab and take over towns as well although they have been effective only in the central region of Galguduud, where they ousted al-Shabaab from most of the region.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: After parliament took in 275 officials from the moderate Islamist opposition, ARS leader Sheikh Ahmed was elected TFG President on 31 January 2009. Since then, the al-Shabaab radical Islamists have accused the new TFG President of accepting the secular transitional government and have continued the civil war since he arrived in Mogadishu at the presidential palace in early February 2009.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: Al-Shabaab also vowed to fight the government. On 4 February 2009, four Islamist groups, including Hassan Dahir Aweys' Eritrean branch of the ARS merged and created the group Hisbi Islam, to oppose the new government of Sharif Sheikh Ahmed. New TFG President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed arrived in Mogadishu as a president for the first time on 7 February 2009. The Al-Shabaab and other radical Islamists began firing at the new TFG president hours later. They accused the new President of accepting the secular transitional government.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: On 8 February, heavy fighting broke out in southern Mogadishu. al-Shabaab leader Sheikh Mukhtar Robow (Abu Mansur) met with Sharif Ahmed for peace talks during his visit to Mogadishu, while Omar Iman rejected the president. During these negotiations, Sharif Ahmed said that he would be prepared to enforce Sharia Law in Somalia, which was the radical groups' main demand. However, Sheikh Mukhtar Robow, a former Al-Shabab spokesman, denied having talked to Sharif Ahmed and vowed to continue fighting until his demands for Sharia Law were met. Sheikh Mukhtar Robow warned Nigeria against sending peace keepers to Somalia, as al-Shabaab view the AU peace keepers as occupying forces. An offensive was launched two days later by Al-Shabaab to take the Bakool province. Government officials who had been ousted from Baidoa had been amassing troops in the city of Hudur (Xudur) and planning a major offensive to re-take Baidoa. Islamist forces attacked the province and reached the capital where they started a battle against government forces. In Galmudug, Clan militia took the town of Masagaway from Al-Shabaab, while there was also fighting in Warsheekh.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: The spokesman for Al-Shabaab at the time, Sheikh Mukhtar Robow (Abu Mansur), rebuffed reports from several media outlets that a mutual agreement between him and newly elected president Sharif Ahmed was made. In his 12 February statement, he also added that he had no intention to contact the president on any matters, and that they would continue fighting against foreign troops and what he described as an "apostate" government. Al-Shabaab also vowed war against the new government. On 22 February, a double suicide bomb attack on an AU base in Mogadishu left 11 Burundian soldiers dead and another 15 wounded. Two days later, heavy fighting erupted in the city as TFG and AU forces attempted to retake the city from radical Islamist forces. The fighting lasted for two days and killed 87 people, including: 48 civilians, 15 insurgents and 6 TFG policemen. At the same time as the fighting raged in Mogadishu, Al-Shabaab forces took the town of Hudor, to the north-west, in fighting that killed another 20 people: 10 TFG soldiers, 6 insurgents and 4 civilians. On 28 February, it appeared that Hisbi Islam would sign a ceasefire with the Transitional Federal Government. However, by 1 March, it was clear that no ceasefire would be given, despite President Sharif Ahmed having agreed to proposals for a truce and having offered to accept the implementation of Sharia Law but refused to move troops from civilian areas despite the Islamists doing so. Al-Shabaab announced on 6 May that it would continue the war even if AMISOM withdrew. The Somali government, in turn, later announced an immediate blockade on airstrips and seaports under insurgent control to stop the flow of weapons reaching them.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: On 7 May, a fierce battle for control of Mogadishu started between al-Shabaab and Hizbul Islam against the TFG. Hundreds were killed and injured and tens of thousands were displaced. By 11 May, rebel forces gained the upper hand and made large gains taking over most of the capital. The rebels came close to overthrowing the government before fighting ended on 14 May, new rounds of fighting would last all through August. By 16 May, Al-Shabaab captured the strategic town of Jowhar, which connects Mogadishu with central Somalia. One of the largest battles of the war took place about 3 weeks later on 5 June when Hizbul Islam captured Wabho leaving 50 combatants killed. On 19 June, the transitional parliament speaker Sheikh Adan Mohamed Nuur Madobe asked the international community to send foreign troops to Somalia within the following 24 hours. He stated that the government's power is on the verge of being defeated by Islamist forces in the Somali capital. The Somali cabinet declared a state of emergency, and asked for help from neighboring countries which included Kenya, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Yemen. Ethiopia refused saying intervention needs an international mandate. Al-Shabaab responded by 21 June saying they would fight any foreign troops, and made threats against potential Kenyan intervention.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed declared a state of emergency by 22 June, as a new round of fighting in Mogadishu left 12 dead and 20 injured with hundreds more fleeing the city. The notion of Ethiopian troops intervening in the conflict caused defections by local government administration officials. Areas affected by this included Beledweyne, "El-gal village", and Hiraan. The effects also caused many pro-government Islamic Courts Union officials to resign. In response, TFG forces led by general Muktar Hussein Afrah started military manoeuvers in the East side of Mogadishu. On 6 July, The Amir of al-Shabaab (Sheikh Moktar Ali Zubeyr) gave government forces an ultimatum of 5 days to hand over their weapons which was rejected. At some point, foreign aid to the government was provided in the form of security advisors. On 17 July, two of these advisors (sent by France) were captured by insurgents. The Somali government gave permission for French commandos to launch operations inside Somalia to free the 2 French nationals that were held by Al-Shabaab. France responded on 22 July by sending in warships and helicopters near the ports of Mogadishu and Marka declaring they would undertake military operations to free the two French military advisers who had been captured by insurgents. One of the hostages eventually was able to escape by August 2009, while the other was last seen in a video released in June 2010 asking for assistance. The United States also took up targeting Al-Qaeda members such as "Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan", who was killed along with 6 others in military helicopter raid on 15 September.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: The armed conflict between Hizbul Islam and al-Shabaab began due to a dispute between the faction of the Ras Kamboni Brigades led by Sheikh Ahmed "Madoobe" and al-Shabaab, over a power sharing agreement in Kisimayo. Hizbul Islam and al-Shabaab had made a power sharing agreement for the city, where the power would rotate between the two factions, with each faction controlling the city for periods of six months. However, due to clan politics al-Shabaab refused to let the power rotation take place. This led to internal problems within Hizbul Islam as its ARS-A and JABISO factions, which were aligned with al-Shabaab in Hiran and Mogadishu, refused to support the Ras Kamboni Brigades, while Anole remained neutral. It also led to a split within the Ras Kamboni Brigades, with a faction led by Hizbul Islam's deputy chairman Sheikh Hassan "Turki" refusing to back Ahmad "Madoobe" and instead siding with al-Shabaab. It was reported on 1 October that heavy fighting in Kisimayo had broken out between the two factions, al-Shabaab controlled most of the city with dozens of casualties reported by the afternoon. At least 17 more people were killed in a series of battles overnight on 5 October. Hizbul Islam claimed that they had captured foreign fighters in the battle. The battle eventually ended with a decisive victory for al-Shabaab, which expelled Madbobe's Ras Kamboni Brigade forces from the city.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: Throughout 2009 November, fighting between the two factions continued as the battle lines moved into Southern Somalia, resulting in a decrease in insurgent attacks at Mogadishu targeting government forces (TFG) and their allies (AMISOM). Sheikh Ahmad Madobe's forces were ultimately overpowered by al-Shabaab and its local allies, and forced to withdraw from the Lower Jubba region and most of Southern Somalia. The merger between al-Shabaab and Sheikh Hassan Turki's branch of the Ras Kamboni Brigades occurred early in 2010 (February) with a call for other groups in Hizbul Islam to do the same. Additional battles throughout 2010 were fought between Hizbul Islam and al-Shabaab in central Somalia as fighting moved from the Hiran region to the Bay region, to Lower Shabelle. Hizbul Islam eventually was forced to surrender the Luuq District in Gedo region to al-Shabaab, after which the group announced that it would merge with al-Shabaab. From mid-December al-Shabaab fighters started taking over Hizbul Islam positions. The merge was confirmed on 20 December, when Hizbul Islam Chairman Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys and Sheikh Mohammad Osman Arus, the organisation's official spokesman, surrendered to al-Shabaab and disbanded the organisation.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: Al-Shabaab controlled roughly half the lands claimed by the Somali government at their greatest extent in 2009 July. With the help of allies, government forces slowly started to make gains that would lead to a retake of lost territory through various military operations. An offensive on 20 February 2011 was dubbed by AU Representative Wafula Wamunyinyi as the "Battle of Gashandiga." This offensive involved AMISOM troops destroying a large complex of al-Shabaab trenches, killing six al-Shabaab commanders in Mogadishu. Towards the end of February, disturbances moved into Mogadishu again in the form of one suicide attack and heavy shelling as al-Shabaab fighters attempted to re-take lost territory. This push resulted in the deaths of at least 47 people, rebels displayed one wounded and five dead Burundian AMISOM soldiers. Another offensive was opened up between 26 February and 28 February by TFG troops with support of Ethiopian soldiers in Bula Hawo (southern Somalia), resulting in 33 deaths.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: By 5 March, AMISOM and TFG forces claimed to control seven of the city's districts, while six were contested and three were controlled by anti-government forces. Al-Shabaab responded to the government offensive by putting up roadblocks to prevent the movement of goods from the seaport. This adversely affected both sides of the conflict, as the TFG controlled the port and its profits. At the same time though, places such as Bakaara Market were controlled by the insurgents where many of the goods were bound to be sold. It was also reported by this time that up to 53 AMISOM may have died in the clashes, which included 43 Burundian and 10 Ugandans. An additional 1,000 peacekeepers to assist in the TFG's renewed offensive against al-Shabaab were brought in, and by 16 March AMISOM had a force of nearly 9,000.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: The 2010–11 battle of Mogadishu began when al-Shabaab militants launched an offensive to capture the city. The battle soon swung in favor of government forces, who were able to drive the militant group out by 11 October 2011. The complete capture of the city took place on 7 September 2012, when the Transitional Federal Government's troops and their AMISOM allies managed to secure the city. Around the same time witnesses reported Al-Shabaab vehicles abandoning their bases in the capital for the south-central city of Baidoa. The group's spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage described the exodus as a tactical retreat, and vowed to continue the insurgency against the national government. Observers have suggested that the pullout may have been caused in part by internal ideological rifts in the rebel organization. The city was by no means safe after al-Shabaab withdrew as the militant group continued hit and run tactics in the Northern part of the city. Suicide bombs continued to be an occurrence lasting into 2020 (see below).


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: On 2 to 3 September, fighting was reported in Puntland that resulted in the deaths of up to 60 people, including 8 Puntland soldiers and 40 Al-Shabaab militants, with Insurgents being repelled. Al-Shabaab claimed on 7 September that they have captured 2 Kenyan troops who were on a surveillance mission near the Kenyan-Somali Border. Puntland forces captured 18 members of Al-Shabaab in counter-terrorism operations on 8 September.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: Al-Shabaab attacked the southern town of Elwaq on 10 September 2011, resulting in the deaths of 12 insurgents and soldiers. The next day, Somali troops fought back, retaking the town after militants fled on captured technicals. The bodies of 30 militants were later found, some of them children. Conversely, Al-Shabaab claimed they killed around 70 government aligned troops and captured 10 technicals.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: The Burundian military lost 51 soldiers in October, causing anger among Burundians, who believe that their country is sacrificing too much. Many Burundians have urged other AU members to contribute troops to the Somalia mission. Nigeria, Djibouti, and Guinea have indicated sending troops, but all have yet to contribute.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: On 4 September 2012 the Kenyan Navy shelled Kismayo. This was part of an AU offensive to capture the city from al-Shabab fighters. The harbour was shelled two times and the airport three times. According to a UN report the export of charcoal through Kismayo is a major source of income for al-Shabab.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: On 28 September 2012, the Somali National Army assisted by AMISOM troops and Ras Kamboni militia launched an assault on Kismayo, Al-Shabaab's last major stronghold. The allied forces reportedly managed to re-capture much of the city from the insurgents.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: In August 2014, the Somali government-led Operation Indian Ocean was launched to clean up the remaining insurgent-held pockets in the countryside. On 1 September 2014, a U.S. drone strike carried out as part of the broader mission killed Al-Shabaab leader Moktar Ali Zubeyr. U.S. authorities hailed the raid as a major symbolic and operational loss for Al-Shabaab, and the Somali government offered a 45-day amnesty to all moderate members of the militant group. Political analysts also suggested that the insurgent commander's death will likely lead to Al-Shabaab's fragmentation and eventual dissolution.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: At the end of the month of July 2015, AMISOM and Somalia National Army regained many villages and major towns of Baardhere and Dinsoor.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: On 15 January 2016, Al Shabaab attacked a Kenyan-run AMISOM base in El Adde Somalia, overrunning the compound and killing approximately 60 soldiers. Al Shabaab then regained the important town of Marka, 45 km from the capital, and the port of Gard in Puntland region (March 2016). The resurgence of Al Shabaab could entail serious implications for the humanitarian sector.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: On 5 March 2016, U.S. airstrikes carried out by aircraft and unmanned drones killed more than 150 Al-Shabaab terrorists at a terrorist training camp called "Camp Raso", located about 120 miles north of Mogadishu as they were completing "training for a large-scale attack" according to a Pentagon spokesman. The camp had been under surveillance for some time before the strike. In the early hours of 9 March 2016, U.S. special forces and Somali national army special forces killed between 1 and 15 Al-Shabaab terrorists in a heliborne-attack on the Al-Shabaab-controlled town of Awdhegele, as well as capturing an undisclosed number of high-value Al-Shabaab figures the militants were training for a major operation against coalition forces.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: On 11/12 April 2016, two U.S. airstrikes on Al-Shabaab targets in the town of Kismayo killed about a dozen suspected militants who posed a "imminent threat" to American troops in the country. As of May 2016, roughly 50 U.S. special operations troops operate at undisclosed locations across southern Somalia, with their headquarters at the airport in Mogadishu; advising and assisting, Kenyan, Somali and Ugandan forces in their fight against Al-Shabaab. Also in that month, U.S. personnel helped those forces plan an operation against illegal checkpoints.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: On 12 May 2016, a small group of U.S. military advisers accompanied some Ugandan soldiers during a raid on an illegal taxation checkpoint just west of Mogadishu, when the Ugandans came under fire from 15 to 20 al Shabaab militants, the U.S. commander on the ground called in a "defensive" airstrike, killing five militants and wounding two more. Two days previously, the U.S. provided helicopters and advise and assist in support of a Somali military mission against a group of al Shabaab militants, which one defense official said was also defensive because they had intelligence that the al Shabaab fighters were planning an attack on the AMISOM installation nearby. No word on how many al Shabaab were killed or wounded in that operation. On 13 May, a U.S. strike targeted nine al-Shabab militants, three of them were allegedly killed.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: On the night of 31 May 2016, two senior Al-Shabaab operatives; Mohamud Dulyadeyn, the plotter behind the Garissa University attack in April 2015 and Maalim Daud, head of Al-Shabaab's intelligence hit squads and another 16 members from Al-Shabaab were killed by the Somali National Army and anti-terror partners. Defense Department spokeswoman Lt. Col. Michelle L. Baldanza told CNN "U.S. forces supported this Somali-led operation in an advise-and-assist role,".


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: On 1 June 2016, Al Shabaab militants attacked with a car bomb on the gate of Ambassador Hotel in Mogadishu, Somalia. At least 15 people have been killed in the attack, among 10 civilian pedestrians and two members of parliament near the gate. Also that day, the Pentagon announced that it had conducted an airstrike that killed a senior Al-Shabaab leader in Somalia on 27 May. On 3 August 2016, a contingent of elite American troops acting as military advisers assisted Somali commandos in an assault on an al-Shabaab checkpoint in Saakow, as the Somali-led force approached the checkpoint the militants opened fire, a gun battle ensued that resulted in 3 militants killed.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: On 29 September 2016, a Somali regional government demanded an explanation from the United States after an airstrike killed 22 civilians and other soldiers instead of the targeted al-Shabab militants in Galmudug. The "Military Times" also reported that on 26 September a bomb-manufacturing network linked al-Shabaab attacked a small team of U.S. and Somali troops, who were conducting an operation near Kismayo, with small-arms fire. A Pentagon spokesman said the U.S. military "conducted a self-defense strike to neutralize the threat and in doing so killed nine enemy fighters." Also on 28 September, near the town of Galkayo, a Somali army unit conducting counterterrorism operations nearby, when the Somali soldiers came under fire from al-Shabab militants. The Somali soldiers engaged them, then broke contact and rejoined with their nearby American advisers and soon afterwards the militants "began to maneuver in an offensive manner" so the U.S. conducted a self-defense airstrike, killing 4 militants.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: In late March 2017, President Donald Trump signed off a new strategy granting AFRICOM more freedom in counterterrorist operations.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: "Stars and Stripes" reported that in addition to the stepping-up of airstrikes, US special forces on the frontlines with Somali forces have also been increased, conventional US troops give lessons in building defense institutions, with added support from other nations.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: "CNN" reported that General Thomas Waldhauser, commander of AFRICOM, told reporters in April that the US seeks to help Somali security forces gain the ability to provide for their own security by 2021.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: The "New York Times" reported that on 4 May 2017, a US Navy SEAL team partnered with Somali National Army forces, carried out a mission on an al-Shabaab-occupied complex around west of Mogadishu. "Fox News" reported that they targeting what Pentagon spokesperson Captain Jeff Davis said was a "group of people" associated with attacks on Mogadishu. The "New York Times" reported that Defence Department officials said that Somali forces were to have led the operation, with the SEALs hanging back in an advise, assist and accompany role, however Brig.Gen. David J. Furness, the commander of the military's task force for the Horn of Africa, said that American and Somali forces were traveling together in a single group. Whilst approaching the complex, the militants opened fire and the mission was aborted, Senior chief petty officer Kyle Milliken was killed, 2 other SEALs and an interpreter were wounded. Captain Jeff Davis said that the mission "resulted in the death of three Shabaab operatives including Moalin Osman Abdi Badil," the group quickly returned to the aircraft that had taken it to the area and was exfilled. Davis described Badil as an al-Shabaab leader responsible for gathering information on troop movements in order to support attacks on Somali and African Union forces and that he had been linked to the death of several soldiers and at least one civilian.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: "CNN" reported that on 11 June 2017, that a US air strike killed 8 al-Shabaab militants in Sakow, the president of Somalia said that "This was a successful strike which destroyed a key Al-Shabaab command and supply hub," and that "This will ultimately disrupt the enemy's ability to conduct new attacks within Somalia." "CNN" reported that on 23 July 2017, The US carried out a targeted airstrike an al-Shabaab regional commander in Banadir. "Fox News" reported that on 30 July 2017, a US strike near Tortoroow in southern Somalia which was coordinated with regional partners as a direct response to al-Shabaab's actions which included attacks on Somali forces, killed Ali Jabal, who was considered a senior al-Shabaab terrorist and was responsible for leading forces operating in the Mogadishu and Banadiir area, including planning and carrying out attacks in Mogadishu.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: "ABC" reported that on 10 August 2017, airstrikes conducted by drones in Banaadir in a joint operation against al-Shabaab fighters, killing a high-level al-Shabaab leader. The airstrikes marked the fourth offensive airstrike against al-Shabaab since the new authorisation in March. "CNN" reported that on 17 August 2017, the US conducted a "self defense" drone strike in Jilib after a joint US-Somali force, consisting of Somali troops and US advisors, came under direct attack by al-Shabaab militants and a firefight ensued, 7 militants were killed.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: "Military.com" reported that on 3 November 2017, that a US drone conducted two airstrikes against Islamic State in Somalia, at least six missiles were used which struck in Buqa, 37 miles north of Qandala, AFRICOM said in a statement that "several terrorists" were killed and that the strikes were carried out in coordination with Somalia's government; marking the first time the US has conducted airstrikes against ISS terrorists in Somalia. "CNN" reported that US drone aircraft conducted 5 strikes between 9 and 12 November against al-Shabaab and ISS linked militants, killing 36 al-Shabaab and 4 ISS terrorists. One of the strikes killed an al-Shabaab terrorist who had attacked a joint US-Somali military convoy in Gaduud. "CNN" reported that a US airstrike on a camp 125 miles northwest of Mogadishu killed more than 100 al-Shabaab militants; the US now estimates there are between 3,000 and 6,000 al-Shabaab fighters and less than 250 ISIS operatives in Somalia "Military Times" reported that on 14 November, a US drone strike roughly 60 miles northwest of Mogadishu killed several al-Shabaab militants. "CNN" reported that on 24 December, a U.S. airstrike in southern Somalia killed 13 al-Shabaab terrorists.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: By 2019, the United States was heavily involved in the war, using airstrikes. On 14 April, AFRICOM killed Abdulhakim Dhuqub, a high-ranking ISIS-Somalia official, near Xiriiro, Bari Region. On 25 October, a U.S. airstrike targeted Islamic militants near Ameyra, south of Bosaso, which killed three of their leaders.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: On 12 July, A car bombing and gun attack killed at least 26 people, including two prominent journalists and nine foreigners, in Kismayo, Lower Juba. On 22 July, a bombing killed 17 people and injured 28 others in Mogadishu. On 24 July, a suicide bomber detonated inside the office of the Mayor of Mogadishu, killing six government officials; mayor Abdirahman Abdi Osman was hospitalised in Doha, Qatar before succumbing to his injuries on 1 August.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: On 28 December, an al-Shabaab suicide truck bomber killed at least 85 people at a police checkpoint in Mogadishu.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: On 5 January, al-Shabaab militants attacked the airstrip of the military base Camp Simba, which is used by US and Kenyan forces. One US serviceman and two contractors were killed; two US servicemen were wounded and four militants were also killed in the gunfight.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: On 19 March, the Somali Army captured Jamale town from al-Shabaab, with support from the US military.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: On 31 May, the Somali military shot dead approximately 18 al-Shabaab militants and injured several others in an operation conducted in the southern Lower Shabelle region.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: On 7 February, a roadside bomb exploded in Dusmareb, Galguduud, killing 12 agents working for the National Intelligence and Security Agency. The local head of the intelligence agency, Abdirashid Abdunur, was among those killed.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: On 2 March, al-Shabaab publicly killed five people by firing squad for allegedly spying for the United States and Somali intelligence agencies in Jilib, Middle Juba. Hundreds of people reportedly gathered to watch the killings.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: On 3 April, al-Shabaab militants attacked two SNA bases near Mogadishu resulting in several hours of fighting. The SNA said they killed 77 al-Shabaab militants. Al-Shabaab said they killed 47 SNA troops in the attack. On the same day, a suicide bomber detonated their suicide vest targeting civilians outside a teashop in Mogadishu. The attack left 6 people dead, including the perpetrator.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: On 10 April, a suicide bomber tried to kill a regional governor in Baidoa. The governor escaped, but 3 others were killed in the attack, including two of his bodyguards.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: On 14 April, 17 civilians were killed when an IED exploded as a minibus drove over it whilst travelling on the Mogadishu-Jowhar road.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: On 12 June, a Somali policeman was killed and two others were wounded when ISIS operatives detonated an IED at a police checkpoint in the City of Afgooye, 20 km northwest of Mogadishu.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: On 15 June, at least 15 Somali Army recruits were killed when an al-Shabaab suicide bomber blew himself up at a Somali Army training camp in Mogadishu.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: On 27 June, Puntland executed 21 al-Shabaab prisoners in the largest single execution of al-Shabaab fighters in Somalia.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: On 10 July, nine people were killed after a car bomb exploded in Mogadishu. Al-Shabaab later claimed responsibility.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: On 25 September, at least eight people were killed and six others were wounded in a suicide bombing in Mogadishu.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: On 25 November, an al-Shabaab suicide bomber in a sport utility vehicle killed eight people in Mogadishu.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: On 5 December, al-Shabaab claimed responsibility a bomb blast at a restaurant in Awdhegle in southern Somalia. At least five people including civilians were killed and more than six others wounded in the attack.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: On 12 January, al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for a car bomb that killed eight people and wounded another nine outside the Mogadishu International Airport, a facility which hosts the United States Embassy and other diplomatic offices. The group said via a radio address that a convoy of "white officials" had been the target of the bombing.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: On 19 February, a suicide bombing in a restaurant in the city of Beledweyne killed 14 people. Al-Shabaab later claimed responsibility.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: On 23 March, al-Shabaab carried out attacks in Mogadishu and Beledweyne. Politicians Amina Mohamed Abdi and Hassan Dhuhul were among killed.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: On 3 May, at least 30 soldiers of the African Union, including 10 Burundian soldiers, were killed after al-Shabaab militants attacked an African Union military base near the village of Ceel Baraf, about 100 miles north of Mogadishu. At least 20 Al-Shabaab fighters were reportedly killed.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: In late July, al-Shabaab launched an invasion of Ethiopia with at least 1,500 militants. The insurgents captured a town, advanced up to , and inflicted heavy losses on the Ethiopians before being driven back by security forces.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: On 19 August, al-Shabaab militants attacked a hotel in Mogadishu, killing at least 21 people and wounding over 100. In response to the terror attack, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud declared "total war" against al-Shabaab. Cooperating with United States forces (who contributed airstrikes against al-Shabaab, one of which killed 27 al-Shabaab militants with no civilian casualties reported), an offensive operation began to weaken al-Shabaab's forces in the Hiran region. The offensive operations had been described as the "largest combined Somali and ATMIS offensive operation in five years."


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: The African Union has deployed more than 16,000 soldiers to Somalia, mandated to support transitional governmental structures, implement a national security plan, train the Somali security forces, and assist in creating a secure environment for the delivery of humanitarian aid. As part of its duties, AMISOM also supports the Transitional Federal Government's forces in their battle against Al-Shabaab militants.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: AMISOM was created by the African Union's Peace and Security Council on 19 January 2007 with an initial six-month mandate. On 21 February 2007 the United Nations Security Council approved the mission's mandate. Subsequent six-monthly renewals of AMISOM's mandate by the African Union Peace and Security Council have also been authorised by the United Nations Security Council.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: AMISOM's UN mandate was extended for a further six months in August 2008 by UNSCR 1831. The AMISOM's mandate has been extended each period that it has been up for review. It is now set to be reviewed again on 16 January 2013.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: On 12 November 2013, the UN Security Council adopted SC Resolution 2124 (2013) extending AMISOM's mandate from 28 February 2014 to 31 October 2014. Acting upon the force's request, the resolution also increases AMISOM's maximum authorized strength from 17,731 to 22,126 troops.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: The force, which has been reportedly engaged in fighting in Mogadishu and throughout the country, has reportedly suffered significant casualties during their mission, although no precise figures have been issued by the contributing countries.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: The United National Development Program for Somalia spends about $50 million each year, though these funds are not related to military aid. Instead these programs, such as Employment Generation for Early Recovery (EGER). As of October 2010, the U.S. State Department noted the United States directly obligated over $229 million to support AMISOM, and paid for other UN assistance for the mission indirectly through its obligations to the international body.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: In January 2013, the U.S. announced that it was set to exchange diplomatic notes with the new central government of Somalia, re-establishing official ties with the country for the first time in 20 years. According to the Department of State, the decision was made in recognition of the significant progress that the Somali authorities had achieved on both the political and war fronts. The move is expected to grant the Somali government access to new sources of development funds from American agencies as well as international bodies like the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, thereby facilitating the ongoing reconstruction process. In addition to diplomatic ties; roughly 50 U.S. special operations troops operate at undisclosed locations across southern Somalia advising and assisting, Kenyan, Somali and Ugandan forces in their fight against Al-Shabaab.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: At the behest of the Somali and American federal governments, among other international actors, the United Nations Security Council unanimously approved United Nations Security Council Resolution 2093 during its 6 March 2013 meeting to suspend the 21-year arms embargo on Somalia. The endorsement officially lifts the purchase ban on light weapons for a provisional period of one year, but retains certain restrictions on the procurement of heavy arms such as surface-to-air missiles, howitzers and cannons. On 9 April 2013, the U.S. government likewise approved the provision of defense articles and services by the American authorities to the Somali Federal Government. At the request of the Somali authorities and AMISOM, the U.S. military in late 2013 also established a small team of advisers in Mogadishu to provide consultative and planning support to the allied forces.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: The United Kingdom is also involved in combating Islamist terrorists in Somalia, since 2009, members of the Special Air Service and the Special Reconnaissance Regiment have been deployed to Camp Lemonnier to conduct counter-terrorist operations against Islamist terrorists in Somalia; they have carrying out surveillance missions of Britons believed to be travelling to Somalia for terrorist training and they are also working with US counterparts observing and "targeting" local terror suspects. They have also been carrying out a similar role in Yemen. In May 2016, it was reported that 70 UK military personnel have arrived in Somalia to counter Al-Shabaab as part of a UN peacekeeping mission; 10 soldiers will offer medical, engineering and logistical support to AMISOM. Personnel will also be sent to South Sudan to carry out a similar role.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: On 16 October 2016, the "New York Times" reported that American officials said the White House had quietly broadened the president's authority for the use of force in Somalia by allowing airstrikes to protect American and African troops as they combat fighters from al-Shabaab. About 200 to 300 American Special Operations troops work with soldiers from Somalia and other African nations like Kenya and Uganda to carry out more than a half-dozen raids per month, according to senior American military officials. The operations are a combination of ground raids and drone strikes. SEAL Team 6 has been heavily involved in many of these operations. American military officials said once ground operations are complete, American troops working with Somali forces often interrogate prisoners at temporary screening facilities, including one in Puntland, before the detainees are transferred to more permanent Somali-run prisons. The Pentagon has only acknowledged a small fraction of these operations, announcing 13 ground raids and airstrikes so far in 2016 (3 of which took place in September) — up from 5 in 2015; according to data compiled by New America (a Washington Think tank) the strikes have killed about 25 civilians and 200 people suspected of being militants. At a former Russian fighter jet base in Baledogle, U.S. Marines and private contractors are working to build up a Somali military unit designed to combat Al-Shabaab throughout the country.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: On 30 March 2017, CNN reported that US President Donald Trump signed off a decision by the White House which approved a new strategy granting AFRICOM the authority to step up counterterrorism strikes in Somalia; under the new strategy, the US military will now be able to conduct precision airstrikes in support of the Somalia National Army and AMISOM forces. The new authorization designates some regions of Somalia an "area of active hostilities," freeing counterterrorism strikes there from restrictions governing other strikes outside the areas; an official said that the designated areas will not include Mogadishu and Puntland. Captain Jeff Davis, a Pentagon Spokesman said that "The additional support provided by this authority will help deny al-Shabaab safe havens from which it could attack US citizens or US interests in the region." Another official said that the legal basis for the new authority is the 2001 AUMF. In mid-April 2017, it was reported that 40 soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division were deployed to Somalia on 2 April 2017 to improve the capabilities of the Somalia Army in combating Islamist militants. AFRICOM stated that the troops will focus on bolstering the Somali army's logistics capabilities; an AFRICOM spokesman said that "This mission is not associated with teaching counterextremism tactics" and that the Somali government requested the training.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: On 16 June 2020, Human Rights Watch revealed the inconsistency in investigation by the US authorities in a 2 February airstrike, which killed one woman. And a 10 March attack that killed five men, including a child.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: President Donald Trump ordered the Department of Defense to remove the majority of the 700 U.S. military troops in Somalia from the country in December 2020. On May 16, 2022, it was announced that President Joe Biden was reversing President Trump's withdrawal and sending up to 450 ground troops back into Somalia.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: On 16 February, Somali MP Mohamud Sayid Adan, former Mogadishu mayor Mohamed Omar Habeeb and local police officer Hassan Dhicisow, were arrested by Ethiopian forces in the town of Dolow in Gedo region.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: On 28 May, 2 Ethiopian soldiers, 1 Ethiopian civilian, 2 Somali soldiers, 4 Somali civilians (working for the government) and 4 Somali insurgents were killed when insurgents attacked a convoy carrying Omar Hashi Aden, who was returning from his visit to Ethiopia.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: On 31 May, Ethiopian forces launched search and seizure operations in Hiraan, in Kalaberyr village, near Beledweyn.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: On 12 June, Ethiopian forces with several battle wagons entered in Balanbal town in Galgudud and set up military bases.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: On 14 June, the Ethiopian military said it had come to fight foreign mujahedin which the military described as "foreign enemies of Ethiopia and Somalia" and launched operations to search for them in Balanbal town which they control. Sheik Hassan Ya'qub Ali, head of the information affairs for Islamic administration in Kisimayo warned the Ethiopians that "there is no candy and dates to eat from here in Somalia. But the men who chased you forcibly from the country are here in Somalia."


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: On 19 June, Ethiopian forces entered Bakool and reached Elberde town. They withdrew after holding talks with local clan elders.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: 22 June, Ethiopian forces started launching search and seizure operations in Kala-beyrka intersection in Hiran region.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: 30 June, Ethiopian forces entered El-gal and Ilka'adde villages which are less than 20 km north of regional capital Beledweyn. Reports from Kala-beyrka intersection say that more extra troops from Ethiopia crossed from the border.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: During the weekend of 29–30 August, Ethiopian forces advanced to Beledweyne, supporting a government offensive on the insurgent part of, Beledweyne. They withdrew on 31 August. The assault on Beledweyne by government forces came as the TFG governor of Hiraan (belonging to Sharif Ahmed's ARS-Djibouti faction), Sheikh Abdirahman Ibrahim Ma'ow, which controls the other part of Beledweyne, withdrew his administration's support for the TFG.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: 19 March, Mohammed wali Odowa, spokesman of Hizbul Islam's Hiraan administration in Beledweyne, threatened that Hizbul Islam forces would attack any Ethiopian forces which entered Hizbul Islam controlled territories in Hiraan.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: 20 May, Ethiopian forces seized control of the previously al-Shabaab held towns of Yeed and Elbarde, in Bakool region. Al-Shabaab had captured Elbarde from the TFG on 20 April.


title: Somali Civil War (2009–present)

text: On 18 July, Ethiopian forces withdrew from all their bases in Hiraan and Bakool regions. Ethiopian forces had held these territories for two months, during which they clashed several times with al-Shabaab forces which control most of Hiraan. Before they withdrew they released over 20 lorries which used to travel between the South and Central regions of Somalia.