Disastrous two days for Somalia TFG

It has been bad, the last two days, for the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) in Somalia; arguably disastrous:

They lost their national Security Minister to a car-bomb attack that killed 20 people in Beletwein, Hiran region...

Col. Omar Hashi, the Security Minister, and former Somali Ambassador to Ethiopia and the African Union, Mr. Abdikarim Lakanyo, were both killed in the explosion at Hotel Medina, independent sources confirmed.

The day before, they lost the Police Chief of Mogadishu in a day of fighting that swept through the city as the government tried to go on the offensive...

Government police spokesman Colonel Abdulahi Hassan Barise said: "The regional police chief, Colonel Ali Said, was among the dead, God bless him."

BBC East Africa correspondent Will Ross says the police chief's death will be a significant setback for the pro-government forces as he had often been on the front line encouraging his colleagues to defend their positions.

It has gotten bad enough that neighboring countries (other than Ethiopia) are actually willing to say something has to be done.

Kenya and other countries in the region, as well as Western nations, fear that if the chaos continues, groups with links to al Qaeda will become entrenched and threaten the stability of neighbouring countries.

"We will not sit by and watch the situation in Somalia deteriorate beyond where it is. We have a duty ... as a government to protect our strategic interests including our security," said Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula.

"Kenya will do exactly that to ensure the unfolding developments in Somalia do not in any way undermine or affect our peace and security as a country," he told a news conference.

Hint for the Kenyans: Your strategic interests start at home, where your border regions are in danger of falling to rebel control. Your course of action begins with securing those "refugee" camps, then the national border, then *if there is no other course* securing Jubaland by intervention.

But if that last step does prove necessary, understand that you will be walking into the maelstrom by doing so. Ask for all the outside support you can get, send only your best troops, and bring lots of bullets.