Anti-aircraft team with the Somali National Army undergoing drills. [1962]Somali National Army and Somali Police [1964]SNA artillery unit in action. [1963]Nasrallah fighter during the 1960s revolt against the Ethiopian Empire. [1964]A T17E1 Staghound armored car with the Somali Police Force on parade. [1960s]Motorcycle based Road Traffic Police units armed with Thompson submachine guns. [1960s]
Scouts 81 mm mortar crew training. [1960]SNA troops on parade. [1963]Injured Nasrallah fighter being carried by his comrades during the Ogaden rebellion that began in 1963 under the leadership of Garad Makthal Dahir. [1964]Somali National Army troops set up an ambush in the ruins of Dooloow, awaiting an Ethiopian Imperial Army offensive during the first war between the two countries. The town had been devastated by prior air strikes. [1964]
1970s
Western Somali Liberation Front guerrilla sits proudly beside a heavy machine gun captured from the Ethiopians during the First Battle of Jigiga. [Nov 15th 1977]SNA T-34/85 tank being repaired during the Ogaden War. [1977]WSLF machine gun training. [1977]
WSLF fighter with a bayonet tipped Ak-47. [1977]Western Somali Liberation Front training during Ogaden War. [1977]WSLF fighters rallying in the liberated town of Qalaafe. [Aug 26th 1977]Men of a Somali National Army tank crew posing in front of their T-34/85. [1977]
1980s
Western Somali Liberation Front recruits training. [1980]SNA soldier during the Ethiopian invasion of Somalia. [1982]Western Somali Liberation Front guerilla prays by his mortar in the Awaare region of the Western Somaliland. [Apr 1981]Somali army officer examines a rocket casing fired by Ethiopian jets conducting an airstrike on Galkayo airport. Somali radar tracked the enemy planes coming in from Dire Dawa and Godey, and one raider was shot down. [1982]
Somali army technicians examine an abandoned Ethiopian BTR-60 APC that was disabled after a direct RPG hit. It was 32 km inside of Somalia near Balamble. [1982]Somali Air Force jets scrambling to intercept from a Mogadishu air base. [1982]Damage to civilian property in the provincial capital of Galkayo during an Ethiopian air raid. This damage was caused when twelve Ethiopian Air Force jets strafed and bombed the city. [Jun 12th 1982]Ethiopian armored vehicles captured by the Somali army inside Somalia. [1982]
1990s
American Black Hawk helicopters flying over Mogadishu during United Nations Operation in Somalia II (UNOSOM II). Mogadishu airport, the primary American and UNOSOM base, can be seen on the right. [1993]Man raises the Somali flag over a crowd protesting against UNOSOM II military operations in Mogadishu as an American Black Hawk flies overhead. [1993]
Fighter armed with an RPG-7. [1990s]Somali insurgent poses beside a destroyed UNOSOM vehicle that was operated by the Malaysian contingent. It was hit by RPG fire during the Oct. 3rd-4th Battle of Mogadishu. [1993]Still from tape filmed of US Black Hawk pilot Micheal Durant as a prisoner of war after Battle of Mogadishu. [Oct 1993]Fire glows on the skyline following an American AC-130 gunship bombardment in Mogadishu during the UNOSOM II military offensive. [Jun 1993]
2000s
Islamic Courts Union fighter flashes victory sign during a rally in Mogadishu’s Tarabuunka Square aimed against CIA backing for the Somali Warlord Alliance. [Jun 2nd 2006]Ogaden National Liberation Front radio operator walks away from a meeting. The other fighters depart to rejoin their defensive position while he goes back to attend his radio operation in order to coordinate all nearby units. [Oct 4th 2006]Practice target marked with the name of U.S. President George W. Bush at an insurgent training camp in southern Somalia. [Sept 2007]Volunteers training at the Islamic Courts Arbiska camp outside Mogadishu in anticipation of the Ethiopian invasion. [Sept 26th 2006]
ONLF soldiers praying on a hilltop defensive position during a week-long stalemate with the Ethiopian army. Around sixty ONLF fighters were positioned on a hill, effectively surrounded by the enemy. [Oct 5th 2006]Islamic Courts Union soldier with an RPG-7 on the front lines in Bay region during the Ethiopian invasion. [Dec 20th 2006]Islamic Courts Union soldiers undergoing training exercises in Mogadishu just weeks before the full scale Ethiopian invasion of Somalia. [Dec 8th 2006]Fighters of the Somali resistance (Muqawama) cheer following a victory against Ethiopian troops in Mogadishu. [Mar 30th 2007]
The Somali History Archive 