RL-83 Blindicide
The RL-83 Blindicide is an antitank rocket launcher, but other rockets can be fired. It was an improved derivative of the M20A1 Bazooka, its name translates to "armor killer", derived from the French "véhicule blindé" and the suffix -cide meaning to kill. The Blindicide was produced in a 100 mm version; the 83mm version fired a 1.6 kilogram projectile with a 0.5 kg warhead, while the 100 mm version fired a 2.75 kg projectile. The rate of fire was the range 400 meters for both versions; this rate of fire was in excess of the M20A1 Bazooka since Blindicide used a mechanical firing pin hitting a percussion cap in the tail of the rocket motor rather than a hand grip magneto system that required trailing wires from each rocket to be connected to terminal posts on the launcher as each round was loaded. The muzzle velocity of both versions varied, with the 83 mm version firing at 100 m/s while the 100 mm version fired at 195 m/s. A round introduced for the RL-83 has a muzzle velocity of 120 m/s and uses a rocket booster to achieve a velocity of 300 m/s.
The effective range of this 2.4 kg projectile is 500 meters. The high-explosive antitank rocket of the RL-83 Blindicide can penetrate 300 millimeters of rolled homogeneous armour or one meter of concrete. Besides HEAT, the Blindicide can fire anti-personnel, smoke and illumination rounds. A final version of the Blindicide was the RLC-83, a shortened version of the RL-83; the RLC-83 differs from the RL-83 in having a 1.2 meter launch tube. The RLC-83 is intended to be used only with the rocket-boosted long-range projectiles. Switzerland produced a licence version of the Blindicide, the Raketenrohr 58; the Raketenrohr 80 was an improved version with new aiming system for use by night. The Swiss army had a total of 20,000 RRs in service, all of which have been replaced by the German Panzerfaust 3. Apart from the defensive role, the Swiss used the Raketenrohr 80 to caused controlled avalanches, thus reducing the risks to civilians in avalanche prone areas. A training round / practice rocket was available for Blindicide.
This used a blank 20 mm cartridge to produce a flash and a bang, but the round only fell a few feet in front of the launcher. A 20 mm Sub-caliber training round was available; this fired either a plastic or copper projectile. This sub-caliber gun had a wooden body, but an anodised Aluminium body was used; the Blindicide saw service with the Belgian forces during the Congo crisis. The Nigerian Army used some against Biafrans during Nigerian Civil War in the 1960s; the Blindicide was used by Anti-British guerrillas during the Aden Emergency. A complete launcher and the remains of several projectiles recovered from Aden are held by the Imperial War Museum; the RL-83 version was used by the Israel Defense Forces during the Six-Day war and the Yom Kippur War. In recent years, it has been reported that the Mexican Army deployed Blindicides against improvised armored vehicles in use by drug cartels. Blindicide has been identified in video clips of the Free Syrian Army operating in Syria. Bangladesh - Retired Belgium - Retired in the late 1980s Burundi - In use Indonesia - Retired used by Navy.
Israel - Retired Italy - Retired Lebanon - Retired Mexico - In use as of 2011 Netherlands - Used by the Dutch Marine Corps, one Raketbuis van 83 mm blindicide was issued per infantry platoon in 1963. Pakistan Nigeria Rwanda - Received via France Switzerland - Raketenrohr version. Retired, replaced by Panzerfaust-3 Syria - Retired Samer Kassis, Véhicules Militaires au Liban/Military Vehicles in Lebanon 1975-1981, Trebia Publishing, Chyah 2012. ISBN 978-9953-0-2372-4 Bangladeshi military page weapon.at.ua
United States
The United States of America known as the United States or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U. S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D. C. and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico; the State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean; the U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The diverse geography and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.
Paleo-Indians migrated from Siberia to the North American mainland at least 12,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century; the United States emerged from the thirteen British colonies established along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the colonies following the French and Indian War led to the American Revolution, which began in 1775, the subsequent Declaration of Independence in 1776; the war ended in 1783 with the United States becoming the first country to gain independence from a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, with the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, being ratified in 1791 to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties; the United States embarked on a vigorous expansion across North America throughout the 19th century, acquiring new territories, displacing Native American tribes, admitting new states until it spanned the continent by 1848. During the second half of the 19th century, the Civil War led to the abolition of slavery.
By the end of the century, the United States had extended into the Pacific Ocean, its economy, driven in large part by the Industrial Revolution, began to soar. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the country's status as a global military power; the United States emerged from World War II as a global superpower, the first country to develop nuclear weapons, the only country to use them in warfare, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. Sweeping civil rights legislation, notably the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968, outlawed discrimination based on race or color. During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union competed in the Space Race, culminating with the 1969 U. S. Moon landing; the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the world's sole superpower. The United States is the world's oldest surviving federation, it is a representative democracy.
The United States is a founding member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States, other international organizations. The United States is a developed country, with the world's largest economy by nominal GDP and second-largest economy by PPP, accounting for a quarter of global GDP; the U. S. economy is post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge-based activities, although the manufacturing sector remains the second-largest in the world. The United States is the world's largest importer and the second largest exporter of goods, by value. Although its population is only 4.3% of the world total, the U. S. holds 31% of the total wealth in the world, the largest share of global wealth concentrated in a single country. Despite wide income and wealth disparities, the United States continues to rank high in measures of socioeconomic performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP, worker productivity.
The United States is the foremost military power in the world, making up a third of global military spending, is a leading political and scientific force internationally. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a world map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America in honor of the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci; the first documentary evidence of the phrase "United States of America" is from a letter dated January 2, 1776, written by Stephen Moylan, Esq. to George Washington's aide-de-camp and Muster-Master General of the Continental Army, Lt. Col. Joseph Reed. Moylan expressed his wish to go "with full and ample powers from the United States of America to Spain" to seek assistance in the revolutionary war effort; the first known publication of the phrase "United States of America" was in an anonymous essay in The Virginia Gazette newspaper in Williamsburg, Virginia, on April 6, 1776. The second draft of the Articles of Confederation, prepared by John Dickinson and completed by June 17, 1776, at the latest, declared "The name of this Confederation shall be the'United States of America'".
The final version of the Articles sent to the states for ratification in late 1777 contains the sentence "The Stile of this Confederacy shall be'The United States of America'". In June 1776, Thomas Jefferson wrote the phrase "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" in all capitalized letters in the headline of his "original Rough draught" of the Declaration of Independence; this draft of the document did not surface unti
Military dictatorship
A military dictatorship is a dictatorship wherein the military exerts complete or substantial control over political authority. A military dictatorship is different from civilian dictatorship for a number of reasons: their motivations for seizing power, the institutions through which they organize their rule and the ways in which they leave power. Viewing itself as saving the nation from the corrupt or myopic civilian politicians, a military dictatorship justifies its position as "neutral" arbiters on the basis of their membership within the armed forces. For example, many juntas adopt titles such as "Committee of National Restoration", or "National Liberation Committee". Military leaders rule as a junta, selecting one of themselves as a head. Military dictatorship is called khakistocracy; the term is a portmanteau word combining kakistocracy with khaki, the tan-green camouflage colour used in most modern army uniforms. Most military dictatorships are formed. Military dictatorships may restore significant components of civilian government while the senior military commander still maintains executive political power.
In Pakistan, ruling Generals Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq and Pervez Musharraf have held referendums to elect themselves President of Pakistan for additional terms forbidden by the constitution. In the past, military juntas have justified their rule as a way of bringing political stability for the nation or rescuing it from the threat of "dangerous ideologies". For example the threat of communism and Islamism was used. Military regimes tend to portray themselves as non-partisan, as a "neutral" party that can provide interim leadership in times of turmoil, tend to portray civilian politicians as corrupt and ineffective. One of the universal characteristics of a military government is the institution of martial law or a permanent state of emergency. Algeria Benin Burkina Faso Burundi Central African Republic Chad Ciskei Comoros Democratic Republic of the Congo Republic of the Congo Côte d'Ivoire Egypt Equatorial Guinea Ethiopia The Gambia Ghana Guinea Guinea-Bissau Lesotho Liberia Libya Madagascar Mali Mauritania Niger Nigeria Rwanda São Tomé and Príncipe Sierra Leone Somalia Sudan Togo Transkei Uganda Venda Zimbabwe Argentina Bolivia Brazil Chile Colombia Costa Rica Cuba Dominican Republic Ecuador El Salvador Guatemala Haiti Honduras Mexico Nicaragua Panama Paraguay Peru Suriname Uruguay Venezuela Afghanistan Bangladesh Brunei Burma Khmer Republic Indonesia Iran Iraq Empire of Japan South Korea Kingdom of Laos Maldives Pakistan Philippines Syria Republic of China /Republic of China Thailand South Vietnam North Yemen Kingdom of Bulgaria Cyprus Kingdom of England France German Empire Greece Poland Portugal Kingdom of Romania Russian Empire San Marino Spain Turkey Ukraine Fiji Military rule St
Bujumbura
Bujumbura Usumbura, is the former capital, largest city and main port of Burundi. It ships most of the country's chief export, coffee, as well as tin ore, it is on the north-eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika, the second deepest lake in the world after Lake Baikal. The city center is a colonial town with a large market, the national stadium, a large mosque, the cathedral for the Archdiocese of Bujumbura. Museums in the city include the Burundi Museum of the Burundi Geological Museum. Other nearby attractions include the Rusizi National Park, the Livingstone-Stanley Monument at Mugere, the presidential palace and the source of the southernmost tributary of the Nile, described locally as the source of the Nile. Ferries sail from Bujumbura to Kigoma in Tanzania; the city is the University of Burundi. Bujumbura grew from a small village after it became a military post in German East Africa in 1889. After World War I it was made the administrative center of the Belgian League of Nations mandate of Ruanda-Urundi.
The name was changed from Usumbura to Bujumbura when Burundi became independent in 1962. Since independence, Bujumbura has been the scene of frequent fighting between the country's two main ethnic groups, with Hutu militias opposing the Tutsi-dominated Burundi army. Bujumbura today remains to develop with its country. According to the BBC, Bujumbura residents are known for their "tradition of Saturday morning runs started during Burundi's long years of ethnic conflict." Because the surrounding hills were home to armed militants before 2005, Bujumbura residents "would try to vent their fear and frustration and claustrophobia, by running in a group."In March 2014, President Pierre Nkurunziza banned jogging, due to "fears it was being used as a cover for subversion." That same month, twenty-one opposition supporters were sentenced to life in prison for using "jogging" as a way to organize "an illegal demonstration that turned violent." As of June 2014 in Bujumbura, "the authorities have since restricted jogging clubs to certain areas.
All sports must now take place in nine parks in Bujumbura and other designated football pitches." Bujumbura is governed by a community community administrator. It is further divided into 13 communes, or neighborhoods, each with its own boss. Bujumbura features a tropical savanna climate with distinct dry seasons, its wet season is from October through April. Despite being located close to the equator, Bujumbura is not nearly as warm as one might expect, due to its altitude. Average temperatures are constant throughout the course of the year with the high temperature at around 29 °C and the low temperature at around 19 °C. See also: Economy of Bujumbura Bujumbura's central market is in the City Centre, along Rwagasore Avenue. During the city's heavy periods of war in 1972 and 1993, as citizens had become less to travel far from the City Centre, markets in neighbouring communities lost their business to the central market in Bujumbura. Vendors moved their business to the central market, many settling outside the market due to lack of space.
However, the central market houses the largest variety of merchandise in the city, with stores that sell everything from food and sweets, to new and used clothing and consumer goods such as soap, school supplies and household accessories. On the dawn of January 27, 2013 a serious fire ravaged Bujumbura's central market. Due to poor emergency response, the fire lasted for hours, resulting in a serious blow to local exchanges. Hundreds of vendors and foreign, lost their goods to the fire and the reported looting. While Burundi's emergency services were unable to extinguish the blaze on their own, neighbouring Rwanda sent helicopters to assist in the emergency response. Bujumbura's main attractions consist of its many beaches and monuments; some of the most popular attractions are: The Musée Vivant Karera Beach and Saga Beach The Monument de l'Unité Hôtel Club du Lac Tanganyika Rusizi National Park Bujumbura is the location for the city's multisport Prince Louis Rwagasore stadium. Used for football games, it is the country's largest stadium with 22,000 seats.
The city is home to multiple Basketball and Tennis courts, as well as a multitude of indoor and outdoor swimming pools. The University of Burundi is in Bujumbura, as are Hope Africa University and Université du Lac Tanganyika. International schools: École Belge de Bujumbura École Française de Bujumbura King's School Bujumbura International Montessori School Burundi English School The Bujumbura International Airport is situated on the outskirts of the city. Public transport in Bujumbura consists of taxis and mini-buses, locally known as the Hiace. Public transport vehicles are white and blue. Bujumbura's taxis are abundant all over the city, are considered the safest form of transportation, they are cheap, ranging from 1500-10000 Burundian Francs, although taxi drivers are always willing to negotiate. Cheaper options are the city's taxi-motos and taxis-vélos, although they are only available in certain parts of the city. For long distance travels, locals prefer to take the many Hiace full-size vans, which travel across Burundi.
Bujumbura's main bus terminal is located by the Central Market
AKM
The AKM is a 7.62mm assault rifle designed by Mikhail Kalashnikov. It is a common modernized variant of the AK-47 rifle developed in the 1940s. Introduced into service with the Soviet Army in 1959, the AKM is the most ubiquitous variant of the entire AK series of firearms and it has found widespread use with most member states of the former Warsaw Pact and its African and Asian allies as well as being exported and produced in many other countries; the production of these rifles was carried out at both Izhmash. It was replaced in Soviet frontline service by the AK-74 in the late 1970s, but remains in use worldwide; the AKM is an assault rifle using the 7.62×39mm Soviet intermediate cartridge. It is gas operated with a rotating bolt; the AKM is capable of selective fire, firing either single shots or automatic at a cyclic rate of 600 rounds/min. Despite being replaced in the late 1970s by the AK-74, the AKM is still in service in some Russian Army reserve and second-line units and several east European countries.
The GRAU designated the AKM as the 6P1 assault rifle. Compared with the AK-47, the AKM features detail improvements and enhancements that optimized the rifle for mass production. Notably, the AK-47's milled steel receiver was replaced by a U-shaped steel stamping; as a result of these modifications, the AKM’s weight was reduced by ≈ 1 kg, the accuracy during automatic fire was increased and several reliability issues were addressed. The AK-47's chrome-lined barrel was retained, a common feature of Soviet weapons which resists wear and corrosion under harsh field conditions and near-universal Eastern Bloc use of corrosively primed ammunition; the AKM’s receiver is stamped from a smooth 1.0 mm sheet of steel, compared with the AK-47 where the receiver was machined from heavier gauge steel. A rear stock trunnion and forward barrel trunnion are fastened to the U-shaped receiver using rivets; the receiver housing features a rigid tubular cross-section support that adds structural strength. Guide rails that assist the bolt carrier’s movement which incorporates the ejector are installed inside the receiver through spot welding.
As a weight-saving measure, the stamped receiver cover is of thinner gauge metal than that of the AK-47. In order to maintain strength and durability it employs both longitudinal and latitudinal reinforcing ribs; the forward barrel trunnion has a non-threaded socket for the barrel and a transverse hole for a pin that secures the barrel in place. On some models the rear trunnion has two extended mounting arms on both sides that support the buttstock; the AKM's barrel is pinned. Additionally the barrel has horizontal guide slots that help align and secure the handguards in place. To increase the weapon’s accuracy during automatic fire, the AKM was fitted with a slant cut muzzle brake that helps redirect expanding propellant gases upward and to the right during firing, which mitigates the rise of the muzzle during an automatic burst when held by a right-handed firer; the muzzle brake is threaded on to the end of the barrel with a left-hand thread. Not all AKMs had slant muzzle brakes. Most AKMs with muzzle nuts were older production weapons.
The AKM's slant brake can be used on the AK-47, which had a simple nut to cover the threads. The gas block in the AKM does not have a cleaning rod capture or sling loop but is instead fitted with an integrated bayonet support collar that has a cleaning rod guide hole; the forward sling loop was relocated to the front handguard retainer cap. The handguard retainer has notches that determine the position of the handguards on the barrel; the AKM's laminated wood handguards have lateral grooves. Gas relief ports that alleviate gas pressure in the piston cylinder were moved forward to the gas block and placed in a radial arrangement; the AKM’s bolt carrier is lighter in weight and has some minor differences in its shape. The buttstock, lower handguard and upper heatguard are manufactured from birch plywood laminates like the model AK-47 furniture; such engineered woods are stronger and resist warping better than the conventional one-piece patterns, do not require lengthy maturing, are cheaper. The wooden buttstock used in the AKM is further hollowed in order to reduce weight and is longer and straighter than that of the AK-47, which assists accuracy for subsequent shots during rapid and automatic fire.
The wooden stock houses the issued cleaning kit, a small diameter metal tube with a twist lock cap. The kit contains the cleaning jag to which a piece of cloth material is wrapped around and dipped into cleaning solution, it contains a pin punch, an assembly pin to hold the trigger and rate reducer together while putting these back into the receiver after cleaning the weapon, a barrel brush. The kit is secured inside the butt stock via a spring-loaded trap door in the stock's pressed sheet metal butt cap; the AKM uses a modified return spring mechanism, which replaces the single recoil spring guide rod with a dual “U”-shaped wire guide. The AKM has a modified trigger assembly, equipped with a hammer-release delaying device (insta
Venezuela
Venezuela the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and a large number of small islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. The capital and largest urban agglomeration is the city of Caracas, it has a territorial extension of 916,445 km2. The continental territory is bordered on the north by the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Colombia, Brazil on the south and Tobago to the north-east and on the east by Guyana. With this last country, the Venezuelan government maintains a claim for Guayana Esequiba over an area of 159,542 km2. For its maritime areas, it exercises sovereignty over 71,295 km2 of territorial waters, 22,224 km2 in its contiguous zone, 471,507 km2 of the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean under the concept of exclusive economic zone, 99,889 km2 of continental shelf; this marine area borders those of 13 states. The country has high biodiversity and is ranked seventh in the world's list of nations with the most number of species.
There are habitats ranging from the Andes Mountains in the west to the Amazon basin rain-forest in the south via extensive llanos plains, the Caribbean coast and the Orinoco River Delta in the east. The territory now known as Venezuela was colonized by Spain in 1522 amid resistance from indigenous peoples. In 1811, it became one of the first Spanish-American territories to declare independence, not securely established until 1821, when Venezuela was a department of the federal republic of Gran Colombia, it gained full independence as a country in 1830. During the 19th century, Venezuela suffered political turmoil and autocracy, remaining dominated by regional caudillos until the mid-20th century. Since 1958, the country has had a series of democratic governments. Economic shocks in the 1980s and 1990s led to several political crises, including the deadly Caracazo riots of 1989, two attempted coups in 1992, the impeachment of President Carlos Andrés Pérez for embezzlement of public funds in 1993.
A collapse in confidence in the existing parties saw the 1998 election of former coup-involved career officer Hugo Chávez and the launch of the Bolivarian Revolution. The revolution began with a 1999 Constituent Assembly, where a new Constitution of Venezuela was written; this new constitution changed the name of the country to Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. The sovereign state is a federal presidential republic consisting of 23 states, the Capital District, federal dependencies. Venezuela claims all Guyanese territory west of the Essequibo River, a 159,500-square-kilometre tract dubbed Guayana Esequiba or the Zona en Reclamación. Venezuela is among the most urbanized countries in Latin America. Oil was discovered in the early 20th century, today, Venezuela has the world's largest known oil reserves and has been one of the world's leading exporters of oil; the country was an underdeveloped exporter of agricultural commodities such as coffee and cocoa, but oil came to dominate exports and government revenues.
The 1980s oil glut led to a long-running economic crisis. Inflation peaked at 100% in 1996 and poverty rates rose to 66% in 1995 as per capita GDP fell to the same level as 1963, down a third from its 1978 peak; the recovery of oil prices in the early 2000s gave. The Venezuelan government under Hugo Chávez established populist social welfare policies that boosted the Venezuelan economy and increased social spending, temporarily reducing economic inequality and poverty in the early years of the regime. However, such populist policies became inadequate, causing the nation's collapse as their excesses—including a uniquely extreme fossil fuel subsidy—are blamed for destabilizing the nation's economy; the destabilized economy led to a crisis in Bolivarian Venezuela, resulting in hyperinflation, an economic depression, shortages of basic goods and drastic increases in unemployment, disease, child mortality and crime. These factors have precipitated the Venezuelan Migrant Crisis where more than three million people have fled the country.
By 2017, Venezuela was declared to be in default regarding debt payments by credit rating agencies. In 2018, the country's economic policies led to extreme hyperinflation, with estimates expecting an inflation rate of 1,370,000% by the end of the year. Venezuela is a charter member of the UN, OAS, UNASUR, ALBA, Mercosur, LAIA and OEI. According to the most popular and accepted version, in 1499, an expedition led by Alonso de Ojeda visited the Venezuelan coast; the stilt houses in the area of Lake Maracaibo reminded the Italian navigator, Amerigo Vespucci, of the city of Venice, Italy, so he named the region Veneziola, or "Little Venice". The Spanish version of Veneziola is Venezuela. Martín Fernández de Enciso, a member of the Vespucci and Ojeda crew, gave a different account. In his work Summa de geografía, he states that the crew found indigenous people who called themselves the Veneciuela. Thus, the name "Venezuela" may have evolved from the native word; the official name was Estado de Venezuela, República de Venezuela, Estados Unidos de Venezuela, a
African Union Mission to Somalia (2007–present)
The African Union Mission in Somalia is an active, regional peacekeeping mission operated by the African Union with the approval of the United Nations Security Council. It is mandated to support transitional governmental structures, implement a national security plan, train the Somali security forces, to assist in creating a secure environment for the delivery of humanitarian aid; as part of its duties, AMISOM supports the Federal Government of Somalia's forces in their battle against Al-Shabaab militants. 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 been authorised by the United Nations Security Council; the duration of AMISOM's mandate has been extended in each period that it has been up for review, lastly in July 2018. The current mandate expires on 31 May 2019, with an interim goal to reduce troop levels to a maximum of 20,626 by 28 February 2019.
AMISOM replaced and subsumed the IGAD Peace Support Mission in Somalia, a proposed Intergovernmental Authority on Development protection and training mission to Somalia approved by the African Union on September 14, 2006. IGASOM was approved by the United Nations Security Council on 6 December 2006. IGASOM was proposed for immediate implementation in March 2005 to provide peacekeeping forces for the latest phase of the Somali Civil War. At that time, the Islamic Courts Union had not yet taken control of Mogadishu, most hopes for national unity lay with the Transitional Federal Government which had organized in Nairobi, Kenya in 2004 and were planning to established a provisional capital in Baidoa, Bay region, Somalia. By May 2006, the situation was radically different, as the ICU had been engaged by the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism or ARPCT and was fighting for control of Mogadishu in the Second Battle of Mogadishu. By June, they had established control of the capital.
Fighting began to spread to other parts of the nation. Plans for IGASOM continued, though by July there were indications of opposition from the ICU, who saw the initiative as a US-backed, Western means to curb the growth of their Islamic movement; until December 2006, the UN Security Council had imposed an arms embargo on the group, but the embargo was lifted and a mandate for IGASOM issued on 6 December 2006 for six months. On 21 February 2007, the United Nations Security Council authorised the African Union to deploy a peacekeeping mission with a mandate of six months. In March 2007, Ugandan military officials arrived on the ground in Somalia. On 20 August 2007, the United Nations Security Council extended the African Union's authorisation to continue deploying AMISOM for a further six months and requested the Secretary-General to explore the option of replacing AMISOM with a United Nations Peacekeeping Operation to Somalia. Most on 30 July 2018, the Security Council unanimously approved resolution 2431, authorising Member States of the African Union to maintain the deployment of AMISOM until 31 May 2019, with an interim goal of reducing the number of troops to 20,626 by 28 February 2019, or further depending on the capabilities of Somali security forces.
IGASOM was expected to reach 8,000 troops, with an expected cost of $335 million for the first year. According to UN Security Council Resolution 1725, states bordering Somalia would not be eligible to deploy troops under IGASOM; the remaining IGAD member nations include Sudan and Uganda. Because of the objection of the burden falling on these three nations alone, the mission was expanded to include other member states of the African Union. AMISOM has a different composition; as proposed, it is to comprise an initial three battalions, growing to a total of nine battalions of 850 troops each, which would serve for an initial stabilization period of six months. The mission was to be modelled after the African Union Mission in Burundi; as early as March 25, 2005 Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys of the Union of Islamic Courts warned any peacekeepers would be unwelcome in the country. He was quoted by the BBC as saying, "We will fight fiercely to the death any intervention force that arrives in Somalia." Yet at the time, the ICU was not the military force it was to become later.
Faced with the ascendancy of the ICU after taking over the capital in the Second Battle of Mogadishu between May and June, 2006, UN-watchers were growing concerned with the level of hostility of the ICU towards the proposed IGASOM mission. Though IGAD and the ICU met and published a cordial and formal communique committing the ICU to the IGAD plans on December 2, by the time United Nations Security Council Resolution 1725 was passed on December 6, the ICU was and militantly opposed to peacekeepers entering Somalia, vowed to treat any peacekeepers as hostile forces; because of regional divisions, there were UIC resistance to allowing Ethiopian troops be part of the mission. Ethiopia, for its part, was leery of allowing Eritrean troops to be members of the IGAD peacekeeping force. In the face of ICU threats, the only IGAD members who had offered to send forces, withdrew in the face of concerns of the present feasibility of the mission. In Uganda's defense, the crisis does not allow for peacekeepers when there are active hostilities conducted with heavy weapons.
On January 1, 2007, after the defeat of the ICU in various battles in December 2006, Uganda again renewed its pledge of
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