Despite the Bush administration’s persistence it is still not generally recognized as a principle of international law that terrorists are hostis humani generis—enemies of humanity that do not enjoy the protection of any laws whatsoever—and this special status continues to be reserved for pirates and slavers.
So presumably Somalia’s Islamist fighters are a step up from pirates. Or perhaps the Saudi policy of making sure to have plenty of terrorists bought and paid for is returning some dividend, at least seemingly so. [CNN]