Somali president says U.S. backs warlords

[Al-khiyal]

The leader of a U.N.-backed transitional government that is trying to assert control over Somalia said Wednesday he believes the United States is funding an alliance of warlords fighting radical Islamic militias in his country and should be working directly with his administration instead.

The United States has said only that American officials have met with a wide variety of Somali leaders to try to fight international terrorists in the country.

Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed told The Associated Press during a two-day visit to Stockholm that he believes Washington is supporting the warlords-turned-politicians as a way of fighting several top al-Qaida operatives who are being protected by radical clerics.

"They really think they can capture al-Qaida members in Somalia," he said. "But the Americans should tell the warlords they should support the government, and cooperate with the government ... We are the legitimate government, and we will help you fight terrorism."

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said he did not know "the origin of these remarks in terms of what he has in mind."

"Our interest is purely in seeing Somalia achieve a better day," McCormack said. "It's a real concern of ours, terror taking root in the Horn of Africa ... We don't want to see another safe haven for terrorists created."

Somalia has not had an effective central government since clan-based warlords overthrew the government in 1991 and then began fighting each other. A transitional government headed by Yusuf was formed in October 2004 but its members quickly split over what the government's priorities were and where it should be located. It only controls a few cities and Yusuf spends much of his time out of the country.

The State Department said in March that the U.S. government was concerned about "al-Qaida fugitives responsible for the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam (in Tanzania) and the November 2002 bombing of a tourist hotel and attack on a civilian airliner in Kenya, who are believed to be operating in and around Somalia."

Several key warlords in the new government have formed an alliance with the stated aim of capturing al-Qaida members. The Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counterterrorism was formed after a fundamentalist Islamic group began asserting itself in the capital and portrayed itself as an alternative to warlords.

Fueling suspicion that the group is receiving outside aid, the alliance has become one of the most powerful militias in Somalia in a matter of months.

Residents of alliance-held areas report trucks arriving full of new weapons, and Somalis with connections to the alliance have said U.S. officials have frequently visited its leaders.

Yusuf said U.S. support for the warlords could undermine the government's efforts to bring stability to the region.

"These groups, they really do not want Somalia to become a stabilized country," he said. "They do not want the government to function."

He said his government is committed to fighting terrorism, but that it can only be effective if it first gets help from the international community "to build the country up from scratch."

Source

[Al-khiyal]

Heavy fighting has erupted between Islamist militias and fighters loyal to an alliance of regional commanders for a sixth consecutive day in the Somalian capital, Mogadishu.

Islamist militias said five people had died in overnight fighting in the northern districts of Sisi and Yaqshid.

Siyad Mohamed, a militia leader linked to the Islamists, said on Friday: "It's very hard to count the wounded but the number is definitely high."

Shells crashed into homes as the rival groups fought battles using artillery, mortars and anti-aircraft missiles.

At least 80 people have been killed since Sunday, according to the International Committee for the Red Cross.

More than 200 have been injured and at least 70% of people in the worst affected areas are believed to have fled from their homes.

The street battles are the third this year between militias allied to the Islamic courts and the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT), who many Somalis believe are backed by the US......

Somalia fighting enters sixth day

[Al-khiyal]

Islamic militia and gunmen loyal to US-backed warlords swarmed the streets of Mogadishu in a battle which left at least 130 dead – mostly passers-by.

The heavily armed reinforcements arrived in pickup trucks mounted with heavy machine guns.

Fighters from both sides closed in on each other following a night of artillery exchanges that sent thousands of civilians fleeing the Sii-Sii neighbourhood of northern Mogadishu.

Residents in the Somalia capital described it as the worst fighting in more than a decade of lawlessness. Thousands of families were fleeing the capital.....

Innocents butchered in Somalia

[nesreen]

They have done it in 1992 and did nothing but cause more fighting between rebel groups , i wish they never interefered but truly help Somalia towards security and peace and stability (but who is going to buy their arms if there are no conflicts ?)

[Al-khiyal]

Fighting in the Somalian capital, Mogadishu, has entered its seventh day, with at least two people reported killed in clashes overnight.

Although estimates vary, it is thought between 102 and 142 people, most of them civilians, have now died since Islamic fighters and US-backed warlords began battling for control of the city, local sources say.

The International Committee for the Red Cross says at least 80 people have been killed since Sunday. A further 200 have been wounded, local hospital sources say.

Both sides engaged in close-range firefights and fired mortars at each other on Saturday night in the northern neighbourhood of Sisi.

Sporadic gunfire was reported in the Huriwa, Waharaade and Yaqshid districts both north and south of the capital.

There are also unconfirmed reports that both sides are massing forces near the road linking the capital to southern Somalia, the only route currently accessible to civilians.

Somalia's largely powerless interim government, based in Baidoa, west of the capital, has urged the international community to help stop the violence.....

Fighting continues in Somali capital

[Al-khiyal]

Islamic militias and rival secular fighters signed a cease-fire Sunday under pressure from clan leaders _ a deal intended to end eight days of fighting that has killed at least 142 people.

The battle for parts of the capital Mogadishu _ described as the worst fighting in more than a decade of lawlessness _ has left 280 people wounded, overwhelming hospitals. Doctors said most of the 142 dead were civilians killed in crossfire. Thousands have fled their homes.

The chairman of the radical Islamic Court Union militias and a senior commander for the secular fighters agreed to stop the bloodletting after clan elders threatened to unleash their own combatants on whichever side was violating the cease-fire, leaders said.

Somalia has had no effective central government since 1991. A U.N-backed interim government has tried to assert control from Baidoa, 150 miles west of Mogadishu, because the capital is considered unsafe.

The Islamic fundamentalists have portrayed themselves as the force capable of bringing order to the Horn of Africa country. They have built up their forces as part of a campaign to install an Islamic government in Somalia and have established a system of courts. The secular alliance accuses the Islamists of having ties to al-Qaida, while the Islamic group says the warlords are puppets of the United States.

Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed signed the deal on behalf of the Islamic fighters and Nuur Daqle signed for the secular Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counterterrorism, ending sporadic gunfire across Mogadishu earlier Sunday.

"We are not only accepting the cease fire today but we were always ready for it," said Hussein Gutale Ragheh, a spokesman for the alliance.

The two men refused to meet face-to-face to sign the agreement, underlying the degree of animosity between the sides. Under the cease-fire, clan leaders will help the opponents disengage combatants in the Sii-Sii neighborhood, the center of the clashes.

"We really hope this day will be the day that marks the start of a process for a better future ... mutual respect and peace in their city," said former President Ali Mahdi, who played a key role in efforts to stop fighting.

Fighting in Somalia traditionally has largely been along clan lines and economically motivated, but the current battle appears to be over whether Somalia should be governed by Islamic law.

The Islamic courts are popular in Mogadishu because in recent years they have provided the only form of order in parts of the city.

Rival militias sign cease-fire in Somalia

[Al-khiyal]

The U.S. is working with regional and international partners to keep al-Qaida from establishing itself in northeastern Africa, White House press secretary Tony Snow said Wednesday. He would not say whether that included warlords in Somalia.

Snow cited Somalia's lack of a functioning government and said Osama bin Laden's network uses such chaotic situations to establish terrorist training centers and bases. Somalia is just across the Gulf of Aden from Yemen and the Saudi Peninsula.

Two weeks ago, Somalia's transitional president said he believed the United States was bankrolling an alliance of warlords, the same people whose armed gangs are keeping Somalia ungovernable.

Asked Wednesday whether the United States was working with warlords, Snow said he had to speak carefully.

"You've got instability in Somalia right now, and there is concern about the presence of foreign terrorists, particularly al-Qaida, within Somalia right now," he said.

"In an environment of instability, as we've seen in the past, al-Qaida may take root, and we want to make sure that al-Qaida does not in fact establish a beachhead in Somalia."

Snow said the United States "will continue to work with regional and international partners wherever we can to crack down on terrorism and also to try to prevent its rising."

At the State Department, spokesman Sean McCormack also declined to be specific about the partners with whom the United States is working.

"We certainly have active efforts working with the international community and working across a spectrum of Somalis to make sure that Somalia isn't a safe haven for terrorism," McCormack said.

On May 3, Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed told The Associated Press in Sweden, "The Americans should tell the warlords they should support the government and cooperate with the government. ... We are the legitimate government, and we will help you fight terrorism."

Somalia has been without a real government since largely clan-based warlords overthrew longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

U.S. won't say if it aids Somali warlords