Militia hunt al Qaeda in Somalia
NAIROBI - Militia loyal to US-backed Somali warlords have launched a campaign to capture or kill Islamic extremists in lawless Somalia, according to officials and diplomats familiar with the covert operation.
Washington is bankrolling the hunt as part of its war on terrorism to prevent new attacks in east Africa, halt training of foreign fighters in Somalia and curb "creeping Talibanisation" in the anarchic nation, they said.
The support is controversial and has drawn criticism from Somalia's fledgling and largely powerless transitional government that is worried the backing is further dividing the splintered nation.
While not providing arms, the United States has given money to warlords fighting Mogadishu's powerful Islamic courts, which are thought to be harbouring extremists including some affiliated with Al-Qaeda, officials said.
In addition to cash, US officials have shared with the warlords intelligence - satellite imagery, photographs and communications intercepts - about terrorist activity in Somalia, they said.
"The main objective is to neutralise the Al-Qaeda threat that is there," said one senior US official, who like others with knowledge of the operation spoke on condition of anonymity due to its sensitive nature.
Western intelligence agencies believe three or four Al-Qaeda operatives, including some responsible for the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, are now holed up in Somalia, officials said.
They are known to be in courier and telephone contact with associates in Pakistan and the Gulf and involved in the training of foreign fighters, mainly from the Middle East, the officials said.
And, there are fears the operatives are in the advanced stages of planning new attacks in east Africa, where Al-Qaeda has claimed not only the embassy strikes but the 2002 bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel in Kenya, they said.
"Al-Qaeda is running amok there and we want to stop them," a second US official said from Washington.
"Basically we're paying militias to pick people off," the official said, giving an unusually blunt description of the program, which is co-ordinated by the US embassy in Kenya.
The embassy in Nairobi refused to comment but senior officials there acknowledged contacts with the warlords while stressing the US outreach was broad and not limited to just them.
US diplomats have met leaders of various Somali groups to urge them to turn over the Al-Qaeda operatives, they said.
But particular interest and support has been paid to the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT), a coalition of Mogadishu warlords formed in February to fight the Islamic courts, the officials said.
"The alliance was an idea that was kicked around last year and we were not absent from those discussions," said one US official, referring to talks between warlords that led to the creation of the alliance.
Alliance fighters have already battled those loyal to the Islamic courts in February and March when at least 85 people were killed in the bloodiest clashes Mogadishu has seen since Somalia plunged into anarchy 15 years ago.
Tension has since soared in the city, with the courts declaring a holy war against the ARPCT, which imams say is "financed by the enemy of Islam," and both factions re-arming and re-positioning their forces.
US officials declined to discuss specifics of their support for the alliance, which is part of a wider effort by Washington to re-engage in Somalia after its disastrous military intervention there in the early 1990s.
But informed sources in Somalia said that on at least two occasions former US military and intelligence officials with experience in the country have brought large satchels of cash to Mogadishu to fund the alliance.
The amounts involved in those drops, which took place in January and February, were not clear but the sources said they understood the exchanges involved at least several hundred thousand dollars and perhaps more.
Recent recruits say the alliance is paying them 200 to 300 dollars per month, an unusually high salary in the impoverished country and more than what the Islamic courts pay their gunmen.
Members of Somalia's transitional government have expressed concern and frustration with US support for the alliance, which they say is hindering efforts to unite the country.
"The war against terror should be dealt with by the government not warlords," Minister of Information Mohamed Abdi Hayir said.
"Any efforts related to tribal leaders or warlords will be useless."
ARPCT officials are reluctant to discuss their finances but do not deny receiving money from the United States while insisting they are not following US orders.
"The alliance will accept moral and material support from anybody but it is purely a national initiative serving the interests of peace in Somalia," said Mogadishu warlord Mohamed Qanyare Afrah, a founding member of the coalition.
"No one can deny the presence of foreign fighters and the ARPCT will not stop until those elements have been surrendered," he said, accusing the Islamic courts of trying to turn Somalia into a hotbed of Islamic extremism.
That opinion is shared by others who fear the Islamists may be gaining ground by restoring a semblance of order to a country that has been plagued by lawlessness since strongman Mohamed Siad Barre was toppled in 1991.
Evidence of their growing influence was underscored this week when hundreds of people attended Mogadishu's first public execution under Sharia law in recent years, an event ordered and supervised by the courts.
Court officials deny any involvement with terrorists and accuse the alliance of being little more than a collection of abusive mercenaries employed by Washington to serve in a US-led war on Islam.
"The Americans are dealing with political hooligans who don't care about Somalia," said prominent Mogadishu cleric Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, the chairman of the Ifka-Halan Islamic court.
"They should spend their money in better places like humanitarian agencies rather than feeding warlords that have not been accepted by their people for the past 15 years," he said.
AFP
Washington is bankrolling the hunt as part of its war on terrorism to prevent new attacks in east Africa, halt training of foreign fighters in Somalia and curb "creeping Talibanisation" in the anarchic nation, they said.
The support is controversial and has drawn criticism from Somalia's fledgling and largely powerless transitional government that is worried the backing is further dividing the splintered nation.
While not providing arms, the United States has given money to warlords fighting Mogadishu's powerful Islamic courts, which are thought to be harbouring extremists including some affiliated with Al-Qaeda, officials said.
In addition to cash, US officials have shared with the warlords intelligence - satellite imagery, photographs and communications intercepts - about terrorist activity in Somalia, they said.
"The main objective is to neutralise the Al-Qaeda threat that is there," said one senior US official, who like others with knowledge of the operation spoke on condition of anonymity due to its sensitive nature.
Western intelligence agencies believe three or four Al-Qaeda operatives, including some responsible for the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, are now holed up in Somalia, officials said.
They are known to be in courier and telephone contact with associates in Pakistan and the Gulf and involved in the training of foreign fighters, mainly from the Middle East, the officials said.
And, there are fears the operatives are in the advanced stages of planning new attacks in east Africa, where Al-Qaeda has claimed not only the embassy strikes but the 2002 bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel in Kenya, they said.
"Al-Qaeda is running amok there and we want to stop them," a second US official said from Washington.
"Basically we're paying militias to pick people off," the official said, giving an unusually blunt description of the program, which is co-ordinated by the US embassy in Kenya.
The embassy in Nairobi refused to comment but senior officials there acknowledged contacts with the warlords while stressing the US outreach was broad and not limited to just them.
US diplomats have met leaders of various Somali groups to urge them to turn over the Al-Qaeda operatives, they said.
But particular interest and support has been paid to the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT), a coalition of Mogadishu warlords formed in February to fight the Islamic courts, the officials said.
"The alliance was an idea that was kicked around last year and we were not absent from those discussions," said one US official, referring to talks between warlords that led to the creation of the alliance.
Alliance fighters have already battled those loyal to the Islamic courts in February and March when at least 85 people were killed in the bloodiest clashes Mogadishu has seen since Somalia plunged into anarchy 15 years ago.
Tension has since soared in the city, with the courts declaring a holy war against the ARPCT, which imams say is "financed by the enemy of Islam," and both factions re-arming and re-positioning their forces.
US officials declined to discuss specifics of their support for the alliance, which is part of a wider effort by Washington to re-engage in Somalia after its disastrous military intervention there in the early 1990s.
But informed sources in Somalia said that on at least two occasions former US military and intelligence officials with experience in the country have brought large satchels of cash to Mogadishu to fund the alliance.
The amounts involved in those drops, which took place in January and February, were not clear but the sources said they understood the exchanges involved at least several hundred thousand dollars and perhaps more.
Recent recruits say the alliance is paying them 200 to 300 dollars per month, an unusually high salary in the impoverished country and more than what the Islamic courts pay their gunmen.
Members of Somalia's transitional government have expressed concern and frustration with US support for the alliance, which they say is hindering efforts to unite the country.
"The war against terror should be dealt with by the government not warlords," Minister of Information Mohamed Abdi Hayir said.
"Any efforts related to tribal leaders or warlords will be useless."
ARPCT officials are reluctant to discuss their finances but do not deny receiving money from the United States while insisting they are not following US orders.
"The alliance will accept moral and material support from anybody but it is purely a national initiative serving the interests of peace in Somalia," said Mogadishu warlord Mohamed Qanyare Afrah, a founding member of the coalition.
"No one can deny the presence of foreign fighters and the ARPCT will not stop until those elements have been surrendered," he said, accusing the Islamic courts of trying to turn Somalia into a hotbed of Islamic extremism.
That opinion is shared by others who fear the Islamists may be gaining ground by restoring a semblance of order to a country that has been plagued by lawlessness since strongman Mohamed Siad Barre was toppled in 1991.
Evidence of their growing influence was underscored this week when hundreds of people attended Mogadishu's first public execution under Sharia law in recent years, an event ordered and supervised by the courts.
Court officials deny any involvement with terrorists and accuse the alliance of being little more than a collection of abusive mercenaries employed by Washington to serve in a US-led war on Islam.
"The Americans are dealing with political hooligans who don't care about Somalia," said prominent Mogadishu cleric Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, the chairman of the Ifka-Halan Islamic court.
"They should spend their money in better places like humanitarian agencies rather than feeding warlords that have not been accepted by their people for the past 15 years," he said.
AFP
posted by Marko at 5/06/2006 05:50:00 PM
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