Despite ceasefire call, fighting continues in Mogadishu

At least 90 Somalis have died in latest violence between Al Qaeda-linked militias and US-backed warlords.

full article

.....
South Africa's Independent Online

reports that the secular warlords, widely unpopular for having victimized the Somali public for years, are commonly believed to be backed by the United States.

Washington has long viewed mainly Muslim Somalia as a potential haven for Islamic militants, and it is thought by many both inside and outside the nation to be sending money to the Mogadishu warlords as part of its counter-terrorism strategy.

Even Somalia's interim President Abdullahi Yusuf said last week Washington was backing the warlords, whose new coalition dubs itself the "Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism."

Reuters

reports that the US has declined to comment on the allegations, which Somali officials are making more often and more publicly than they had in the past.

Somali officials had until now also been cautious about responding to the reports of U.S. cash going to Mogadishu.

But Somali government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari said....: "The U.S. government funded the warlords in the recent battle in Mogadishu, there is no doubt about that.

"The warlords, through U.S. support, have caused so many deaths of innocent civilians in the recent fighting in Mogadishu," he said by telephone from Baidoa, a provincial town where the interim Somali government is based. "(It) only fuels further civil war."

Voice of America (VOA)

reports that last week, the question of US support for Somalian warlords was put directly to State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack.

"We are working with individual members of the transitional government to try to create a better situation in Somalia," he answered. "Our other operating principle is to work with responsible individuals and certainly members of the transitional government in fighting terror."

McCormack provided no details. But Somalis say that answer was enough to confirm their suspicions that, as part of its global war on terror, the United States is giving active support to some of the most powerful factional leaders and their business allies in the Somali capital.

But Somalis no more want the warlords in charge than they do Islamic extremists, writes VOA.

Mogadishu-based journalist Mohammed Amiin Sheik Adow says few Somalis support Muslim extremism and many are in favor of adopting ways to stop militants from establishing a firm foothold in the country.

But Adow says Somalis do not want factional leaders heading up that fight. It was warring clan leaders and their militias, who left Somalia in chaotic ruin after the fall of Somali dictator Mohammed Siad Barre in 1991. Adow says Somalis are fed up with them and many have been turning to Islamic courts, seeking protection from the warlords.

"The Islamic clerics are [considered] better than the warlords because they set up Islamic Shariah [law] courts in Mogadishu, which at least can do something about security," he noted.

VOA adds that Somalis believe the US support of the warlords is feeding, not curbing, Islamic extremism in the region, and that the US should focus on stabilizing Somalia's infrastructure, rather than pursuing terrorists there.

Mogadishu "blazing" as new fighting kills 30
25 May 2006 11:06:37 GMT
Source: Reuters
)

By Mohamed Ali Bile

MOGADISHU, May 25 (Reuters) - Mogadishu residents carried wounded Somalis on wheelbarrows as bullets flew over the battered capital on Thursday in a new flare-up of violence between rival militias that killed up to 30 people.

Firing mortars, grenades and anti-aircraft guns, militia linked to Islamic courts squared off with gunmen for a self-styled anti-terrorism coalition of warlords, in a resumption of the worst violence in Mogadishu for a decade.

Scores fled the fighting, which erupted on Wednesday and intensified Thursday morning as it spread across Mogadishu. The streets were full of terrified old people and children, witnesses said.

"There are so many people dead, I saw nearly 30 dead and over 40 wounded," resident Abdifatah Abdikadir told Reuters by telephone from the Kilometre Four area in southern Mogadishu.

"People are being carried on wheelbarrows to the hospital with broken limbs and gunshot wounds. It's going from bad to worse."

The battle for control of Mogadishu has been going on since February, and this fourth round ended a ceasefire of nearly a week, brokered by clan elders.

So far at least 270 people have been killed, most of them civilians, in fighting that was largely confined to the north of the coastal capital, but has since spread south.

"We brought my child to the Hanana medical clinic this morning, two minutes later the horrible shootings began, and our lives were in danger," Halima Jama, a mother of three, said.

Both sides confirmed the fighting, of which the bulk was in Kilometre 4.

"The fighting is very heavy. They are hitting each other with mortars, anti-aircraft missiles and anti-tanks," coalition member Ibrahim Maalim said.

"MOGADISHU IS BLAZING"

"I have never seen such a heavy exchange. Mogadishu is blazing with fire," he added to Reuters, as heavy artillery and gunshots reverberated over the telephone.

"There are bodies lying everywhere. I cannot count them and there are wounded people lying on the streets crying for help."

Maalim said militia for the Islamic courts had pushed the alliance out of a hotel owned by one of its members in a crucial junction connecting the capital's main roads.

"The owner of the Sahafi Hotel is a member of the alliance, that is why we seized the hotel and its surrounding areas," said Ahmed Mohamed, a leader of an Islamic youth organization which supports the courts.

Witnesses said they saw Islamic militia set ablaze a coalition vehicle. Others saw the bodies of three Islamic fighters on a technical -- a pick-up armed with heavy guns.

Some analysts view the violence as a new proxy war between Washington and Islamic militants. Washington has long viewed Somalia, without any real govenment since the ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, as a terrorist haven.

more