Somali militia face off

By Guled Mohamed

MOGADISHU (Reuters) – Militiamen linked to Somalia’s sharia
courts faced off with a group vowing to fight Mogadishu’s new
Islamist rulers on Friday as residents feared another flare-up
in fighting after a month of relative peace.

And in another indication of the emerging hardline nature
of the Islamists, a local sheikh was quoted in local media as
saying anyone who does not practice daily prayers should die.

“He who does not perform prayer will be considered as
infidel and our sharia law orders that person to be killed,”
Mogadishu cleric Sheikh Abdalla Ali said, according to the
Shabelle media group. It could not be independently confirmed.

Manning checkpoints and driving pick-ups mounted with heavy
guns, rival militias stood just 150 meters apart in the
Kilometer Four area of Mogadishu, which Islamists seized from
U.S.-backed warlords on June 5 after bloody battles.

Seeking to cling to an enclave in Kilometer Four, the
warlord-linked Sa’ad sub-clan has boosted its defenses and
refused to hand over weapons, as well as briefly seizing a
vehicle from the pro-Islamist Ayr sub-clan, residents said.

“There are fears of fighting in Kilometer Four between
Islamic Courts Union and the Sa’ad,” resident Abdikarim Ahmed
said.

“The Sa’ad took over a vehicle owned by the Ayr and held it
for several hours. They took several guns from the vehicle and
later released it.”

Warlord fighters linked to the Sa’ad last month vowed to
regain territory they lost in the fight for Mogadishu, which
killed 350 people in close range artillery duels. They have
since been trying to secure an enclave in Kilometer Four.

“We know the Islamic courts have surrounded us. We do not
fear anything and are ready to fight them,” Sa’ad militiaman
Abdirahman Ahmed said.

“All the Sa’ad militias have come together and are guarding
our position. The Islamic courts have closed the roads at Sobe
near K4 and Tarbuunka,” he said, referring to areas nearby.

TALIBAN-STYLE RULE?

Outside Mogadishu, the Islamists have also pressed Sa’ad
warlord Abdi Awale Qaybdiid to hand over guns from his
stronghold after seizing three of his checkpoints.

Qaybdiid, one of the few warlords not to have surrendered
or fled, was part of a self-styled anti-terrorism alliance that
lost to the Islamist movement, which now controls a swathe of
southern Somalia.

The sharia courts say they have brought relative law and
order to Mogadishu after 15 years of anarchy.

Since taking the city, the Islamists first sought to
project a moderate image, sending conciliatory messages to the
West.

But some Somalis are becoming disillusioned with their
practices and nervous of a Taliban-style rule.

The international community and African neighbors are
trying to prevent confrontation between Somalia’s weak interim
government and the Islamists, who have opposing views on the
deployment of foreign peacekeepers in the Horn of Africa
nation.

The appointment of hardline cleric Sheikh Hassan Dahir
Aweys — viewed by the United States and United Nations as
having terrorist links — has raised alarm in the West.

On a visit to neighboring Ethiopia, Irish Foreign Affairs
Minister Dermot Ahern called for African and European diplomacy
in trying to stop Somalia’s woes from spilling over its
borders.

“We are extremely worried that the situation inside Somalia
could go out of hand,” he said.

(Additional reporting by Tsegaye Tadesse in Addis Ababa)