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Somali militia face off

Posted on: Friday, 7 July 2006, 07:19 CDT

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)

Source: REUTERS

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