[Marxism] More on Somalia victory by Islamists -- indicating major defeat for War on Islam ("Terror")

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

MSNBC.com       
  _____

Islamic militia says it captured Somalia capital
U.S. officials claim groups are sheltering three al-Qaida leaders
The Associated Press

Updated: 4:50 p.m. ET June 5, 2006

MOGADISHU, Somalia - An Islamic militia with alleged links to al-Qaida
seized Somalia's capital Monday after weeks of fighting with U.S.-backed
secular warlords, raising fears that the nation could fall under the
sway of Osama bin Laden's terrorist organization.

The advance unified the city for the first time in more than a decade
and after 15 years of anarchy in this Horn of Africa nation. But it also
posed a direct challenge to a fledging U.N.-backed Somali government.

"We won the fight against the enemy of Islam. Mogadishu is under control
of its people," Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, chairman of the Islamic Courts
Union, said in a radio broadcast. The militia, which has formed an
alliance that transcends clan, controls a 65-mile radius around the
capital after fighting off a secular alliance of warlords.

The Islamic militia is gaining ground just as the U.N.-backed interim
government struggles to assert control outside its base in Baidoa, 155
miles from Mogadishu. The prices of weapons soared there Monday as fears
grew that the militia could head to Baidoa next.

The militia is the first group to consolidate control over all of
Mogadishu's neighborhoods since the last government collapsed in 1991
and warlords took over, dividing this impoverished country of 8 million
people into a patchwork of rival fiefdoms.

Omar Jamal, director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in St. Paul,
Minn., said the Islamic militia's victory in Mogadishu was a turning
point in the country's history.

"It is exactly the same thing that happened with the rise to power of
the Taliban" in Afghanistan, he said, adding that the extremists are
"using the people's weariness of violence, rape and civil war" to gain
support for a government based on Islamic law.

The battle between the militia and the secular alliance has been
intensifying in recent months, with more than 300 people killed and
1,700 wounded - many of them civilians caught in the crossfire of
grenades, machine guns and mortars.

U.S. backs secular alliance
Alliance leaders could not be reached for comment Monday and had likely
fled Mogadishu. One of them, warlord Mohamed Dheere, was believed to be
in neighboring Ethiopia seeking reinforcements.

The United States is backing the secular alliance in an attempt to root
out any al-Qaida members operating in the Horn of Africa. U.S.
officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity
of the issue, have confirmed cooperating with the warlords. Abdullahi
Yusuf Ahmed, president of Somalia's transitional national government,
has said Washington is funding the alliance.

The Bush administration has not confirmed or denied backing the
alliance, saying only that they support those who fight terror.

On Monday, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said he could not
offer any details about Monday's advance by the militia.

"We do have real concerns about the presence of foreign terrorists in
Somalia, and that informs an important aspect of our policy with regard
to Somalia," he said.

The United States has not carried out any direct action in Somalia since
the deaths of 18 servicemen in a 1993 battle depicted in the film "Black
Hawk Down."

The U.S. officials said recently that Islamic leaders in Mogadishu are
sheltering three al-Qaida leaders indicted in the deadly 1998 U.S.
Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. The same al-Qaida cell is
believed responsible for the 2002 suicide bombing of an Israeli-owned
hotel in Kenya that killed 15 people and a simultaneous attempt to shoot
down an Israeli airliner over Kenya.

Mixed responses by residents
The Islamic militants and their secular rivals began competing for
influence in earnest after a U.N.-backed interim government slowly began
to gain international recognition. The government, weak and wracked by
infighting, has not even been able to enter the capital because of the
violence.

Interim Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi recently fired four ministers
who were part of the secular alliance, leaving the alliance without any
support in the government.

Mogadishu residents expressed relief at Monday's relative peace, but had
mixed responses to the Islamic militia's advance.

"The victory of Islamic courts is a major step toward a lasting peaceful
settlement in Mogadishu," said Somali economist Abdinasir Ahmed. "We are
tired of the deception and rhetoric of the warlords."

Abdulqaadir Bashir, a computer engineer, disagreed. "The Islamic clerics
want to be like Taliban regime in Afghanistan," he said. "People have no
hope at all."

Jamal said it will take time for the militants to consolidate their
power in Mogadishu, and that the struggle to control the country will
not end there. He called on the international community to do everything
possible to support the U.N.-backed government to keep the Islamic
radicals from expanding their power base any farther.

"This war will not stop in Mogadishu," Jamal said.

C 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not
be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/1314820



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