The militia said it had appointed Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, who the Bush administration says was an associate of Osama bin Laden in the early 1990s.
In another sign that radical Islam is taking hold in the eastern African nation, the militia changed its name Saturday from the Islamic Courts Union to the Conservative Council of Islamic Courts.
The appointment of Aweys makes it unlikely that the increasingly powerful militia will govern using the moderate brand of Islam practiced by most Somalis.
Aweys, a cleric believed to be in his 60s, has advocated strenuously for a strict Islamic government to end 15 years of anarchy in Somalia. In 1991, warlords drove out dictator Mohammed Siad Barre and turned on each other, turning the country into a patchwork of rival fiefdoms.
Aweys replaces Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, who is moderate in comparison.
The Islamic militia controlling Somalia’s capital said Saturday it was investigating the slaying of an award-winning Swedish journalist, who was fatally shot while covering a demonstration in Mogadishu.
Abdullahim Isa Adul, secretary to the chairman of the Islamic Courts Union, which seized control of the capital and surrounding areas this month, said several people had come forward with information about the killing, but he offered no details.
Martin Adler, 47, was shot once in the back Friday by an unidentified gunman who disappeared as demonstrators fled in panic, witnesses said.
Swedish news agency TT on Saturday described Adler – a cameraman, photographer and reporter – as one of the country’s most successful video journalists, who had covered some 20 conflicts and other stories in dozens of nations.
Soure: AP, June 25, 2006
