MOGADISHU, Somalia (CNN) — Islamic militia fighters Sunday attacked a group loyal to secular warlord Hussein Aideed in Mogadishu who refused to disarm. The ensuing firefight left 15 dead and over 20 injured, hospital sources said.
It is unclear what effect, if any, the fighting will have on a cease-fire the Islamic militia signed with Somalia’s weak transitional government two weeks ago.
The two sides are scheduled to meet again on July 15 in the Sudanese capital Khartoum. Somalia’s last functioning government collapsed in 1991. The U.N.-backed transitional government, based in the inland city of Baidoa, wields little power.
The United Nations has warned that without international efforts to broker a settlement, the rise of the ICU could trigger a regional war in the Horn of Africa.
Ethiopian troops have moved toward the Somali border since the ICU captured Mogadishu, and could intervene if the militia, which has called for the establishment of Islamic law in Somalia, were to move toward Baidoa, he said.
The United States has refused to deal with the militia’s leader, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, because of his alleged ties to al Qaeda.
He is the former leader of al-Ittihad al-Islami, a Somali group that the U.S. State Department has designated a terrorist organization.
However, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said U.S. officials are still studying the “shifting sands” to determine the group’s intentions for the country.
The ICU denies protecting terrorists and said it was willing to hold talks with the transitional government, but would not accept the government’s call for a new international peacekeeping mission in the country.
Source: CNN, July 9, 2006
