MOGADISHU, Somalia — The leader of a self-proclaimed counterterrorism
alliance said 70 members of the transitional, U.N.-backed parliament in Somalia
were al-Qaida sympathizers, and denied that he had reached a cease-fire
agreement with Islamic extremists.
Mohamed Omar Habeb, better known as Mohamed Dhere, also said Friday that a
militia loyal to the extremist Islamic Courts Union had attacked one of his
bases north of Mogadishu on Tuesday and promised to strike back. Dhere’s
Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counterterrorism battled the Islamic
court militias last week for control of northern Mogadishu, leaving more than
150 people dead.
Dhere told a news conference late Friday in his stronghold of Jowhar, 80
kilometers (50 miles) north of Mogadishu, that the members of parliament with
ties to al-Qaida intended to debilitate the body, which the United Nations hopes
will eventually return order to Somalia.
Somalia has been without an effective central government since the 1991
overthrow of longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. Since then, warlords who
divided the country into clan-based fiefdoms have fought one another.
“These members of parliament are spies and agents of foreign countries,”
Dhere said. “They are working now to undermine all the government’s efforts to
pacify the country.”
He also accused Ethiopian rebels from Ogaden Liberation Front of joining in
the fighting in Mogadishu.
No one from the government or the Ethiopian rebels was immediately available
for comment.
Dhere said that he was not part of a cease-fire agreement announced on Sunday
by clan elders to end last week’s fighting, but said he would only send his men
into battle again if he was attacked.
In an unrelated battle, witnesses on Friday said fighting in central Somalia
between members of the same clan had killed at least 12 people. The violence in
the Hiraan and Galgudud regions was not connected to the recent surge of
bloodshed in Mogadishu.
“The fighting has prompted many villagers to flee from their houses fearing
that the clashes could continue or spread elsewhere,” said Sa’id Moalin, an
elder, on local radio Friday. The battle was over land and water rights.
Witness Ahmed Ibrahim said by two-way radio that 12 people, most of them
militia members, had been killed in the violence that began early Thursday.
The clash was about 340 kilometers (210 miles) from Mogadishu, which has been
roiled in recent weeks by some of the worst fighting in more than a decade.
Islamic militias and a secular alliance of warlords are fighting for power in
this lawless Horn of Africa nation. (AP)
SOURCE: AP ,May 20, 2006
