Western Resistance

« Russia: Beslan Islamist Gets Life Imprisonment | | Russia: Government to Sell Anti-Aircraft Weapons to Iran »

May 26, 2006

Somalia: Islamic Militia Gaining New Ground In Fierce Fighting

The battling in Somalia between rival militias of the Union of Islamic Courts and the Anti-Terror Alliance has erupted with renewed ferocity. Mogadishu has now seen some of the worst fighting since dictator Said Barre was ousted in 1991, which led the nation into lawlessness.

The fighting began again on May 7 and after three days, a ceasefire was announced. The bout of fighting in the area of Siisii had then had killed at least 57 people, and wounded 103. But the ceasefire was temporary, and served merely an excuse for militias from both sides to reinforce their numbers. A formal truce was negotiated on 14 May.

On Wednesday 24 May the fighting erupted in earnest in CC neighbourhood in northern Mogadishu around midnight, and six people were killed. Rocket propelled grenades and machine guns were used in the fighting.

Since then, the battles have intensified. The Times reports that at least 60 people have now been killed, and more than 150 have been wounded. Thousands of people have fled their homes to avoid the violence which has spread to other areas in the capital.

The Islamic Courts militia captured the Sahafi Hotel owned by A/Rashid Shire Elqeite, a member of the Counter-Terror Alliance, and they now have a strong presence in the southern and eastern parts of the city. According to All Africa.com, the Islamic militia took control of the Kilometre Four junction, location of the hotel, and moved towards Daynile, the domain of Mohamed Qanyare Afrah, another Alliance leader. Qanyare is the National Security minister of the interim government (based in Baidoa). He is also a warlord. He was asked last week by the interim government to resign, but has refused to comply.

In Galgalato, the northern suburb where the Islamic militias began the fighting last month, there are currently battles being waged between the two sides. In the north of Mogadishu, the main casualties of earlier fighting have been civilians, states Canada's CBC.

Late on Thursday,Dr. Sheikhdon Salad Elmi, director of Medina Hospital, stated that a mortar bomb had hit the hospital's triage center, killing one patient and wounding two more.

According to Sheikh Ali Osman, one of the commanders of the Islamic militias, the fighting had restarted after one of their bases had been attacked in southern Mogadishu.

News from Reuters and also ABC.net states that yesterday residents were carrying injured Somalis on wheelbarrows to hospital. Many injured civilians have broken limbs and gunshot wounds.

Most of the fighting has happened in Kilometer Four.

The two sides, as we explained earlier of the battle are a union of warlords and businessmen, called the Counter-Terror Alliance, and the Union of Islamic Courts.

The Counter-Terror Alliance was formed in February this year, but between February 18 and 22, a battle between the Alliance and Islamic militia led by Shiekh Sharif Sheikh Hassan of the Union of Islamic Courts caused 22 people to be killed, and more than 120 wounded.

On March 14 we reported that Sheikh Sharif Ahmed had announced that his Islamist militias would take control of Mogadishu by force. We reported on March 22 of the first move in Ahmed's strategy. Groups of Islamic militia arrived on buses in Galgalato in northern Mogadishu, with concealed weapons. There they ambushed a checkpoint manned by supporters of an Alliance warlord. They seized seized three trucks with mounted machine guns, and the current bout of violence ensued.

That battle caused the deaths of 90 people before a ceasefire was brokered on March 27. Days later, the Islamic militias broke the terms of the ceasefire on April 1, causing two people to be killed.

On May 2 Islamist militia tried to seize a government vehicle and take hostages outside Baidoa, seat of the interim government of Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf. On the same day they enacted the first sharia execution in Permuda district of Mogadishu, to show their power. In 1995, following the ousting of dictator Said Barre, the Islamic courts had enacted sharia punishments such as stonings and amputations of hands, but no public executions had thitherto taken place for a decade.

On May 5 we noted that President Abdullahi Yusuf complained that the US was funding the warlords of the Alliance, and on May 10, a report by the UN Security Council stated that the Islamic militias controlled about 80% of the capital. It appears that this statement was an exaggeration.

An insight into the mindset of Sheikh Sharif Ahmed (pictured) of the Union of Islamic Courts can be found here in an interview he gave earlier this month to Asharq Al Awsat. Sharif Ahmed lives modestly with his wife and two children in Mogadishu, without a computer.

He had become "radicalised" after seeing a gang kidnap a student and demand ransom money from his family, a few years ago. Sharif Ahmed was born in Chabila, central Somalia, in January 1964, Sheikh Sharif taught geography, Arabic and religious studies in Juba secondary school, where the student had been a pupil. Ahmed intervened and managed to secure the student's release.

He was educated in Libya and Sudan, and speaks fluent Arabic. He had not been involved with the Islamic Courts prior to that event, but he became nominated as their leader. The Islamic Courts were set up in 1996. As we have reported earlier, the Islamic courts have been used to control the population. They close down venues they consider un-Islamic, such as cinemas. Sharif Ahmed calls the US the "devil's allies".

The US counters by saying that the Islamic courts also act as a refuge for Al Qaeda operatives, who have been active for more than a year in Somalia. The Alliance also make this point.

Sharif Ahmed denies this, saying: "There are no fugitives from Al Qaeda or any other organization, as the US and Ethiopian intelligence services are claiming. This is an open country and strangers will be found out very quickly. Look at the number of lies Washington is telling about Iraq and Afghanistan. It is trying to repeat the same thing in Mogadishu but we will not let it."

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at May 26, 2006 11:43 AM

Comments

Post a comment