Al Qaeda linked Islamist tightens grip on Somalia

Sunday Times:

A HARDLINE Islamic sheikh linked to Al-Qaeda was tightening his grip on the devastated capital of Somalia this weekend after the defeat of secular warlords who have terrorised the city for 15 years.

Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys emerged as the radical leader of the Union of Islamic Courts, an alliance of religious militias that wrested control of Mogadishu last week from clan leaders whose own reign of terror was featured in the film Black Hawk Down, about the loss of 18 US soldiers there in 1993.

Last weekÂ?s Islamist victory was a humiliating blow to American policy in the region. Washington had backed the warlords as a bulwark against Islamic terrorism.

The rise of Aweys, who is on AmericaÂ?s most wanted terrorist list, prompted concern that Somalia could become a haven for Al-Qaeda in the horn of Africa.

The clandestine American operation to back the warlords was funded by the CIA, according to US reports. The CIA paid them to capture Al-Qaeda agents who were believed to be behind the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and a 2002 attack on an Israeli plane and an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa, also in Kenya.

...

Residents of the capital attributed the IslamistsÂ? support to a popular yearning for law and order, rather than any desire for Islamic government.

The warlordsÂ? reign was characterised by brutal feuds, hostage-taking and extortion. The Islamic CourtsÂ? network of militias made the areas they controlled safe, often by enforcing severe punishments such as the amputation of a hand for a first criminal offence.

...

The Afghans made the same bargain with the devil when it embraced the Taliban in the name of law and order. Somalia will soon regret the victory of the Islamist and if these guys invite al Qaeda into the country they will meet the same end that the Taliban did. Their next battle would not be with proxy warriors but with the real thing, and it will take more than shooting down a Blackhawk helicopter to win this time.

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