Somalians flee militia attacks
2006-06-29 11:11
Mogadishu - Residents of southern Mogadishu fled their homes for fear of more fighting on Wednesday, a day after Islamic militiamen seized a clan-held checkpoint, just outside Somalia's capital in an hour-long battle that killed six people, said witnesses.
Dahir Yare said: "Hundreds of people, mainly women and children, can be seen fleeing, fearing that fighting might flare up at any moment."
Hassan Fidow, who's small eatery was near the stand-off, said that militiamen belonging to a Habar Gidir clan leader, Abdi Hassan Awale, were facing off with those loyal to Islamists who controlled Mogadishu. He said the two militias were 500m apart.
Radical cleric 'linked to al-Qaeda'
The Islamic militia took control of Mogadishu and most of the rest of southern Somalia this month. It signed an agreement last week to stop all military action and recognised the country's powerless United Nations-backed interim government.
But, militia officials subsequently voted to replace their relatively moderate leader, who also had been reaching out to the West, with a radical cleric whom the United States accused of links to al-Qaeda.
Salad Ali Jelle, deputy information minister for Somalia's interim government, said the militia's attack on the checkpoint was a clear breach of the ceasefire.
Fighting killed three clan gunmen
The checkpoint connecting Mogadishu to the Lower Shabelle region was manned by members of the Habar Gidir clan who had been charging motorists to pass.
Awale, a former police chief who was also known as Abdi Qeybdiid, said the fighting killed three clan gunmen and three civilians.
Somalia had been without an effective central government since warlords toppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and later turned on each other, carving much of the country into armed camps ruled by violence and clan law.
Many of the capital's residents applauded the Islamic group for forcing the warlords from Mogadishu, despite concerns that the militia might try to remake Somalia into a theocracy akin to Afghanistan under the Taliban.
Islamic rule 'only option for Somalia'
State department spokesperson Sean McCormack said on Monday that the US had no plans to engage with the group's new leader, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, who was on an American terrorist watch list as a suspected collaborator with al-Qaeda.
Aweys, 71, said that he would honour his more moderate predecessor Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed's agreement to meet with interim government leaders next month.
He said he planned to tell them that Islamic rule was the only option for Somalia.
Underlining the apparent tougher line under Aweys' leadership, militia leaders said they would publicly stone to death four suspected rapists if they were convicted on Thursday in Jowhar, 90km from Mogadishu.
Ted Dagne, an Africa specialist at the Congressional Research Service, said it was too soon to characterise Aweys' leadership.
- AP