US hunts terrorists in Somalia

2003-11-06 09:28

Mogadishu, Somalia - In lawless Mogadishu, where US officials fear al-Qaeda members are plotting their next attack, the word is out: Catch a terrorist, collect rewards as high as $5m.

At least four al-Qaeda terrorist suspects are in Somalia, Kenyan officials and UN experts say, and Americans are trying to capture them in a country that has not had an effective central government for more than a decade, officials and gunmen told reporters.

So far, they have netted at least one al-Qaeda suspect - Suleiman Abdalla Salim Hemed, accused of playing a role in the 1998 US embassy bombings in Africa - but rumours abound of gunmen kidnapping Arabs and turning them over to US agents.

A Somali warlord, Mohammed Dheere, co-ordinated the March capture of Hemed at the behest of US officials, gunmen familiar with the operation said. Most Somalis believe Dheere was generously rewarded.

Kenya's national security minister, Chris Murungaru, claimed credit for Hemed's capture and said he was turned over to US authorities, who have refused to comment.

But the gunmen said US agents regularly visit Dheere at his Mogadishu home.

After Hemed's capture, Dheere questioned Hemed's friends about other suspected terrorists. When shown photos from the FBI website, Hemed's friends said Dheere used the same photos when he questioned them. They said they didn't recognise any of the men in the photos.

One of the most-wanted al-Qaeda suspects, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, is thought to be hiding in Somalia, a senior Kenyan security official said on Wednesday.

Mohammed, a native of Comoros, has been indicted by a US court in the 1998 al-Qaeda bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 231 people. The US is offering $5m for information leading to his capture.

Mohammed also is accused of planning an attack in Kenya, where a car bomb exploded outside the Paradise Hotel in November 2002, killing 12 Kenyans and three Israeli tourists. Minutes before, two missiles fired by terrorists missed an Israeli chartered jet taking off from Mombasa, Kenya.

A draft UN report obtained on Tuesday detailed - without naming names - how the al-Qaeda cell hiding in Somalia planned those Kenya attacks, bought anti-aircraft missiles in Mogadishu and returned to Somalia after staging the strikes.

A Kenyan police report indicates the same cell - which reportedly includes two unidentified Somalis and an unidentified Arab - planned to ram a car bomb and fly a small plane into the new US embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, in June.

The senior Kenyan security official said Mohammed and Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, a Kenyan suspect in the hotel bombing, fled to Somalia after the plot to attack the new embassy fell apart.

US warships patrol the coastline but after the slaying of 18 troops by gunmen in 1993, US officials appear to be in no hurry to send forces back into Somalia.

All of the American efforts, however, cannot overcome the basic problems created by the lack of a government. Somalia has hundreds of unmonitored airports and seaports where weapons and people can pass easily if enough financial incentive is applied.

- AP