U.S. says al Qaeda radicals lead Somali Islamists
Source: Reuters
By Sue Pleming WASHINGTON, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Somali Islamists, who are in charge of the capital and other key areas, are becoming more radical and under growing control from an al Qaeda cell in East Africa, the top U.S. diplomat for Africa said on Thursday. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer told reporters that U.S. hopes a more moderate group might emerge to lead the group had not materialized. "The Council of Islamic Courts is now controlled by al Qaeda cell individuals, East Africa al Qaeda cell individuals. The top layer of the court are extremists. They are terrorists," Frazer said. "They are killing nuns, they have killed children and they are calling for a jihad (holy war)," she added. The Islamists, who seized the capital, Mogadishu, in June and are vying with the weak transitional government for control of the lawless country, have strongly denied having foreign fighters in their ranks. Washington believes at least three of the plotters behind the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya are in Somalia. The head of the Council of the Islamic Courts, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, is on U.N. and U.S. terrorist lists. The United States has had contact with more moderate members of the courts and would continue to do so, she said. "There are many moderate officials within it but the moderates are not emerging as they could get their heads taken off, literally," said Frazer. She also said an East African al Qaeda cell was providing logistics to the Islamists and training to its young Islamic fighters. Last month, Washington warned U.S. citizens that "terrorist threats" were emanating from extremist elements in Somalia. Somali Islamists later dismissed as fake two letters purportedly signed by Aweys that led to the U.S. warning. Frazer said funding for the courts came from countries such as Eritrea, Yemen, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, adding the United States was putting pressure on those nations "at the highest levels." The militant group al Qaeda was held responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, bombings against the United States. Asked whether Washington was planning military action against al Qaeda activists in Somalia, where U.S. forces withdrew in March 1994 after the death of 18 U.S. soldiers, Frazer said, "That's not the plan we have on the table." She said what was important was for the Islamists to reopen dialogue with the weak transitional government in the southern town of Baidoa. Last week, the United Nations authorized an African force to protect the transitional government, a move some fear could lead to an all-out regional war. "The possibility of the regionalization of the conflict in Somalia has been there from the outset and continues to be there," Frazer said. Somalia's Islamist movement has threatened to attack Ethiopian troops backing the Horn of Africa nation's interim government unless they leave within days, a threat the United States has called irresponsible.
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