Mujega affa Alaba!!
In Somalia, a plan to fight foreigners
A key militia says it will train students to battle peacekeepers. Some see echoes of the Taliban.
By Salad Duhul
Associated Press
MOGADISHU, Somalia - The Islamic militia that controls much of southern Somalia said yesterday that it would train students for holy war against foreign peacekeepers, an ominous development amid fears that a Taliban-style regime is emerging in the country.
Last month, seven African countries, known as the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, endorsed a plan to send 3,500 Ugandan and Sudanese troops to Somalia to support the weak government based in Baidoa, a town 150 miles from the capital.
The Islamic militia has pledged to battle the peacekeeping force if it is deployed.
"We
will fight a jihad against them, and we will train our students in military tactics," said Fuad Mohammed Kalaf, an education official for the Islamic militia.
The militia leader, Sheikh Sharif Sheik Ahmed, added: "They are not the owners of Somalia. Somalia belongs to Somalis."
The African force was initially expected to deploy to Somalia next month, but that is unlikely. The deal faces two major obstacles: The United Nations must lift an arms embargo on Somalia that has been in place for more than 10 years to allow peacekeepers to enter the country, and the African Union must release funds to back the mission, expected to cost $34 million a month.
Kalaf said the training camps would be set up soon, but officials were still working out the details. He defended the plan to set them up in high schools.
"There is nothing wrong with our plan to train students," he said. "There are a lot of countries in the world that carry out
such exercises."
Meanwhile, the government tightened security around its headquarters in Baidoa - the only town it controls - a day after a suicide car bomber tried to kill President Abdullahi Yusef Ahmed.
The president escaped unharmed, but 11 people, including Abdullahi's younger brother, were killed in the explosion and a subsequent gun battle.
The attack followed the slaying Sunday of an Italian nun at a Mogadishu hospital where she worked.
Foreign Minister Ismail Mohamed Hurre said the government believed the car bomb and nun's slaying bore "the hallmarks of al-Qaeda." The organization's leader, Osama bin Laden, has called Somalia a front in his war on the West.
The Islamic militia has been accused by the United States of having ties with al-Qaeda, but the group has denied involvement in the car bombing and nun's slaying.
The government called on outside help yesterday to find those responsible
for the bombing - the first suicide attack in Somalia.
Somalia has not had an effective national government since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned against one other, creating anarchy.
The government was formed in 2004 with U.N. help in hopes of restoring order after years of lawlessness. But the Islamic movement seized the capital, Mogadishu, after fierce battles with secular warlords in June and now controls much of the country's south.
The group's strict and often severe interpretation of Islam raises memories of Afghanistan's Taliban, which was ousted by a U.S.-led campaign for harboring bin Laden and al-Qaeda fighters.
Since the beginning of the year, more than 26,300 Somalis have sought refuge in Kenya, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees said.
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