US role in Somalia scrutinised as warlords battle militias

Fighting in Mogadishu last week claimed more than 80 lives amid concerns that Islamic fundamentalism could be strengthening its toehold in a Muslim nation perceived by the US as a potential haven for terrorists.

There were reports of wounded civilians being wheel-barrowed along streets and mortar rounds exploding in hospital grounds. It was another ugly chapter in Somalia's violent history.

For more than a decade, this nation in the Horn of Africa has come to symbolise the worst traits of a failed state - violence, rule by the power of the gun, and extortion and exploitation by warlords who have carved the country into fiefdoms.

The battles have raged on and off for months, pitting militias loyal to Islamic courts in the capital against an alliance of warlords who claim to be fighting under the banner of "anti-terrorism".

Along with the fighting have come allegations that the US has backed the warlords, using them as proxies in its war on terrorism.

Last week, William Bellamy, the US ambassador in neighbouring Kenya, felt the need to react. He said America was being wrongly blamed for the fighting. But in a letter to a Kenyan newspaper, he said that the "US has encouraged a variety of groups in Somalia, in all corners of the country, and among all clans, to oppose the al-Qaeda presence and reject the Somali militants who shelter and protect these terrorists".

The US embassy in Nairobi declined to comment. The US State Department will not reveal which parties it is backing in Mogadishu but says it is working with "responsible members of the Somali political spectrum" to prevent al-Qaeda establishing a beachhead in Somalia.

US officials have made no secret of their concerns about the country. The Bush administration's interest in Somalia materialised after the attacks on the US on September 11 2001, when several Somali individuals and entities, including the country's biggest remittance banking company, were listed as groups suspected of having al-Qaeda links.

In 2002, the US established a taskforce in neighbouring Djibouti as part of its counter-terrorism strategy. However, Captain David Westover, a spokesman, said the 1,500-strong force had had no operations inside Somalia.

The fears are generated by Somalia's lawlessness - it has not had an effective government since 1991 - and its location. The country has a coastline that stretches from the Indian Ocean to the Gulf of Aden.

Although it is a Muslim nation, most Somalis follow a moderate form of Islam. But the concern is that fundamentalists could exploit the chaos that 15 years of statelessness have created. More than a dozen attempts to bring stability to the country have failed and the current transitional government sits in Baidoa, a central town, impotent and divided.

Islamic courts have been in place for years, offering schools, a justice system and other services the state would normally provide. Analysts say the recent fighting indicates there is greater co-ordination between some courts, which have become dominated by extremists, and jihadists. They add that the reports of US backing for the warlords have enabled militants to increase their public support.

Still, the extremists are viewed as a small, if well-organised, minority. The fighting is driven as much by power struggles, clan issues and "everybody wanting to have the privileged position of being the US's partner", one analyst says.

The result is that ordinary Somalis are caught between warlords who have brought violence, fear and extremist elements.

Rumours that the US has paid faction leaders to hunt down suspected al-Qaeda members hiding out in Somalia are not new.

In 2003, Kenyan authorities said they had handed an al-Qaeda suspect - alleged to have participated in the 1998 US embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam - over to the US after Somali gunmen detained him in Mogadishu.

Suspected al-Qaeda members who carried out an attack in November 2002 on an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa are also believed to use Somalia.

A police statement given by one of four Kenyans tried and acquitted for murder in connection with the attack describes how he was recruited and trained there. The statement by Omar Said Omar, a copy of which was obtained by the Financial Times, also details how the cell's escape to Somalia after the attack was planned. Mr Omar was convicted in April for illegal possession of arms.

But other suspects - including Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, a Comoran who is on the FBI's most wanted terrorists list - are still at large and the US believes that some of those fighting with the courts helped shelter alleged terrorists, an analyst says.

And as long as the chaos continues, concerns will remain that Somalia provides a hide-out and transit centre for those plotting fresh attacks, amid growing criticism of US policy.

"There's intelligence that the jihadists in Mogadishu have been training Somali diaspora, some of whom return to their host countries.

"The risk is that despite the small numbers, it could be beginning to represent a transnational terrorism threat," says an analyst who has covered Somalia for many years.

"Not only is the US contributing to the clashes, it's on the losing side at the moment. It's about time Washington figured out that a change of tack is desperately needed."

By Andrew England in Nairobi