US Bankrolls Somali Warlords to Fight Al-Qaeda: Report

NAIROBI, May 5, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The United States is bankrolling Somali warlords to hunt down or kill foreign fighters and "Islamic extremists" belonging to Al-Qaeda in Somalia, US officials have revealed.

"Basically we're paying militias to pick people off," a US official told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on condition of anonymity on Friday, May 5.

Coordinated by the US embassy in Kenya, the US program envisages funds to Somali warlords to hunt down what Washington believes to be "Al-Qaeda operatives," according to US officials.

The program has also shared intelligence – satellite imagery, photographs and communications intercepts – about "terrorist" activities in Somalia.

"The main objective is to neutralize the Al-Qaeda threat that is there," said another senior US official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the program.

Despite declining to comment, senior officials of the US embassy in Nairobi acknowledged contacts with the Somali warlords.

They stressed that the US outreach was broad and not limited to just them.

Western intelligence agencies believe three or four Al-Qaeda operatives are now holed up in Somalia, officials said.

"Al-Qaeda is running amok there and we want to stop them," a US official said.

Anti-Terror Alliance

Under the program, US diplomats have met leaders of various Somali groups to urge them to turn over Al-Qaeda operatives.

But special interest and support have been given to the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT), a coalition of Mogadishu warlords formed in February to fight the Islamic current in the lawless country, officials noted.

"The alliance was an idea that was kicked around last year and we were not absent from those discussions," said one US official, referring to talks between warlords that led to the creation of the alliance.

US officials declined to discuss specifics of their support for the alliance.

But informed sources in Somalia said that former US military and intelligence officials with experience in Somalia have brought large satchels of cash to Mogadishu to fund the alliance.

Recent recruits say the alliance is paying them 200 to 300 dollars per month, an unusually high salary in the impoverished country.

ARPCT officials did not deny receiving funds from the United States.

"The alliance will accept moral and material support from anybody but it is purely a national initiative serving the interests of peace in Somalia," said Mogadishu warlord Mohamed Qanyare Afrah, a founding member of the coalition.

He claimed that foreign fighters were operating in the war-torn country.

"No one can deny the presence of foreign fighters and the ARPCT will not stop until those elements have been surrendered," he told AFP.

A government source had told IslamOnline.net four cameras linked to solar cells and state-of-the-art equipment had been installed on the depopulated rocky island of Burr Gaabo by US intelligence as part of the US-led "global war on terror".

Disuniting Somalia

Somalia's transitional government has slammed the US program, saying it is hindering efforts to united the war-torn country.

"The United States thinks that these warlords can seize Al-Qaeda members in Somalia, but the Americans should work with us instead," Reuters quoted Somali President Yusuf Ahmed Abdullahi as saying.

"We really oppose American aid which goes outside the government."

The Somali President was elected in 2004 by MPs sitting in Kenya, but his rule has been opposed by several of the warlords.

Since the 1991 fall of Mohammed Siad Barre, Somalia has fallen into a bloody civil war.

The African country has lacked almost all the trappings of a functional state, such as national systems of education, healthcare and justice.