Islamic Militia Ends Somali Warlords’ Rule

An Islamic militia has seized control of Mogadishu, the Somalian capital, after routing a coalition of warlords widely believed to have been backed by the United States.

After steady gains in recent days, fighters allied to the Union of Islamic Courts claimed victory yesterday morning. In a radio address, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, chairman of the joint Islamic Courts Union, declared 15 years of warlord-rule over. "We want to restore peace and stability to Mogadishu," he said. "We are ready to meet and talk to anybody ... for the interest of our people."

Fierce clashes between the two heavily armed groups, which have traded accusations of pandering to the west and having links to al-Qaida, have claimed more than 350 lives in the Somali capital this year. Most were civilians killed by mortars or anti-aircraft fire.

Somalia has been without an effective government since Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991. In much of the country, and in Mogadishu in particular, warlords have ruled by force, accumulating vast wealth through the control of ports, roads and airfields, and ensuring any attempts at national authority failed.

While the end of the fighting should bring relief to Mogadishu's residents, it presents a challenge for the government, which has been unable to sit in the capital due to opposition from both the warlord coalition and the sharia courts.

In an apparently conciliatory move, the government sacked four cabinet ministers allied to the "anti-terror" coalition on Sunday. But analysts say that it will find it difficult to sit down with Sheikh Ahmed.

President Abdullahi Yusuf, a former warlord who made his reputation as a hard man who crushed fundamentalists, is vehemently opposed to establishing an Islamic state. "The question now is whether the government and the courts are going to talk or whether they are going to confront each other," said a Horn of Africa analyst, who asked not to be named. "It's anybody's guess."

Fighting in the capital flared up in February when a group of secular warlords, including four government ministers, formed the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-terrorism as a bulwark against the growing authority of the Islamic Courts Union.

Established as a means of dispensing clan justice, the ICU had grown in popularity in Mogadishu in recent years - less for its hardline stance than for bringing some sense of order. But the presence of suspected jihadis in the courts hierarchy raised fears, particularly in Washington, of a creeping "Talibanisation" in Somalia.

The US is understood to have provided financial support to a number of secular warlords through its counter-terrorism base in Djibouti in return for handing over suspected al-Qaida militants or information about their movements. The US has refused to confirm or deny the reports, saying only that it will help anyone fighting terrorism.

"This is a staggering defeat for the US strategy of counter-terrorism by proxy," the Horn of Africa analyst said. "It also represents seismic shift in Somali politics. For the first time in many years we have a new political group that is capable of forming some sort of administration."