Somali Anti-Terrorism Alliance member in Ethiopia for talks
June 4, 2006 (MOGADISHU) — Mohamed Omar Habeb (Dheere), the governor of Middle Shabeelle Region and a member of the Anti-Terrorism Alliance, engaged in bitter fighting with the Mogadishu Islamic courts, has reportedly left for Ethiopia on an unannounced visit.
No statement has been issued regarding this secret trip by Dheere, but it is believed he would hold talks with Ethiopian government officials.
Some reports also suggest Dheere would hold meetings with American officials in charge of the war against so-called terrorists, the Somali SBC radio said.
Some people in the town of Jowhar who did not want to be named for security reasons said Dheere held a secret meeting with American intelligence officials at the Jowhar airstrip before flying out.
A member of Mohamed Dheere’s administration who attended the meeting had his mobile phone confiscated. After the meeting, the Somali governor was flown to the city of Addis Ababa.
The Islamic militias are gaining ground just as a UN-backed transitional government struggles to assert control from its base in Baidoa, 250 kilometers from Mogadishu. The Islamic leaders’ growing power is raising fears that the nation could follow the path of Taliban Afghanistan into the hands of al-Qaida.
The Somali fundamentalists say they are capable of bringing order to the country, and accuse their rivals – a secular alliance of warlords – of working for the CIA. The alliance accuses the Islamic militias of having links to al-Qaida.
Islamic militias and their secular rivals battled on the outskirts of Somalia’s war-torn capital Saturday, killing at least five people and prompting hundreds to flee their homes as the violence escalated, nurses and witnesses said.
The bloodshed comes amid some of the worst fighting in 15 years of anarchy in this Horn of Africa nation, which has had no effective government since 1991. Nearly 100 people have died in Mogadishu in the past 10 days, many of them civilians caught in the crossfire.
(ST)