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Somali gunmen stand guard during a meeting held at the Somalia parliament in Baidoa. (Reuters) |
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.
