'US targets' in Somalia running for cover
news.telegraph.co.uk
(Filed: 10/01/2002)

Suspected terrorists are disappearing ahead of expected American strikes.
Adrian Blomfield is the first British journalist in one of their strongholds


BLINKING earnestly, his Islamic robe pulled up over his knees, Mohamed Haji
Yusuf, "district officer" in the tiny Somali town of el-Wak, insists that he
is not a terrorist leader.

Becoming increasingly agitated, he vigorously denies that there are any
terrorist camps in the hot, dusty town or that it is a stronghold of
al-Itihaad, a fundamentalist militia in America's sights for its alleged
ties to Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'eda network.

"We are told that we will be bombed by the Americans so we are very
unhappy," he said. "We do not understand it because we are not terrorists.
We are innocent people."

His protestations have met with derision from local militias in surrounding
districts, many of whom say el-Wak is al-Itihaad's headquarters in the Gedo
region, Somalia's largest concentration of the group's followers.

The town's leaders are allegedly in regular contact with bin Laden. The
Saudi dissident visited it a few years ago, according to Hussein Aideed, the
leading warlord who is surely America's most unlikely ally. His father,
Mohamed Farah Aideed, was America's most wanted fugitive during its
ill-fated intervention in the early 1990s.

Eighteen US Rangers were killed in October 1993 during an unsuccessful bid
to capture the warlord, who remained at large until he was killed in battle
five years ago. Since the botched American intervention, Somalia has drifted
further into anarchy, ruled by rival militias.

El-Wak, one of three areas continually mentioned as principal targets for
American military action, is a microcosm of the huge difficulties Washington
faces when, as increasingly seems likely, the war against terrorism moves to
Somalia.

Its residents are terrified. Clutching small transistor radios they have
heard several times on the BBC's Somali Service that their town is to be
attacked.

There is nothing unusual about el-Wak. Not for Somalia, that is. El-Wak is
remote, undeveloped, desperately poor. Skeletal donkeys wind their way
through the town's rutted and litter-infested alleys.

Its 2,200 inhabitants blankly sip tea outside tin shacks or straw huts.
There is nothing else to do. There are no telephones, no electricity, no
cars and virtually no food.

Evidence of terrorist training is going to be tough to find as two senior
United Nations officials, in the town last week asking questions about
al-Itihaad, undoubtedly found.

That does not mean there are no terrorists there. When questioned about the
presence of the group, residents were invariably vague and often
contradictory.

"Yes, al-Itihaad were here but they left about two years ago," was the usual
response. But why did they go?

"The tribes came together and fought them in a big battle," said Mohammed
Omar, the district commissioner. "But I wasn't here then."

"The women and children demonstrated against them, so they left. I was out
of town though," said Adan Abdullayi Ali, a shopkeeper. "We just told them
we didn't like them, so they left. But by that time I was in Kenya," was
another offering.

It would appear that since September 11, al-Itihaad has done the sensible
thing - melted into the background, swapping military fatigues for civilian
clothes, hiding its arsenal, declaring its solidarity with America.

There may well have been terrorist camps. A security source said he stumbled
on one while driving to el-Wak a few years ago. The camp's guards wanted to
kill him but his life was spared after his driver, whose brother trained at
the camp, interceded.

That camp, like all the others, has almost certainly been dismantled, its
occupants scattered across Somalia or possibly neighbouring Kenya, as border
posts simply do not exist.

Officials in Washington, baffled about how to tackle a chaotic country that
simply refuses to play by the rules, have gratefully seized on what they see
as a solution - a host of rebel militias are volunteering themselves as a
new Northern Alliance.

One with a great deal of experience with al-Itihaad is the Somali National
Front, which controls the town of Bulo Hawo, 150 miles north of el-Wak.

Bulo Hawo was attacked by al-Itihaad forces, allegedly led by Arab members
of al-Qa'eda, last March before they were repulsed by Ethiopian helicopter
gunships. A number of Arabs were said to have been killed.

Hussein Mohammed Dires, the National Front police chief, says he knows where
al-Itihaad are hiding, reeling off a list of names: Oskurun, Arma, Dar es
Salaam (a Somali town), or at the new headquarters, Kudar, a little north of
the port of Kismayo.

Only the leadership remains in el-Wak, but it too should be attacked, he
says. "After the explosion at the World Trade Centre, al-Itihaad are saying
they are not al-Itihaad but other tribes," he added.

"They have gone covert. They have become civilians. The question the
Americans need to ask is not where they are, but how they work. They need to
use us to do the job."

With US intelligence in Somalia a shambles after years of alleged diplomatic
neglect perhaps this is the only option.

But the risks are enormous and America inevitably stands a good chance of
being hoodwinked by militias who see a golden opportunity to enhance their
power bases.

Militia leaders are already giving the Americans lists of "terrorists". Some
may be genuine, but often they are rivals the leaders are keen to dispose
of.

Leaning against a bullet-riddled wall in Bulo Hawo, a young man, clutching a
Kalashnikov and clad in sunglasses and a T-shirt emblazoned with the words
"Black Yankee", dedicates himself to the new cause.

"Now we are British, we are American. You bomb from the air and we will find
your terrorists for you. Then we take control of Somalia like the Northern
Alliance," he said, grinning.
Related reports

Powell orders watch on 'lawless country'

Leader: Somalia 'terrorized' by U.S.
January 11, 2002 Posted: 12:38 PM EST (1738 GMT)

KHARTOUM, Sudan (Reuters) -- The president of Somalia's transitional
government said Friday that his people had been "terrorized" by a U.S.
propaganda campaign portraying the country as a possible haven for Osama bin
Laden's followers.

President Abdiqassim Salad Hassan told Reuters television that fears of U.S.
military strikes were hindering efforts to bring peace to the country,
considered by Washington as a potential target in its war on terror.

"People are terrorized by this campaign of propaganda against Somalia,"
Abdiqassim said in an interview in the Sudanese capital Khartoum, where he
was attending a summit.

"People are terrorized to see the largest country in the world threaten this
poor country that has been ravaged by civil war for 10 years," he said.

The United States says it is gathering more intelligence on Somalia, fearing
Islamic militants may have exploited the lack of a strong central authority
to pursue their activities far from the eyes and ears of government.

Abdiqassim reiterated his position that there are no bases of bin Laden's al
Qaeda network or other extremists in Somalia, and appealed for help from
Washington to stabilize his anarchic homeland.

"We want to unite our country, and have for that the help of the
international community, so that Somalia will not be a breeding ground for
future terrorists," he said.

Abdiqassim said his fledgling government had set up a committee to combat
terrorism and arrested several suspects, but its efforts were being hampered
by a lack of resources.

The government was inaugurated in 2000, but still only controls parts of the
capital Mogadishu and other patches of territory, competing with warlords
who flourished after the fall of military ruler Mohammed Siad Barre in 1991.

Illustrating the government's problems, officials say they have not been
able to pay civil servants for four months and the information minister has
only one working telephone line.

Not Afghanistan
Abdiqassim warned that warlords opposed to his attempts to unite Somalia
were keen to exploit the United States' sudden interest in his country to
strengthen their bid overthrow his administration, the most serious attempt
to establish a central government for a decade.

"For their own interest, they want to see America involved in Somalia,
Somalia bombed, and then for them to take over power like the Northern
Alliance did in Afghanistan," he said.

Diplomats say warlords who watched the Northern Alliance rebels gain power
in Afghanistan with the help of U.S. military might are seeking a repeat
performance in Somalia.

"But Somalia is not Afghanistan. The transitional national government is not
Taliban. I am not Mullah Mohammad Omar," the president said, referring to
the Taliban leader who sheltered bin Laden, wanted for the September 11
attacks.

A team of U.S. officials visited aides to opposition warlords in the
southern town of Baidoa for talks about the war on terror last month,
raising fears among aid workers that a hasty intervention could stir further
turmoil.

Raising the specter of a disastrous U.S. humanitarian intervention in
Somalia in the early 1990s in which more than 20 American servicemen were
killed, Abdiqassim said the United States should fight terrorism by pursuing
peace, not war.

"It was unfortunate for the Somali people, and for the American servicemen
killed in 1993, but we hope that this time another sort of Restore Hope will
come to Somalia," he said.

"Instead of bombing Somalia, America will come as a friendly country and
will lead the efforts of the international community to rebuild Somalia."

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