Somalis Rally for and Against Islamic Militia

Thousands of Somalis took to the streets Tuesday, some demonstrating for Islamic militiamen who claimed control of this capital a day earlier and others protesting against the militia.

Mogadishu has been convulsed for months as the Islamic Courts Union, which is alleged to have links to Al Qaeda, strengthened its grip on this lawless country.

The militiamen’s advance Monday came despite U.S. support for a secular alliance of warlords that was opposing them.

The militia’s growing power has raised fears that Somalia could fall under the sway of Al Qaeda. But Tuesday’s protests showed that it may be difficult to keep control of the capital, and that the Islamic Courts Union probably still has to negotiate with the clan leaders who have run the city for more than a decade.

Mogadishu’s largest and historically strongest clan, the Abgals, came out in force Tuesday and drew about 3,000 people to the northern part of the city, shouting, “We don’t need Islamic deception!” and “We don’t want Islamic courts, we want peace!”

“If the so-called Islamic courts don’t stop invading our territories ... the country will return to civil war,” said Sheik Ahmed Kadare, an Abgal elder.

Somalia has been without a real government since largely clan-based warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned on one another, dividing this nation of nearly 9 million into rival fiefdoms.

The Abgal rally appeared to be an attempt to redefine the conflict in the capital as a competition among clans, rather than a religious battle, to build support for continued fighting if the Islamic militants do not retreat.

The Islamic militia kept defensive positions about a mile from the Abgal protest and did not try to stop it. It held its own rally nearby, pledging to keep fighting until Islamic law was enforced.

“Until we get the Islamic state, we will continue with the Islamic struggle in Somalia,” Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, chairman of the Islamic Courts Union, told the crowd of about 500.

Ahmed’s group has argued that a government based on Islamic law will restore order and has accused the secular alliance of warlords of being puppets of Washington and working for the CIA. Members of the alliance, most of whom were on the run after Monday’s defeat, said the Islamic Courts Union was linked to terrorists.

U.S. officials said recently that Islamic leaders in Mogadishu were sheltering three Al Qaeda leaders indicted in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. The same cell is believed responsible for the 2002 suicide bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel in Kenya, which killed at least a dozen people, and a nearly simultaneous attempt to shoot down an Israeli airliner over the country.