WORLD BRIEFING / SOMALIA
A hard-line Somali opposition leader accused of having links to Al Qaeda arrived in Mogadishu, the capital, for the first time in two years, officials said.
Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys had been based in Eritrea’s capital, Asmara, since Ethiopian troops drove him and his supporters from strongholds in southern Somalia and Mogadishu. Aweys’ faction of the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia is a member of the Islamic Party, which is opposed to the government of President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed.
Aweys’ return could be an indication he wants to reconcile with Ahmed, with whom he previously has been allied.
Aweys had supported an Iraqi-style insurgency to back a group of Islamists grappling for power in Somalia, which has not had an effective government since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
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