An increasingly powerful Islamic militia rolled through its newly captured territory and installed a religious court in one town Wednesday as the remnants of a U.S.-backed alliance of warlords tried to regroup.
The Islamic Courts Union controls the Somali capital and surrounding areas after defeating the secular warlord alliance in weeks of battles that killed at least 330 people, many of them civilians caught in the crossfire.
U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, have confirmed cooperating with the secular warlords, who charge the militia has links to Al Qaeda.
The Bush administration, however, has not confirmed or denied giving money to the alliance. President Bush warned this week that the chief concern “is to make sure that Somalia does not become an Al Qaeda safe haven.”
But some government officials have criticized what they describe as CIA financing for the warlords, saying the campaign has thwarted counterterrorism efforts in Somalia, The New York Times reported.
The officials said the CIA effort, run from the agency’s station in Nairobi, Kenya, channeled hundreds of thousands of dollars over the past year to secular warlords inside Somalia with the aim, among other things, of capturing or killing a handful of suspected members of Al Qaeda believed to be hiding there.
The American effort of the past year has occasionally included trips to Somalia by Nairobi-based CIA case officers, who landed on warlord-controlled airstrips in Mogadishu with large amounts of money for distribution to Somali militias, according to American officials involved in Africa policymaking and to outside experts.
Whatever the nature of the American involvement, it failed to prevent the Islamic militia from seizing at least partial control.
On Wednesday, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the Islamic Courts Union sent a letter to the United States, adding that Washington is reserving judgment on the group.
“In terms of the Islamic courts, our understanding is that this isn’t a monolithic group, that it is really an effort on the part of some individuals to try to restore some semblance of order in Mogadishu,” McCormack told reporters.
Their aim, he added, “is to try to lay the foundations for some institutions in Somalia that might form the basis for a better and more peaceful, secure Somalia where the rule of law is important.”
In Somalia, militiamen toting machine guns installed an Islamic court in Balad, about 20 miles from the capital. Chanting residents said an Islamic state would help pacify a nation racked by anarchy since 1991.
About 20 miles away in Jowhar, secular warlords took up defensive positions in their last remaining stronghold, two days after being pushed out of the capital.
