Global Islamists behind Somali takeover, Yusuf says

Islamic Courts Union soliders rest in Jowhar, Somalia. Picture / Reuters.

ADDIS ABABA - the Islamist militia which has captured Mogadishu from secular warlords could not have succeeded without support from Muslim fundamentalists across the world, Somalia's interim president has said.

President Abdullahi Yusuf was speaking in Addis Ababa where he pressed the African Union (AU) to send peacekeepers to his country, despite resistance from Islamist rulers who now control a swathe of southern-central Somalia.

"They could not have overtaken Mogadishu had it not been for the international solidarity of fundamentalists throughout the world. We have proof of that," Yusuf told reporters.

"There are fundamentalists from the Gulf and Asia and everybody who harbors fundamentalist ideology collaborated with them to take Mogadishu."

Analysts say the Islamists, loyal to sharia courts, include a small number of militants, some of whom may have received al Qaeda training. But the Islamic Courts Union has repeatedly denied links to extremists.

Yusuf met his close ally, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, whose government has long been wary of the influence of Islam in the Horn of Africa.

Despite rising tension between the Islamists and both the interim government and its Ethiopian backers, Yusuf said his administration would hold talks with the newly-powerful group.

"As long as the Islamist forces recognize the government, as long as they stand for peace and reconciliation in the country ... we will negotiate," he said.

A source close to Yusuf said he would head to Sudan for talks and was expected to be joined by Prime Minister Mohamed Ali Gedi and parliament speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan.

"It's possible Sudan might be trying to resolve the rift between the government and the Islamic Courts Union because it is one of the countries that has been supporting the courts," said the source, who did not wish to be named.

"Maybe it will try to persuade the courts to share power with the government."

Washington's top diplomat on Africa urged the international community to support talks.

"We need the (transitional federal government) and Islamic courts to enter a dialogue on the way forward," said Jendayi Frazer, US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs.

"And we need all parties to stop any aggressive moves or actions," she told reporters during a visit to Uganda.

Potential confrontation between the Islamists and the interim government has caused widespread international alarm since Islamist gunmen ejected U.S.-backed warlords from Mogadishu after a three-month battle that killed 350 people.

The Islamists accuse Addis Ababa of sending 300 soldiers across their border, fuelling longstanding suspicion of Ethiopia, which has entered Somalia to fight Islamic forces in the past.

Ethiopia denies the claim and the interim government said it was intended to create a pretext to attack its base in the southern city of Baidoa.

Yusuf's visit came a day after the AU, Western diplomats and the regional group IGAD agreed to send a team to Somalia to assess the feasibility of sending peacekeepers.

Foreign powers are scrambling to react to the Islamists' surprise victory in Mogadishu. In the capital there is euphoria at new-found peace but fears among the mainly moderate Muslim population about the style of Islamic rule they should expect.

Islamic courts militia are the closest thing to a broad central authority that Somalia has had since warlords overran the country in 1991 and carved it up into fiefdoms.

- REUTERS