By Mohamed Ali Bile
MOGADISHU, June 27 (Reuters)
- Somali Islamists seized more territory near Mogadishu overnight, witnesses said on Tuesday, prompting accusations they had violated a ceasefire deal.
In the first attack around Mogadishu since militia loyal to the Islamic Courts Union took the capital from warlords this month, five people were killed when gunmen seized three checkpoints from a warlord.
Abdi Awale Qaybdiid, who was part of the defeated self-styled anti-terrorism warlord alliance and has remained in Mogadishu, said he would respond to the attack.
Residents said Mogadishu was tense as night approached, with fears of overnight clashes erupting as fighters loyal to Islamic courts gathered.
"The Islamic Courts militia have massed near the sports ground. I think there could be a confrontatioon with Qaybdiid's fighters," Furhan Gure, a resident, told Reuters.
The captured checkpoints are on the route to Afgoye, about 20 km (13 miles) from the capital.
Deputy Information Minister Salad Ali Jele said the Islamic Courts had violated an agreement signed in Sudan's capital Khartoum last week to stop military campaigns.
"They agreed not to start new violence," Jele said in a statement from the southern town of Baidoa, where the interim government is based.
SHARIA LAW
The Islamic Courts now control a large swathe of Somalia and have appointed Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, named in a U.N. list of al Qaeda associates, to lead their governing council, raising fears they want to impose Taliban-style rule on Somalia.
Aweys said in an interview published on Tuesday by the Xogogaal daily newspaper the Islamists would negotiate with the government but wanted to extend "sharia law and its order to all inside the country".
The Islamic Courts' victory dealt the U.S. counter-terrorism campaign an embarrassing setback, as Washington's funding for the much-despised warlords gave the Islamists popular support that fuelled their rapid march across a key part of Somalia.
Washington has said it will have no contact with Aweys but has yet to decide on relations with the group as a whole.
Aweys has denied any affiliation with al Qaeda.
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of neighbouring Ethiopia said on Tuesday the Islamic Courts was dominated by al-Itihaad al-Islamiya members, who posed a threat to his country.
The United States calls the al-Itihaad al-Islamiya group a terrorist faction with links to al Qaeda.
"Al-Itihaad has been involved in terrorist outrages in Addis Ababa," Meles told reporters. A series of blasts has occurred in Ethiopia this year that the government blames on various groups, including members of the opposition and separatists rebels.
Aweys said the Islamists would keep their promise to negotiate with President Abdullahi Yusuf's weak but internationally recognised interim government.
He said the temporary charter now guiding the government must comply with sharia. "We will negotiate with them, discuss and remove the secular articles that are opposed to the Islamic law," Aweys told the newspaper.
The transitional federal government, formed in late 2004, has a five-year mandate.
Aides said Yusuf had travelled to Kenya on Tuesday on his way to an African Union summit in Gambia.
"One of the pillars of our charter says any rule and law against the Islamic sharia law is null and void. We don't see it as a problem," government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari said.
Somalis in general practice a moderate form of Islam. Some said the Islamists' planned stoning to death of five rapists on Monday, since postponed, showed they wanted to pursue a hard line despite presenting a moderate face.
(Additional reporting by Guled Mohamed)