World News Islamic militia siezes Somali capital

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MOGADISHU (AP) — An Islamic militia with alleged links to al-Qaida seized Mogadishu on June 5 after weeks of fighting with U.S.-backed secular warlords.

The advance raises fears that the nation could fall under the influence of Osama bin Laden's terrorist organization after 15 years of civil war.

The Islamic militia is gaining power just as the U.N.-backed secular interim government struggles to assert control outside its base in Baidoa. The prices of weapons soared there as fears grew that the militia could head to Baidoa next.

The advance unified the city for the first time since the last government collapsed in 1991 and warlords took over, dividing this impoverished country of 8 million people into a patchwork of rival fiefdoms.

Omar Jamal, director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in the United States, said the Islamic militia's victory in Mogadishu was a turning point in the country's history.

"It is exactly the same thing that happened with the rise to power of the Taliban" in Afghanistan, he said, adding that the extremists are "using the people's weariness of violence, rape and civil war" to gain support for a government based on Islamic law.

The battle between the militia and the secular alliance has been intensifying in recent months, with more than 300 people killed and 1,700 wounded — many of them civilians caught in the crossfire.

イスラム勢力が首都を掌握

アフリカのソマリアで5日、イスラム勢力が首都モガディシオを掌握した。

Shukan ST: June 16, 2006

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