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NAIROBI A top leader in Somalia's now-vanquished Islamist movement was in the hands of authorities in neighbouring Kenya as more deadly clashes erupted on the streets of Mogadishu. Diplomatic sources said Monday that Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, head of the executive arm of the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia, was in custody under the protection of Kenyan security forces at an upscale hotel in Nairobi.Nuthin but the best for the Leaders of Jihad...
Told you he was the smartest of the bunch. He wasn't the one who declared jihad for "Greater Somalia," either.
"Sheikh Sharif is in Kenya," one diplomatic source told AFP on condition of anonymity. "He is in a secure place, according to the Kenyan authorities."
Hell?
| A senior Kenyan police official said Ahmed and three other Somalis had been detained early Sunday at a small border crossing point while two diplomatic sources confirmed Ahmed was in Kenyan custody. |
Was he dressed in a Burqa?
Ahmed is the most senior member of the Islamist movement, which took power in Mogadishu last June, to end his time on the run from the transitional Somali government and their Ethiopian allies who had pursued remnants to the Somali-Kenya border. A diplomatic source said the sheikh, one of the vanquished regime's moderates, could be a useful element in pulling fractious Somali factions together as part of efforts at national reconciliation."He is one of the people we think can promote dialogue," the source said.
Sounds like a plan. A bad one...
Deputy Somali deputy premier Hussein Aidid said Ahmed would be welcome back home as long as he turns his back on his old associates. "This is a government of reconciliation," he said. "We believe that that is the only way to restore peace in Somalia."
Ah, yes. Peace in Somalia...
The United States, which denied being involved in his capture or detention, has said it believes Ahmed could be a worthy interlocutor. US Ambassador to Kenya Michael Ranneberger, whose mandate includes Somalia, met with Ahmed in Nairobi last year after the Islamists seized Mogadishu from US-backed warlords to press moderation. Washington, which backed Ethiopia's intervention in Somalia and then launched an airstrike at suspected Al-Qaeda operatives there, has welcomed the change of regime as a chance to turn the page on a 16-year cycle of violence.
Oh, look. It's the ever popular "cycle of violence", which I think was invented in Somalia...
Meanwhile the International Martime Bureau voiced concerns that the ouster of the Islamists could herald a return to the seas of Somali pirates who helped shape the country's reputation for lawlessness. "Within days of their influence being removed there had been an attempted attack on an American bulk carrier in Somali waters, the first for a number of months," said an IMB report.
Yarrrrrr, we be back in business...