US Enlists Mercenaries 'to Track Down Al Qaeda'

asharqalawsat: The United States is enlisting the help or armed militiamen and factional leaders in its campaign to track down five al Qaeda members in hiding in Somalia.

CIA agents have asked local Somali chiefs to assist them in their search, according to a high-ranking official in the transitional Somali government. He told Asharq al Awsat in a telephone conversation his government had information that a series of meetings were held between US government representatives and tribal and militia leaders in order to prepare for a large-scale operation to detain the five men. At least three of them are believed to hold non-Somali passports, the official added.

The official, who asked not be identified, said Prime Minister Mohammed Ghedi had repeatedly requested the U.S authorities refrain from contacting any Somali group or individual without his government's knowledge.

The latest US campaign comes amid fear of an imminent clash in Mogadishu between militants loyal to the Islamic religious courts and other militias belonging to the anti-terrorism coalition, which the interim government claims is financially and logistically supported by the Americans.

For its part, US intelligence says Sheikh Taher Uways, one of the most prominent extremist Somali leaders, is harboring terrorists in the area under his militias' control in the Somali capital. Read more

db: US death squads in Somalia?