Source: Reuters
(Updates with journalist arrest paragraphs 16-17)
By Mohamed Ali Bile MOGADISHU, June 1 (Reuters) - Islamic militia members, who have expanded their control of Somalia's capital in fighting that has killed some 330 people, began pushing north of Mogadishu on Thursday in a campaign to capture more territory. The latest battleground in the third and fiercest bout of fighting since the turn of the year between militia linked to Islamic courts and a self-styled anti-terrorism coalition of warlords was near the town of Balad. "It's an open terrain, many must have been killed, but I don't know how many have died and are wounded so far," Ibrahim Mallim, a coalition militiaman, told Reuters by telephone. Balad is controlled by a warlord from the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT). Founded early this year, it is widely believed to have received funding from the U.S. government. Although also fuelled by commercial and political motives, the fighting in and around Mogadishu is seen by many Somalis as a proxy war between Islamists and Washington. Residents say it has involved some of the worst violence ever seen in Mogadishu. In neighbouring Kenya, where the Somali Transitional Government was born in October 2004, President Mwai Kibaki urged foreign countries wishing to support Somalia to do so through its interim government. "Now that there is a government set up after wide consultations among all clans in Somalia, any support to Somalia should be channelled through the Transitional National Government," Kibaki said in a speech marking the day the east African country achieved self-rule from Britain 43 years ago. Kibaki is the chairman of the Inter Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a regional body which was instrumental in bringing together warring Somali factions in talks that led to the formation of the transitional government. HARDLINE MUSLIM STATE The warlords say the Islamic militia, grouped around sharia courts which keep a semblance of order in the otherwise anarchic capital, include al Qaeda-linked militants and want to establish a hardline Muslim state in the Horn of Africa nation. Somalia has been without functioning government since the 1991 overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. A new interim government, the 14th bid to restore central authority since then, is based in a provincial town and has little power. Coalition sources told Reuters Balad had been reinforced with about 30 "technicals" -- pick-up trucks turned into battle wagons with fixed heavy guns -- and 200 fighters. Local residents were fleeing for their lives. "We have to run before both sides enter," one woman, Batulo Shiek, said by telephone from the town. Mogadishu's Islamic Courts chairman Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, who this week told Reuters that CIA officers were regularly flying into Mogadishu to meet warlords, said on Thursday the courts had issued a formal rallying cry to Somalia's 10 million people. "We are ready for peace, but we are asking Somalis everywhere to support the cause against the infidels," he told Reuters. Meanwhile, a journalist with private Somali radio station Shabelle, said she had been arrested by militia loyal to the Somalia's Speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan for airing an interview critical of him. "The head of the speaker's security came to my house with other militias and beat me senseless before arresting and locking me in a cell for four hours," the journalist Marian Mahamud said. There was no immediate comment from the speaker. (Additional reporting by Guled Mohamed in Nairobi)
By Mohamed Ali Bile MOGADISHU, June 1 (Reuters) - Islamic militia members, who have expanded their control of Somalia's capital in fighting that has killed some 330 people, began pushing north of Mogadishu on Thursday in a campaign to capture more territory. The latest battleground in the third and fiercest bout of fighting since the turn of the year between militia linked to Islamic courts and a self-styled anti-terrorism coalition of warlords was near the town of Balad. "It's an open terrain, many must have been killed, but I don't know how many have died and are wounded so far," Ibrahim Mallim, a coalition militiaman, told Reuters by telephone. Balad is controlled by a warlord from the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT). Founded early this year, it is widely believed to have received funding from the U.S. government. Although also fuelled by commercial and political motives, the fighting in and around Mogadishu is seen by many Somalis as a proxy war between Islamists and Washington. Residents say it has involved some of the worst violence ever seen in Mogadishu. In neighbouring Kenya, where the Somali Transitional Government was born in October 2004, President Mwai Kibaki urged foreign countries wishing to support Somalia to do so through its interim government. "Now that there is a government set up after wide consultations among all clans in Somalia, any support to Somalia should be channelled through the Transitional National Government," Kibaki said in a speech marking the day the east African country achieved self-rule from Britain 43 years ago. Kibaki is the chairman of the Inter Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a regional body which was instrumental in bringing together warring Somali factions in talks that led to the formation of the transitional government. HARDLINE MUSLIM STATE The warlords say the Islamic militia, grouped around sharia courts which keep a semblance of order in the otherwise anarchic capital, include al Qaeda-linked militants and want to establish a hardline Muslim state in the Horn of Africa nation. Somalia has been without functioning government since the 1991 overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. A new interim government, the 14th bid to restore central authority since then, is based in a provincial town and has little power. Coalition sources told Reuters Balad had been reinforced with about 30 "technicals" -- pick-up trucks turned into battle wagons with fixed heavy guns -- and 200 fighters. Local residents were fleeing for their lives. "We have to run before both sides enter," one woman, Batulo Shiek, said by telephone from the town. Mogadishu's Islamic Courts chairman Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, who this week told Reuters that CIA officers were regularly flying into Mogadishu to meet warlords, said on Thursday the courts had issued a formal rallying cry to Somalia's 10 million people. "We are ready for peace, but we are asking Somalis everywhere to support the cause against the infidels," he told Reuters. Meanwhile, a journalist with private Somali radio station Shabelle, said she had been arrested by militia loyal to the Somalia's Speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan for airing an interview critical of him. "The head of the speaker's security came to my house with other militias and beat me senseless before arresting and locking me in a cell for four hours," the journalist Marian Mahamud said. There was no immediate comment from the speaker. (Additional reporting by Guled Mohamed in Nairobi)
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