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Islamists claim authority over all of Somalia

Thursday, June 29, 2006; Posted: 9:32 a.m. EDT (13:32 GMT)


Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, shown in December 2005, will lead Somalia's Islamic courts.
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Manage Alerts | What Is This? MOGADISHU, Somalia (Reuters) -- Mogadishu's Islamist leaders said on Thursday they were expanding the authority of their sharia courts across the whole of Somalia in a move likely to create further tensions with the weak interim government.

They also confirmed that hardline Muslim cleric, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys -- whom the United Nations has linked to al Qaeda -- would be the overall leader of their new 91-member Council of Somali Courts.

"From today, the Council will change from the Council of Islamic Courts of Mogadishu to the Council of Islamic Courts of Somalia," Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, a moderate face and former leader of the Mogadishu courts' body, said.

Ahmed, who was seen as the leader of the Islamists when its militia took the Somali capital and some other southern towns from U.S.-backed warlords, said he had been named as chairman of the Islamic courts executive committee with 15 members.

But it is now clear real power among the Islamists will reside with Aweys, who has said he wants Islamic sharia law to be the basis for any future Somali constitution.

Thursday's moves will alarm the government of President Abdullahi Yusuf, which was formed in neighboring Kenya in 2004, has the endorsement of the international community, but has little authority on the ground and is based in the provincial town of Baidoa.

Yusuf is close to Ethiopia, which has massed troops on the border. Analysts believe Addis Ababa would intervene to prevent a complete Islamist takeover of Somalia.

Somalia has been without central rule since the 1991 toppling of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre by warlords.