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Somalis Caught in Crossfire Between Warlords, Islamic Militias
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http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=1273898:3919ACA Both sides in
conflict engaged in a battle for hearts and minds of ordinary Somalis
in addition to the battles they are fighting using bombs and guns For
the past several months in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, militias
loyal to secular factional leaders have been engaged in deadly battles
with militias of the country's Islamic courts. Islamic court officials
say the conflict is being waged to bring peace to a country devastated
by factionalism. Factional leaders describe the conflict as an effort
to fight terrorism and curb the growing influence of Islamic
extremists in Somalia. But as VOA Correspondent Alisha Ryu reports
from Mogadishu, both sides have another battle to win -- the battle
for the hearts and minds of ordinary Somalis.







Gunmen in MogadishuAnother day of fighting has begun in the city of
Mogadishu.

It is only mid-morning and casualties are arriving faster than the
staff at the Madina Hospital can handle.

Inside the emergency wing, several wounded people, bleeding from the
head, arms and legs, are waiting on gurneys - eyes closed in agony and
moaning softly. Almost all of them are women.

The deputy administrator of the hospital, Ali Moalim, says everyone in
the city is fed up with violence, but they are helpless to stop it.
"They are killing students, women, all the people. Fighting without
any result, killing each other - no one knows why they are killing
each other," he said.

For an entire decade in the 1990s, Somalia was torn apart by a
clan-based civil war, which killed untold thousands, plunged the
country into anarchy, and divided the capital and the country into
fiefdoms controlled by rival factional leaders.

Now, the Somali people are in the crossfire of another conflict,
pitting a newly formed alliance of rival factional militias against
the militias of Islamic law courts, which have been trying to fill the
leadership vacuum in Somalia for the past several years.

The courts were set up years ago in the country as moderate Muslim,
clan-based institutions, intended to restore security. But because of
internal divisions, the courts wielded little power. Until recently.

The chairman of the Islamic courts, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, tells VOA
that the courts are now supported by the majority of Somalis, who
appreciate the work the courts have done in restoring law and order to
many areas of the country. He says the courts have also built schools
and run various charities to help ordinary Somalis.

Sheikh Sharif Ahmed says people are disgusted with Somali factional
leaders, who have done nothing but destroy the country for the past 15
years. He says the Islamic courts are gaining popularity because they
represent peace and a better way of life under Islam.

Factional leaders in the anti-terror alliance fighting the Islamic
courts have a much different view. While they acknowledge that the
militias have done little for the Somali people, they say they are now
trying to save them from Islamic extremists, who have taken charge of
the courts and are working to turn Somalia into a base for terrorism.

The United States says it shares the concern of the alliance and
believes top officials of the Islamic courts may be harboring al-Qaida
operatives and setting up terrorist training camps. The United States
has not said whether it is supporting factional leaders in the
alliance to combat terrorism.

But many Somalis here believe that alliance factional leaders are
receiving large sums of money from Washington to fight a proxy war
against the Islamic courts. And court officials are not hesitating to
use that perception to recruit more followers.

During a speech last week at the recently built Peace Hotel in central
Mogadishu, VOA listened as Sheikh Sharif Ahmed told a large audience
of men and women that factional leaders and Americans were working
together to discredit the Islamic courts and to attack the religion of
Islam.

"You must do whatever you can, sell whatever you can, and join us in
defending our religion, our country, which is under attack. We must
stand together to deter this aggression," he said.

Despite Somali distaste for factional leaders and foreign
intervention, it is not clear how many ordinary citizens actually
support the Islamic courts. Many Somalis who criticize the United
States for helping factional leaders also say privately that they
believe the Islamic courts are receiving funding from neighbors and
various Arab countries to spread Muslim extremism in Somalia.

Mogadishu-based journalist Mohammed Amin Sheikh Adow discounts
concerns Somalis will be attracted by extremism of any form. He says
during more than a decade of anarchy, extremism failed to take root in
Somalia, not because of counter-terrorism efforts, but because the
people themselves reject it. "There is an Islamic movement but I think
it will be too difficult to set up an Islamic state in Somalia because
people are not so loyal to their religion as they are to the clan,"
she said.

Back at the Madina Hospital, 21 year-old Zara Mahmoud is waiting
nervously for the doctor to treat her wounded sister. Mahmoud says her
sister was hit by a stray bullet that came into their house.

Mahmoud says she fears the fighting will result in nothing but more
bloodshed because neither side is offering what the Somali people
truly want. She says the only thing the people want is a government,
not a government that the United States or al-Qaida want, but a
government that does good things for the Somali people.