Somali regional leader(Cada_Muuse) vows to resist Islamic militants

[Shiikh_Yaasiin33]

Somali regional leader vows to resist Islamic militants

POSTED: 1:50 p.m. EST, November 21, 2006

 

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) -- The president of a semiautonomous region in northeastern Somalia vowed Tuesday to resist the expansion of Islamic militants in the country, saying his administration won't accept "radicalism and extremism."

 

Puntland President Gen. Addeh Museh spoke one day after making a surprising announcement that he will rule according to Islamic law -- a decision some believe was a way to head off a takeover by the increasingly powerful militants.

 

The United States has accused the Islamic movement of sheltering suspects in the 1998 al Qaeda bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and Osama bin Laden has said Somalia is a battleground in his war on the West.

 

"We will continue to resist the spread of Islamic militants," Museh told The Associated Press. Puntland usually enforces a secular penal code, even though the region's charter says it is based on the Quran.

 

Museh said he issued Monday's decree after meeting with the region's top clerics, but he didn't elaborate.

 

Puntland, which declared itself an autonomous state within Somalia in 1998, generally has been spared the violence that has wracked much of the country. But radicals within the Council of Islamic Courts have vowed to take over.

 

"Our decision that to use Islamic law will be different from the type of militant Islam in Mogadishu," where the Islamic courts are in control, Museh said. "We do not want to politicize the Islamic religion."

 

Somalia has not had an effective government since 1991, when warlords overthrew a dictator and then turned on each other. The current administration was formed with the help of the United Nations two years ago, but it has failed to assert any real control outside the southern town of Baidoa, where it is based.

 

Meanwhile, the Islamic courts steadily have gained ground since taking over the capital, Mogadishu, in June, and now control much of southern Somalia. The group's relations with the government have been severely strained, particularly because military advisers from neighboring Ethiopia are helping the government.

 

Witnesses in a town about 37 miles (60 kilometers) from the government base of Baidoa said Tuesday that Ethiopian troops clashed with forces loyal to the Islamists, and that three Ethiopians were killed overnight. Calls to the acting Ethiopian foreign ministry spokesman rang unanswered after business hours Tuesday.

 

Museh told the AP on Monday that he welcomed peace talks between the government and the Islamic courts, saying, "We believe that the government's reconciliation efforts and peace process would be fruitful."