Radical Islamist named as new leader

A FUNDAMENTALIST Muslim whom the US suspects of collaborating with al-Qaida terrorists has been named as the new leader of an Islamic militia that has seized control of Somalia’s capital.

The militia, which on Saturday changed its name from the Islamic Courts Union to the Conservative Council of Islamic Courts, said in a statement it had appointed Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys as its new leader.

The Bush administration has said Mr Aweys was an associate of Osama bin Laden in the early 1990s.

The Islamic militia seized control of the capital Mogadishu and much of southern Somalia from an alliance of secular warlords earlier this month. Mr Aweys’s appointment makes it unlikely that the increasingly powerful militia will govern using the moderate brand of Islam practiced by most Somalis.

The appointment is also likely to stoke Washington’s long-standing fears that the chaotic Horn of Africa nation will become a safe haven for bin Laden’s terror network much like Afghanistan in the 1990s.

US officials accuse the Islamists in Somalia of harbouring al-Qaida leaders responsible for the deadly 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Mr Aweys appeared on a list of individuals and organisations accused of having ties to terrorism which the United States released after the September 11 attacks.

Mr Aweys replaces the more moderate Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed. Since the militia drove the warlords from Mogadishu earlier this month, Mr Ahmed had softened his rhetoric calling for strict Islamic, or sharia, law.

Mr Aweys has condemned that government and any attempts to install a Western-style democracy.

The US State Department had no immediate comment.