Informants Hunt Terrorists in Somalia

Wednesday, November 5, 2003

(3:30 PM ET)

By Chris Tomlinson

Associated Press Writer

Somalia, a semiarid country, offers an attractive location for covert operations, but the country is nothing like Afghanistan, where al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden's Islamic militants were welcomed and worked unhindered, establishing large training camps. Somalia's clan-based society is deeply Islamic, but the vast majority of Somalis follow Sufism, which is vehemently opposed to al-Qaida's militant, politically infused interpretation of Islam.

A Kenyan policeman walks past the destroyed Paradise Hotel on the Kenyan coast, in this Nov. 28, 2002 file photo taken after suicide bombers had driven a car packed with explosives into the resort, killing three Israeli tourists and 12 Kenyans. A report by a panel of experts appointed by the United Nations obtained by the Associated Press On tuesday Nov. 4, 2003 says that the terrorists who organized the attack plotted and trained in neighboring Somalia.

Image Credit: Karel Prinsloo -- AP [File]

MOGADISHU, Somalia -- AP
In lawless Mogadishu, where U.S. officials fear al-Qaida members are plotting their next attack, the word is out: catch a terrorist, collect rewards as high as $5 million.

At least four al-Qaida terrorist suspects are in Somalia, Kenyan officials and U.N. experts say, and Americans are trying to capture them in a country without an effective central government for more than a decade, officials and gunmen told The Associated Press.

U.S. agents are working through proxies and have recruited a network of informants who keep an eye out for suspected terrorists, according to a Western security official and several prominent Somalis, all speaking on condition of anonymity.

So far, those efforts are known to have netted at least one al-Qaida suspect - Suleiman Abdalla Salim Hemed, who's accused of playing a role in the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Africa - but rumors abound of gunmen kidnapping Arabs and turning them over to U.S. agents.

A Somali warlord, Mohammed Dheere, coordinated the capture of Hemed at the behest of U.S. officials, gunmen familiar with the Hemed operation told AP, speaking privately for fear of reprisals. Most Somalis believe Dheere was generously rewarded.

Kenya's national security minister, Chris Murungaru, claimed credit for Hemed's capture and said he was turned over to U.S. authorities, who have refused to comment.

But the gunmen said U.S. agents regularly visit Dheere at his Mogadishu home and an AP reporter saw two of the alleged agents, dressed in regular clothing, moving through Mogadishu using a team of bodyguards belonging to Bashir Rageh, a wealthy businessman closely associated with Dheere.

After Hemed's capture, Dheere questioned Hemed's friends for hours, asking about other suspected terrorists. When shown photos from the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists Web site, Hemed's friends said Dheere used the same photos when he questioned them. They said they didn't recognize any of the men in the photos.
(More: Netscape Network News with CNN)
2003 © The Associated Press.

Dan