Prominent militant arrested in blow to Somali Islamists
By Abdi Sheikh
MOGADISHU | Wed Jun 26, 2013 1:55pm EDT
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - One of Somalia's most prominent Islamist rebel
commanders has been arrested and is in the hands of a regional
administration, local and government officials said on Wednesday, dealing a
blow to the country's al Shabaab insurgents.
Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys was detained in a coastal area of central Somalia
and had been taken to a safe-house in the town of Adado, said a spokesman
for the Somali Federal Government.
Aweys was "linked to terrorism" by the United States shortly after the
September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington and is on a U.N.
Security Council terrorism sanctions list.
The arrest of a man who has been a major player in many stages of Somalia's
long insurgency would be a boost for a government and its African allies
struggling to contain months of guerrilla-style attacks.
Diplomats suggested Aweys had fled a bout of in-fighting that indicated
rifts in the group. Analysts said Mogadishu might be open to negotiate with
Aweys, who they say backed a faction in al Shabaab opposed to using foreign
fighters.
Clan elders and the Adado administration, which is generally seen as
friendly to Mogadishu, said negotiations were under way with the central
government over what to do with Aweys.
"We are discussing how to solve the issue," said central government
spokesman Abdirahman Omar Osman. "Our policy has always been that for those
within al Shabaab who are Somalis and want to renounce violence, we are
willing to lend a hand."
Adado resident Hassan Nur said the town was tense as militiamen and security
forces loyal to the provincial Himan and Heeb administration sped around in
pick-up trucks mounted with machineguns.
"Aweys and his men are now in Himan and Heeb palace in Adado town," Abdi
Kadawe, Adado's police chief, told Reuters by phone.
FIREBRAND CLERIC
Rashid Abdi, an independent Horn of Africa analyst, said Aweys' arrest would
be a psychological blow but was unlikely to shift the power balance in al
Shabaab, which has been weakened by an offensive led by African
peacekeepers.
Aweys' influence had been "seriously diminished in recent years," Abdi told
Reuters that
Aweys, a firebrand cleric believed to be in his late 70s, had been seen by
many Somalis as the spiritual leader of al Shabaab and had been revered by
militants as the father of Somalia's Islamist movement.
In the 1990s, as the Horn of Africa country imploded after the overthrow of
a dictator, Aweys was military commander of Somalia's largest militant
Islamist group but suffered defeats in battles against Ethiopia and warlords
backed by Addis Ababa.
Aweys helped found the Union of Islamic Courts that briefly controlled
Mogadishu and most of Somalia in 2006 before it too was routed by Ethiopia,
a nation long seen by the West as a bulwark against Islamist militancy in
the region.
He fled to Eritrea but returned three years later as leader of Hizbul Islam
to battle the transitional government led by a former comrade. But the more
powerful al Shabaab forced Aweys to merge his group with theirs.
Inside al Shabaab, Aweys became mired in a struggle between his faction that
saw al Shabaab as a nationalist insurgency and another that comprised
foreign fighters that saw the group as fighting a global jihad.
(Additional reporting and writing by Richard Lough in Nairobi; Editing by
Edmund Blair and Andrew Heavens)