US confirms arms shipments to bolster besieged Somalia govt

The US State Department has confirmed that Washington is providing arms and ammunition to the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia in a bid to thwart its defeat by a loose coalition of radical Islamist militias which, according to some analysts, are linked to al Qaeda.

The move, which State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said was sanctioned under existing resolutions of the UN Security Council, marks an important escalation in U.S. support for the five-month-old presidency of Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, a former chairman of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU).

“At the request of that government, the State Department has helped to provide weapons and ammunition on an urgent basis,” the Department’s spokesman, Ian Kelly, told reporters.

Washington is also quietly providing training to government officers and recruits in neighbouring Djibouti, where hundreds of U.S. troops, including Special Forces have been based since 9/11, according to other officials.

The transitional Somali government is struggling to defend itself against a major offensive launched early last month by Al-Shabaab, a hard-line Islamist group that now controls much of southern and central Somalia and all but a few blocks of the capital, Mogadishu.

Al-Shabaab (the Youth), which the U.S. labels a terrorist group, is trying to overthrow the U.N.-backed government and install a strict form of Islamic law similar to that imposed by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

They are allied with Hizbul Islam, an umbrella group headed by Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, a former comrade of Sheik Sharif’s in the ICU.

Senior US officials have expressed fear that, if successful, the loose-knit coalition could, like the Taliban, provide a safe haven for Muslim extremists from other nations, including al Qaeda.

Aweys, however, has disclaimed any connection to al Qaeda.

-IPS