Somalia's Islamic Extremists Set U.S. Back

Gunmen drive outside the Banadir stadium in northen Mogadishu, Tuesday, June 6, 2006 during a demonstration demanding that Islamic militia leave the northern part of the city or face a counter-attack. Mogadishu's largest clan Tuesday demanded an Islamic militia leave the northern part of the city or face a counter-attack, just one day after the fundamentalists seized the capital and strengthened their grip on this lawless African nation.(AP Photo/Mohamed Sheikh Nor) (Mohamed Sheikh Nor - AP)

Appealing to Somali nationalism, while exploiting public hatred for the warlords and anti-American sentiment common among Muslims across East Africa, the Islamic leaders garnered widespread support.

Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, chairman of the Islamic Court Union, told supporters on Tuesday that his group would continue fighting until all of Somalia falls under the union's authority. The courts have already made alliances with rebels from outside of Somalia to accomplish their goal.

Residents of Mogadishu, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, have reported seeing hundreds of non-Somali militia _ including non-Africans _ fighting alongside the Islamic forces. At least 600 Ethiopian rebels from the predominantly Muslim Oromo National Liberation Front have been seen manning checkpoints in Mogadishu.

The Oromo "share the Muslim faith with Somalis and if someone convinced them that this revolution in Somalia will eventually become an Islamic state across the whole region, including the Oromo region of Ethiopia, they will think it is worth fighting for," said Omar Jamal, director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in St. Paul, Minn., a hub of expatriate Somalis.

There are Islamic extremist elements in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Eritrea, all watching what is happening in Somalia and how the United States reacts.

"We won the fight against the enemy of Islam. Mogadishu is under control of its people," Ahmed said in a radio broadcast Monday in a veiled reference to the United States and its proxies.

McCormack has said the United States will back the U.N.-sponsored Somali government, now residing in Baidoa, 140 miles northwest of Mogadishu.

Whether that government can defeat or co-opt Islamic radicalism in Somalia is the key question.

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Chris Tomlinson, AP chief of bureau for East Africa, has reported on Somalia and the Horn of Africa for six years.