U.N. Officials Meet Militia in Somalia

Joe Gordon, Head of the UN Security Somalia, shakes hands with Yusuf Indha'adde, right, one of the officials of the Islamic Courts when he visited the Mogadishu airport, Monday, July 3, 2006. U.N. officials assessed security conditions in the Somali capital on Monday and met leaders of the Islamic group that has seized control of Mogadishu, the first formal contact between the two sides since the militants' dramatic rise to power in the city. The two-member U.N. security team visited Mogadishu's airport and sea port during a preliminary assessment of conditions at the facilities likely to be used by aid agencies that are considering stepping up humanitarian operations there. Persons in the middle and left are unidentified. (AP Photo/Mohamed Sheikh Nor) (Mohamed Sheikh Nor - AP)

"They are in some parts of our territory but, God willing, they will regret," Aweys, now head of the militia's executive council, told journalists in the capital.

Abdulrahim Issa Adow, secretary to Aweys, said the group has put its fighters on alert but they have not sent combatants to attack Ethiopian troops, who are believed to be in areas outside the militia's control.

Islamic fundamentalists have supported separatist groups in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian government has supported the Somali Islamists' rivals with guns and money to keep them from taking power.

Somalia has been without an effective central government since the warlords turned on each other, carving much of the country into armed camps ruled by violence and clan law.

The president of Somalia's largely powerless, U.N.-backed secular interim government, Abdullahi Yusuf, is allied with Ethiopia and has asked for its support.

Bin Laden lashed out at Yusuf, calling him a "traitor" and a "renegade."

The al-Qaida leader said in the audio message posted Saturday on the Internet that leaders of any country, including Islamic ones, should not become involved in Somalia.

Several residents in the border town of Beled-Hawo said about 100 troops from Ethiopia had crossed into their town Saturday. Ahmed, who chairs the Islamic militia's executive council, said Ethiopian troops had also in recent weeks entered Somalia's southwestern region of Gedo and the central region of Hiraan.

Ethiopia has not responded to the allegations.

Ismail Hurreh, one of Somalia's several deputy prime ministers, told The Associated Press that bin Laden has been involved in Somalia since 1992, taking advantage of the country's lawlessness and anarchy to form terrorist cells.

"The current tape indicates his new objective in Somalia," Hurreh said. "The government will not accept Somalia becoming another Afghanistan."

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Associated Press writers Salad Duhul in Mogadishu and Nick Wadhams at the United Nations contributed to this report.