|
Un says alqaida trained somalia { November 4 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-3347045,00.htmlhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-3347045,00.html
U.N. Report: al-Qaida Trained in Somalia
Tuesday November 4, 2003 2:31 PM
By ANDREW ENGLAND
Associated Press Writer
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) - Al-Qaida terrorists who attacked a Kenyan resort hotel and an Israeli-owned airliner last year, plotted the attacks and obtained their weapons in neighboring Somalia and were able to hide out in the Horn of African nation afterward, a draft U.N. report concluded.
At least four of the terrorists remain in Somalia, the report by a U.N.-appointed panel of experts said.
The panel ``has also learned of recent attempts by extremist groups to procure explosives on the Mogadishu arms market, as well as ongoing militia training in the use of explosives,'' said the report, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press.
``On at least one occasion in the past 12 months, arms delivered illegally to Somalia were employed in the commission of a terrorist act in Kenya,'' it said of the attempt to shoot down the airliner.
``Although that particular attack was unsuccessful, the panel believes that additional weapons may have been imported into Somalia solely for the purpose of carrying out further terrorist attacks in neighboring states.''
Three Israeli tourists and 12 Kenyans were killed when suicide bombers rammed a car loaded with explosives in to the Paradise Hotel on Kenya's coast on Nov. 28. Almost simultaneously, two surface-to-air missiles were fired at an Israeli charter jet taking off from nearby Mombasa.
The panel was appointed by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan earlier this year for a six-month period to investigate violations of a 1992 arms embargo imposed against Somalia - a Muslim nation that has not had an effective government since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
A U.N. sanctions committee will review the report and then the Security Council is expected to review it.
A foreign official with expertise on Somalia, based in Kenya, who did not want to be named, said there's been a ``certain evolution'' in Somalia, with an increase of Somalis cooperating with terrorists.
``We worried about Somalia as a territory, now we are concerned that Somalis are involved,'' with terrorism, he said.
Investigators believe Fazul Abdullah Mohammed - a native of Comoros who is on the FBI most wanted list - masterminded the attacks. Mohammed has also been indicted by a U.S. court for the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, which killed 231 people.
Shortly after the embassy attacks, al-Qaida's East Africa network began to reorganize under Mohammed's leadership, assembling along the Kenyan-Somali coast, the U.N. report said.
Members of the cell first gathered in Mogadishu in November 2001, and senior members ``provided junior members with ideological orientation and small arms training,'' it said.
A month later, the group dispersed and several members returned to Kenya. By April 2002, the targets had been identified, the report said.
The two shoulder-fired SA-7B missiles fired at the Israeli plane were delivered to Somalia from Yemen before being smuggled by sea to Kenya in August 2002, it said.
Ahead of the attacks, the terrorists divided into four groups: one was to attack the Paradise Hotel; another, led by Fazul, was to attack the airline; a third was in Mogadishu; and a fourth was sent to Lamu, an island off the Kenyan coast, to prepare the terrorists' escape to Somalia, the report said.
Two or three cell members - car bombers - died in the attacks. The next day, ``the surviving members of the team regrouped in Lamu and departed two days later for Somalia by boat,'' the report said. ``Most of the team remained in Mogadishu for several months after the attacks, living on cash allowances provided by their Sudanese financial controller.''
Mohammed remains at large. The report did not identify the four cell members hiding in Somalia and gave no details on the Sudanese financier.
One of the team, Suleiman Abdalla Salim Hemed, was seized by Somali gunmen in Mogadishu in March and handed over to U.S. officials. Kenyan Security Minister Chris Murungaru said then that Hemed had also participated in the 1998 embassy bombings and provided useful information about all of the attacks.
``Due to violations of the Somalia arms embargo, transnational terrorists have been able to obtain not only small arms, but also man-portable air defense systems, light anti-tank weapons and explosives,'' it said.
After the Sept. 11 attacks, U.S. officials cited Somalia as a possible haven for terrorists and shut down a Somali banking group the United States claimed was financing al-Qaida. U.S. troops have set up base in neighboring Djibouti as part of the war on terrorism.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2003
|
|
