Somali warlords help U.S. hunt for terrorists

MOGADISHU, Somalia -- In lawless Mogadishu, where U.S. officials fear al-Qaida members are plotting their next attack, the word is out: catch a terrorist, collect rewards as high as $5 million.

At least four al-Qaida terrorist suspects are in Somalia, Kenyan officials and U.N. experts say, and Americans are trying to capture them in a country without an effective central government for more than a decade, officials and gunmen told The Associated Press.

U.S. agents are working through proxies and have recruited a network of informants who keep an eye out for suspected terrorists, according to a Western security official and several prominent Somalis, all speaking on condition of anonymity.

So far, those efforts are known to have netted at least one al-Qaida suspect -- Suleiman Abdalla Salim Hemed, who's accused of playing a role in the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Africa -- but rumors abound of gunmen kidnapping Arabs and turning them over to U.S. agents.

Somalia, a semiarid country, offers an attractive location for covert operations. Somalia's clan-based society is deeply Islamic, but the vast majority of Somalis follow Sufism, which is vehemently opposed to al-Qaida's militant, politically infused interpretation of Islam.

As a result, the warlords who run the country, drawing support and gunmen from their clans, are decidedly secular in their politics.

While German reconnaissance planes and German and U.S. warships patrol the coastline, U.S. officials have tried to get a presence on the ground by capitalizing on the warlords' lack of religious zeal and need for cash. After the slaying of 18 U.S. service members by Somali gunmen in 1993, U.S. officials appear to be in no hurry to send troops back into Somalia.

All of the American efforts, however, cannot overcome the basic problems created by the lack of a government. Somalia has hundreds of unmonitored airports and seaports where weapons and people can pass easily if enough financial incentive is applied.

Extensive monitoring, from bases like the one recently established in Djibouti, can detect hundreds of terrorists training together, but it is impossible to detect groups using small compounds or private homes.

And while most Somalis reject Islamic extremism, there are militants in Somalia. Al-Ittihad al-Islami, listed by the United States as a terrorist group linked to al-Qaida, does openly operate as a religious organization, though its members publicly renounce violence.

Abdiqasim Hassan Salad, who led a failed transitional government and is attempting to form a new one, said small numbers of terrorists may be in Somalia.

"That doesn't mean that Somalia can't become a terrorist playground," he said. "We need the help of the United States of America."