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 MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) - Allegations that al-Qaida terrorists have been hiding in Somalia revolve around an old cleric, a young warrior, a desecrated cemetery and a lot of uncertainty. President Bush and other Western leaders have expressed concern that Somalia could become a safe haven for Osama bin Laden's terrorist network — worries heightened by the victories of a militia vowing to bring Islamic rule to the Horn of Africa nation.
Interviews with Islamic leaders, moderate business people and other Somalis reveal that people are frightened by recent events and that the Islamic leaders and the clans through which they operate are under close scrutiny.
The militia loyal to the Islamic Courts Union seized Mogadishu on June 6 after months of fighting in which more than 330 people were killed, most of them civilians. They have since taken control of much of southern Somalia after defeating a coalition of U.S.-backed secular warlords who had been fighting each other since the last effective central government collapsed in 1991.
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