WASHINGTON, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- Al-Qaida's power and influence is growing in Mogadishu and elsewhere in Somalia, a U.S. assistant secretary of State says.
Jendayi Frazer, assistant secretary for Africa, said Somalia's Council of Islamic Courts is controlled by al-Qaida, The Washington Post reported Monday.
That creates a Taliban-like situation in a country apparently prepared to go to war with neighboring, predominantly Christian Ethiopia over a border dispute, the report said.
In a taped statement released in July, al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden called on Somalis to begin preparing for regional war and, earlier this month, the U.N. Security Council authorized a resolution calling for an all-African peacekeeping force excluding any of Somalia's neighbors.
Somalia descended into violence in 1994 after U.S. and U.N. troops withdrew, allowing Muslim clans to battle for power, and forcing the government to flee the capital for the southern town of Baidoa, the newspaper said.
