Authorities in Somalia’s breakaway region of Somaliland said on Friday they have arrested a senior al-Qaeda operative allegedly in the region to organise attacks on local leaders and foreigners.
Somaliland Interior Minister Ishmael Aden said police arrested ”an internationally known” Afghan-trained leader of Osama bin Laden’s network along with two other al-Qaeda members after an overnight shootout in the capital, Hargeisa.
”We have captured two members of al-Qaeda and about four others fled the area,” he said. ”Their leader, who was among those we arrested, is an internationally known fighter for al-Qaeda who has been in Pakistan and Afghanistan.”
Aden later said that a massive manhunt by security forces netted a third man about 120km east of Hargeisa, and that he is a suspect in the killing of an Italian aid worker in 2003 in Somaliland.
Officials declined to name any of the suspects for security reasons, but Aden said he plans to call a news conference on Saturday to announce details of the operation, including the identities of those arrested.
Aden said three police officers were wounded in the firefight that erupted when they raided the group’s hideout in central Hargeisa and that authorities recovered a large cache of weapons and communications equipment during the raid.
”We captured heavy anti-tank weapons, rifles, other assorted ammunition and high-frequency communication equipment,” he said.
A senior Somaliland police officer said the members of the alleged al-Qaeda cell put up fierce resistance when confronted by authorities in the raid that began at about midnight and lasted for four hours.
”They are dangerous and well-trained, considering the way they fought back,” the official said on condition of anonymity. ”They were about six against a large number of policemen.”
Aden said authorities believe the cell had travelled to Somaliland from Mogadishu several days ago to mount attacks on local leaders and foreign aid workers to disrupt the region’s September 29 elections.
”They came to harm or kill the leaders of Somaliland, international expatriates working here, and to disrupt the democratic elections in Somaliland,” he said, adding that the raid was launched after a tip-off from local residents.
”We also recovered a video in which the leader of the group complains that Somaliland has become a haven for foreigners,” Aden said.
In addition, he said the cell aimed to break into a prison and free 10 inmates now standing trial for alleged involvement in the 2003 murders of an Italian aid worker and a British husband-and-wife team of schoolteachers in Somaliland.
”We suspect they wanted to free the men who are in prison on suspicion of killing the aid workers,” Aden said, adding that the third alleged al-Qaeda detainee will be tried for the murder of the Italian.
Police said they have stepped up security around the Hargeisa prison to thwart any breakout attempt.
Somaliland, in north-western Somalia, unilaterally declared independence from the rest of the country after the 1991 ouster of strongman Mohamed Siad Barre plunged the Horn of Africa nation into anarchy.
It is not internationally recognised, but is seen widely as an island of relative stability in the lawless country that Western intelligence agencies fear has become a haven for Muslim extremist groups, including al-Qaeda.
In July, a respected international policy think tank said a group of al-Qaeda-affiliated fighters led by an Afghan-trained militia leader had secured a foothold in Mogadishu and threatened to push Somalia deeper into anarchy.
”The threat of jihadi terrorism in and from Somalia is real,” the International Crisis Group said in a report that described the group as ”a new, ruthless and independent network with links to al-Qaeda”. — Sapa-AFP