Agence France Presse report

Mogadishu — A warlord opposed to Somalia’s interim government claimed Thursday that Libya was arming Islamic militants backing the administration to prepare them to counter any US military intervention.

“Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi is sending the weapons to his favourite group in Somalia,” said warlord Musa Sudi Yalahow, who controls parts of Mogadishu.

“Kadhafi’s aim is to arm religious extremists and other fundamentalist political organisations so they are able to fight fiercely if the United States-led anti terrorist operation comes to Somalia,” Yalahow said.

US officials have said that members of the group held responsible for the September 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington may try to use Somalia as a base due to the anarchy prevailing in the Horn of Africa country.

Yalahow claimed the Transitional National Government (TNG), which he does not recognise, had received several plane-loads of landmines and other arms, including artillery pieces, mortars, anti-tank and anti-aircraft rockets.

“This is the biggest weapons shipment since war broke out in Mogadishu in 1991 after dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was toppled. The weapons arrived in the past nine days,” Yalahow told AFP.

He said planes carrying the arms landed at Balidogle airport, 90 kilmometres (55 miles), west of Mogadishu.

Other militia sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the arms had indeed been received at Balidogle, but declined to give further details.

The TNG, however, denied Yalahow’s allegations and said it was committed to disarmament and lasting peace through dialogue.

“It is Yalahow and other warlords who bring in weapons to use violence for political gain,” said a senior TNG official who asked not to be named.

“It is again Yalahow and his colleagues who are rearmed by a neighbouring country,” he added, in an apparent reference to Ethiopia.

Yalahow is a member of the Somali Reconciliation and Restoration Council, a loose alliance of warlords opposed to the TNG and which is backed by neighbouring Ethiopia.