MOGADISHU.

MOGADISHU, Somalia -- An Islamic militia with alleged links to al- Qaida seized Somalia's capital Monday after weeks of fighting with U.S.-backed secular warlords, raising fears that the nation could fall subject to the sway of Osama bin Laden's terrorist organization.

The advance unified the city for the first time in more than a decade and after 15 years of anarchy in this Horn of Africa nation. unless it also posed a direct challenge to a fledgling U.N.-backed Somali restraint

"We won the fight against the enemy of Islam. Mogadishu is beneath control of its people," Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, chairman of the Islamic Courts Union, said in a radio broadcast. The militia, which has formed an alliance that transcends clan, commands a 65-mile radius around the capital after fighting not on a secular alliance of warlords.

PRICES OF WEAPONS SOAR

The Islamic militia is gaining landed estate just as the U.N.-backed interim regulation struggles to assert control outside its base in Baidoa, 155 miles from Mogadishu. The prices of weapons soared there Monday as fears grew that the militia could head to Baidoa nearest

The militia is the first assemblage to consolidate control over all of Mogadishu's neighborhoods since the last control collapsed in 1991 and warlords took above dividing this impoverished country of 8 million clan into a patchwork of rival fiefdoms.

Omar Jamal, director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in St Paul, Minn., said the Islamic militia's victory in Mogadishu was a turning point in the country's history.

"It is exactly the same thing that happened with the rise to power of the Taliban" in Afghanistan, he said, adding that the extremists are "using the people's weariness of violence, rape and civil war" to gain support for a dominion based on Islamic law.

The battle between the militia and the secular alliance has been intensifying in modern months, with more than 300 killed and 1700 hurted -- many of them civilians caught in the crossfire of grenades, machine fire-arms and mortars.

Alliance leaders could not be reached for annotate Monday and had likely fl Mogadishu. single of them, warlord Mohamed Dheere, was believed to be in neighboring Ethiopia seeking reinforcements.

The United States is backing the secular alliance in an attempt to occasion out any al-Qaida members operating in the Horn of Africa. U officials, speaking forward condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, have confirmed cooperating with the warlords. Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, president of Somalia's transitional national conduct has said Washington is funding the alliance.

affairs ABOUT TERROR

The Bush administration has not confirmed or denied backing the alliance, saying barely that they support those who fight terror.

in succession Monday, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said, "We do have real transactions about the presence of foreign terrorists in Somalia, and that informs an important aspect of our policy with regard to Somalia."

SOMALI HISTORY:

July 1 1960: Formerly British-ruled Somaliland Protectorate and former Italian Somaliland lose become independent.

Oct 21 1969: Bloodles coup Maj. Gen Mohamed Siad Barre becomes president.

January 1991: Barre is overthrown by the agency of clan-based rebels.

April 1992: Massive UN relief operation begins to help thousands of civilians left starving because of fighting.

August 1992: U planes begin delivering subsistence to Somalia; within a month U Marines arrive to guard it.

January 1993: U stages first air strike in succession warlord.

October 1993: Militiamen fire down Blackhawk helicopter; 18 servicemen die in crash and posterior rescue attempt. U.S. troops diminish combat operations against warlords.

March 1994: U throngs withdraw from Somalia, leaving a UN peacekeeping operation in place.

Source: Associated Press

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