New Somali PM resigns over power struggle

[December 24, 2008]  MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) -- One of Somalia's two prime ministers resigned Wednesday, bringing the feuding, divided government one step closer to reunion.

Officials in the war-ravaged nation have spent most of their time fighting each other instead of a growing Islamic insurgency that American officials fear is linked to al-Qaida.

The feuding came to a head last week when the Somali president unilaterally dismissed Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein and appointed a new one, Mohamed Mohamud Guled. The country's parliament refused to approve the move, which was quickly condemned by the United States and neighboring countries.

The dispute left unclear which prime minister was in charge.

"I have resigned for the common interest of the people and to end the infighting among the government," Guled told reporters in Baidoa. "I want the government to remain in power and differences among its leaders to be sorted out."

President Abdullahi Yusuf has called for a special parliamentary session on Saturday, an aide said, and it is possible he may resign. The aide spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.

Hussein, the remaining prime minister, has won international support with his reformist agenda and attempts to build on a tattered peace agreement with elements of the insurgency. He was not available for comment.

The split has weakened the U.N.-backed administration as the Islamic insurgency has been gaining strength. The Islamists now control most of southern and central Somalia and Ethiopian troops supporting the government are due to leave by the end of the year.

Government forces now only control pockets of the capital of Mogadishu and the parliamentary seat of Baidoa. The U.N. has ruled out sending a peacekeeping force, saying there is no peace to keep, and a contingent of African Union peacekeepers is limited to guarding the capital's port, airport and main government buildings.

Thousands of civilians have been killed in the fighting last year alone and millions are dependent on aid.

The United States worries that Somalia could be a terrorist breeding ground, and accuses the most powerful Islamic faction, al-Shabab, of harboring the al-Qaida-linked terrorists who blew up the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.

The Brussels-based think tank International Crisis Group said in a new report that the international community should urge Yusuf to resign.

The group also urged the U.S. to "rebalance" its counterterrorism strategy in Somalia and consider removing individuals and groups from its terrorism lists in exchange for a constructive role in the U.N.-sponsored peace process.

The U.S. sent a small number of Special Forces into Somalia with Ethiopian forces in 2006, and in early 2007 the U.S. conducted several airstrikes in an attempt to kill suspected al-Qaida members.

The group said such airstrikes at suspected foreign extremists have only "increased the insurgency's popularity."

The Horn of Africa nation has not had a functioning government since warlords overthrew a socialist dictator in 1991.

[Associated Press; By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN and MOHAMED SHEIK NOR]

Associated Press writer Malkhadir M. Muhumed contributed to this report from Nairobi, Kenya.

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