SOMALI Islamists have named a cleric wanted by the United States for alleged links to the al-Qaeda terrorist network as the head of their new "parliament" overnight. Officials said Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys - a wanted "terrorist" in the United States - had been chosen to lead the Council of Islamic Courts (CIC) which will serve as a parliament for regions under the courts' control. The appointment came as the Islamic courts shore up their control of Mogadishu and outlying towns following the dramatic victory of their militia fighters over a US-backed warlord alliance in Mogadishu earlier this month.Sheikh Aweys founded the capital's first Islamic court and is believed to have orchestrated the Islamic takeover. He has been operating in the central Galgudud region where he has set up sharia or Islamic tribunals. He has been designated a "terrorist" by the United States and is subject to US sanctions for alleged ties to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, blamed for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. His suspected terror links were a key reason Washington backed the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT), which was formed in February by warlords who say the Islamists are harbouring extremists.
A senior official who attended a meeting of Somalia's Joint Islamic Courts in Mogadishu's Ramadan hotel today said 88 delegates had been chosen to sit in the CIC, which will legislate and oversee the courts in the Horn of Africa nation. "The former head of the JIC, Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, will be the chairman of the council's executive committee, which will be in charge of day to day running of the Islamic courts," a senior cleric said.