MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) - Police in the breakaway republic of Somaliland have detained two suspected al-Qaida militants, raising the number of terror suspects captured in two days to seven, the regional leader said Saturday.
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Dahir Riyale Kahin, the president of the internationally unrecognized republic, said the two suspects were detained Friday in the capital, Hargeisa, adding that two other militants were fleeing on the run. The suspects were part of a group who received terrorist training in camps run by Islamic extremists near Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, Kahin said.
Four other suspects were captured late Thursday after a shootout. A fifth was arrested Friday 20 miles west of the city. Three police officers and one suspect were wounded in the clashes.
"The men pretended to be Islamic clerics and entered Somaliland through different regions four days before they all gathered in Hargeisa," Kahin said. "Islam is supposedly a religion of peace, but terrorists, like chameleons, change colors and try the one they can easily blend with."
Somaliland rulers - like leaders of Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti and elsewhere in the region - are keen to be perceived as allies in the U.S.-led war against terror. The United States and United Kingdom should include Somaliland and other small nations in the fight against terrorism, Kahin said.
The former British colony of Somaliland and the Italian colony of Somalia merged in 1960 to form the independent republic of Somalia. Somaliland set up its own administration after breaking away from the rest of Somalia when the Horn of Africa nation descended into anarchy because of clan-based fighting following the 1991 ouster of President Mohammed Siad Barre.
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