Islamic courts leader surrenders
Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed is detained by Kenyan authorities close to the border.
Kenyan officials have said that Ahmed has been flown to Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, and is being held in a hotel.
National reconciliation
“He is the public face of the Islamic courts and is increasing being seen as crucial to any national reconciliation effort in Somalia … this is why, diplomatic sources say, he is being held in a hotel and this is why he is under US protection,” Mohammed Adow, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Mogadishu, said.
An official with the US embassy in Nairobi denied reports that Washington had any involvement in Ahmed’s presence in Kenya.
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“Peace is possible if the interests of US and the Ethiopians are removed” Ahmed, Bossaso, Somalia |
“The United States is not holding or interrogating or protecting Sheikh Sharif,” the official told the AFP news agency. “We were not involved in his capture or surrender.”
The United States sees Ahmed as a moderate in the Islamic Courts movement which formerly vowed to topple the Somali government and to extend its system of Islamic laws across all Somalia.
Ethiopian troops came under fire again on Monday as they carried out searches in the south of the capital, residents told the AFP news agency that at least four civilians were killed in the ensuing gunbattle.
The searches were being conducted after an ambush on an Ethiopian convoy at the weekend which also resulted in a deadly gunbattle.