Envoy says Al-Ittihad still in Somalia

The Ethiopian ambassador to the United Nations has said Ethiopian intelligence reports have established that the Al-Ittihad al-Islami group is still operating in Somalia. Addressing the UN Security Council in New York on 19 October, Dr Abdulmajid Husayn said the Ethiopian intelligence services had also established clear links between Al-Ittihad and the Al-Qaeda (Al-Qa'idah) network believed to be headed by Osama bin Laden, Washington's prime-suspect in the 11 September attacks, the pro-government Walta Information Centre reported on Tuesday. Abdulmajid said Ethiopia's national security had in the past been threatened by terrorists operating from bases within Somalia. He also claimed that members of the Al-Ittihad group, formed in the early 1990s with the alleged goal of establishing an Islamic Somali state, which would also incorporate Ethiopia's sizeable ethnic Somali minority, had fully participated in last year's Arta peace process. This participation in the Arta process, said Abdulmajid, which had culminated in the appointment of the Somali Transitional National Government (TNG), served as evidence that the TNG contained Al-Ittihad elements.