Somali Brits are not al-Qaeda

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2540336,00.html

Somali Brits are not al-Qaeda

They are all in their early 20’s and regard themselves as British, but in recent weeks a group of men have left their families in the UK to go to Somalia to fight for that country’s Islamic leaders.

These men insist they are not terrorists. They have not gone to join up with al-Qaeda or its many affiliates operating in East Africa, but have given up their jobs and studies to support the militia loyal to the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) which, until last month, controlled the Somali capital, Mogadishu.

The Foreign Office concedes that it does not know how many of these young Britons went to sign up with an international brigade drawn from expatriate families across Europe.

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Many of these Britons who were forced into retreat when Ethiopian-led troops took control of Mogadishu may now find themselves in territory controlled by clans sympathetic to al-Qaeda, but that is because these are the only areas where the routed UIC forces can regard as safe havens.

While the UK authorities wait for the Ethiopians to hand over the passports and other documentation they claim to have taken from their British captives, the best hope these men have to escape is to make it back across the Kenyan border before limping ‘home’ to Britain