NAIROBI, Kenya, May 23, 2006 – The United States helps Somalia through aid and has encouraged groups to fight terrorism, but is not responsible for the worst fighting in Mogadishu in years, the U.S. ambassador to Kenya said on Tuesday.

In a letter to Kenya's Daily Nation newspaper, U.S. Ambassador William Bellamy said some reports had "wrongly blamed" three recent bouts of fighting in the Somali capital on his country.

"The real story of American involvement in Somalia is a much different one," Bellamy, also responsible for Somalia, wrote, referring to reports Washington had backed one side of the combatants as part of its counter-terrorism war.

"It is true the U.S. has encouraged a variety of groups in Somalia, in all corners of the country, and among all clans, to oppose the al Qaeda presence and reject the Somali militants who shelter and protect these terrorists," he wrote.

Bellamy's letter listed several U.S. aid programs, including $81.4 million in food aid, peace initiatives, support for non-governmental organizations and backing for the country's struggling interim government.

"Lost in the diplomacy and politics is the fact that the U.S. is reaching out in many ways to help improve the lives of ordinary Somalis," Bellamy wrote.

Militias from a coalition of warlords calling itself a counter-terrorism alliance and gunmen backed by Mogadishu's influential Islamic courts have been locked in fierce battles that have killed more than 250 people since February.

The Islamic courts say U.S. money is pouring into Mogadishu to support their enemies, while the warlords say their opponents have links to al Qaeda.

The perception, real or otherwise, that U.S. money funded the warlords has turned fighting laced with commercial and political motives into a proxy war between Islamist militants and Washington.

Bellamy did not specifically address the question of warlord funding, but Washington has been consistent in saying it will work with any individual, government or group it considers a counter-terrorism ally.

'TURNING SOMALIA INTO IRAQ'

Asked to comment on Bellamy's letter, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, a leading Islamist on America's list of most wanted terrorists, said the courts do not harbor foreign militants.

"That's pure propaganda," Aweys told Reuters by telephone from Mogadishu. "There are no terrorists here. They (Americans) are only looking for a reason to turn our country into another Iraq ... We will continue fighting as long as they attack us."

The United States believes there are al Qaeda-linked militants in Somalia. Independent analysts and diplomats have said a handful of al Qaeda operatives are there, and have set up training camps.

"It's not the Americans who are turning Somalia into another Iraq, it's the terrorists," U.S. embassy spokesman Bob Kerr said. "We are saving a lot of lives through our food aid programs and the like. The terrorists are not saving any lives."

The United States has long considered anarchic Somalia, without an effective government for 15 years, a sanctuary for al Qaeda in east Africa.

Source: Reuters, May 23, 2006

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