MOGADISHU, Somalia -- The Islamic militiamen holding most of southern Somalia deployed hundreds of fighters outside the base of the U.N.-backed interim government Wednesday and said they planned to seize it.\nSeizing Baidoa would make the Islamic militia -- which the United States has linked to al-Qaida -- the uncontested authority over most of the country.\nThe interim government was on high alert and ready to defend itself from an attack, Deputy Information Minister Salad Ali Jelle told The Associated Press.\nThe Islamic militiamen seized the capital, Mogadishu, last month and have installed increasingly strict religious rule that sparked fears of a Taliban-style hard-line regime in this anarchic Horn of Africa nation. The United States has accused the militia of links to al-Qaida that include sheltering suspects in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.\nOsama bin Laden has called Somalia a front in his global war against the U.S. and its allies.\n"Nothing will stop us from going into Baidoa," said Sheik Muqtar Robow, deputy defense chief for the Islamic group. He said more than 130 fighters who were loyal to President Abdullahi Yusuf had defected to the Islamists' side.\nThe interim government already was virtually powerless and barely able to control Baidoa, 150 miles northwest of the capital.\n"It could be the beginning of a full-out war," said Omar Jamal, executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in St. Paul, Minn.\nA Cabinet minister in the interim government was reported Tuesday to be recruiting militiamen to bolster the government and the deployment outside Baidoa appeared to be a pre-emptive strike.\nRelations between the government and the Islamic militiamen already were strained after the government accused the Islamic group of planning to attack Baidoa, receiving help from foreign terrorists and massacring government supporters during recent fighting in Mogadishu.\nThe government had refused to meet the Islamic group in peace talks set for July 15 in neighboring Sudan, although it appeared to reverse course Monday under pressure from foreign governments pushing for a unified Somali administration.\nThe status of the talks was thrown into uncertainty by Wednesday's deployment.\nSince its seizure of Mogadishu, the Islamic group has cracked down on purportedly non-Islamic activities such as a wedding with live music and a World Cup screening -- shooting and killing two people who were watching.\nIt also replaced its moderate main leader with Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, whom the U.S. has linked to al-Qaida. Aweys denies the allegations.\nIn their latest hard-line move, Islamic militiamen with assault rifles raided five halls in northern Mogadishu Tuesday and arrested people who had paid to watch videos, residents said.\nThe residents said Islamic fighters arrested about 60 people during the raids. The chairman of a local Islamic court said his fighters detained only 14.\nA recent recruiting video issued by militia members shows foreign militants fighting alongside the local extremists in Mogadishu, and invites Muslims from around the world to join in their "holy jihad."\nSheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, a leader of the group, claimed the tape was fabricated by the United States.\nSomalia has had no real government since the overthrow of a dictator in 1991.
Associated Press writer Salad Duhul contributed to this report.
