The Supreme Islamic Courts Union / al-Ittihad Mahakem al-Islamiya (ICU)
The collapse of Siad Barre's regime in 1991 created a power struggle between local Somali warlords and Islamic militia leaders. Since the collapse, the rule of law has mainly been maintained by various Islamic courts, instituting "Sharia" (Islamic) law - much like in Afghanistan prior to the fall of the Taliban in 2001. They banned anything associated with Western culture (i.e. music, movies) and even disallowed people from watching the World Cup. Violators have known to be publicly executed. These Islamic militias gained popularity amongst their separate clans by providing educational and medical services that became unavailable without a central government. In 2000, 11 of the clans that held these courts decided to consolidate their power. They formed The Supreme Islamic Courts Union (ICU). Their stated goal is to make Somalia a peaceful and stable Islamic State. The majority of Somalis are Sunni Muslims.
The ICU was a creation of al-Ittihad al-Islamiya (AIAI), a group formed in 1984 from al-Jamma al-Islamiya and Wahdat al-Shabab al-Islam. The latter groups were created in the 1960's during the rise of Sayyid Qutb and his radical anti-Western writing about militant Islam. For decades these groups, with the help of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF, an ethnically-Somali Ethiopian separatist group), have carried out cross-border attacks against Ethiopian forces. The ICU was established in 2000 after AIAI suffered significant losses during direct confrontations with Ethiopian forces. AIAI was believed to be a supporter of Al-Qaeda and was designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) by the U.S. State Department.
Although the presence of different clans stood as a potential obstacle to its survival, the ICU's popularity and strength grew since its inception. The ICU's main opposition was the Transitional Federal Government (TFG), formed in Nairobi in October 2004 by warlords supported by Ethiopia and a largely-assumed CIA-backed group known as the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT). It has also been speculated that the ICU has been funded by Ethiopia's adversary Eritrea, while the ARCPT has received aid from American ally Djibouti.
The Chairman and de facto spokesman for the ICU, as of October 2006, is Sheik Sharif Ahmed. However, Ahmed is viewed as a moderate and may not have much power within the ICU. Ahmed's militant deputies, Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys and Sheik Adan Hashi Ayro, organized the attacks on Mogadishu in June 2006 and were presumed to be more powerful. Aweys, a former AIAI leader, was the Secretary-General of the ICU and was designated as a terrorist by the U.S. State Department and the United Nations in 2001. Ayro, also a former AIAI leader, was trained in Afghanistan and fought in the Soviet-Afghan War. He was charged in absentia by a Somaliland court for the murder of four foreign aid workers in 2003.
As of October 2006, the ICU controlled the majority of Southern Somalia. Semi-autonomous Somaliland and Puntland remained in control of their respective regions in the north.
