Monday, May 29 2006 10:27 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New York: The United States aid in cash and equipment to three anti-Islamist warlords in Somalia in exchange for information about al Qaeda elements there might have helped to raise anti-American feelings and be creating a new Jihadist's haven, a media report has suggested.

The issue has come into focus following increasing violence in which, the Newsweek says, jihadists might be gaining ground.

For several years, the report said, quoting several unofficial sources, Somalia's three major anti-Islamist warlords have received U.S. Cash and some equipment to help with intelligence operations.

The warlords Mohamed Dheere, Bashir Raghe and Mohamed Qanyare have been asked to collect information on Muslim extremists tied to Al Qaeda.

In one 2003 case, Dheere's men snatched an East African Qaeda cell member and turned him over.

Philip Giraldi, a former CIA counterterrorism official who stays in touch with his ex-colleagues, says much of the money is funneled through the 1,800-man Joint Combined Task Force, based in Djibouti on the Horn of Africa. Other reports point to the CIA, the report said.

The policy has provoked dissent at both the CIA and State Department, as well as in Europe. Some officials, the magazine says, fear that America may be inadvertently creating a new jihadist haven in Somalia by generating an anti-U.S backlash.

Before the U.S. Programme began, the Islamists were only a small part of the population.

"We know neither the rationale nor the scale of U.S. Involvement; what we do see are consequences," says Marika Fahlen, Swedish ambassador and special envoy for the Horn of Africa.

"The fighting is increasingly complex. Certain [Islamist] groups that were not so active in fighting before have become fighters," he said.