Glenn Warren, the diplomat at the U.S. embassy in Kenya in charge of Somalia, is not the only American to pay regular visits to Baidoa (ION 982), the stronghold of the Rahanwein Resistance Army (RRA) of Hassam Mohamed Nur "Shatigadud" (red shirt). Already in December 2001, a group of U.S. soldiers had traveled to the city west of Mogadishu. Since then, according to a diplomatic source in Nairobi, a representative of America's military has visited Baidoa twice, in late February and early March. Each time, the visit to Baidoa was a brief one of but a few hours made aboard a charter plane rented in Nairobi. Among other things, negotiations with RRA leaders concerned the establishment of a permanent U.S. liaison office in the city. During each stay, a house was visited to see if it could serve as a home for the American liaison agent, probably someone from the military. His task will be to obtain information on the region's Islamic networks, as well as the hypothetical arrival of Al Qaida terrorists on the lam. A leader of the Digil and Mirifle clans and a former colonel in the Somalian army who used to work for the secret service, Shatigadud claims he commands a force of 4,000 militia and a fleet of about 40 technicals (jeep-type vehicles with heavy weapons). The RRA constitutes part of the armed branch of the Somali Reconciliation and Restoration Council (SRRC), a military-ethnic coalition supported by Ethiopia and opposed to the Mogadishu-based Transitional National Government (TNG) of President Abdiqassem Salad Hassan.