 (SomaliNet)Somalia's top Islamist leader vowed on Saturday to wage a stronger insurgency in the capital, Mogadishu, until all Ethiopian troops withdraw from the war-shattered Horn of Africa nation, AFP reports. Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, the chief of the executive arm of the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), said Somalis must defend their nation against Ethiopian forces deployed in Mogadishu to bolster the feeble government. "Our country was attacked by Ethiopia, who are trying to colonise Somalia," Ahmed said in the Eritrean capital, Asmara, the base of the Somali government foes.
| Safe and sound he is, good food, good company (well), little chance of getting whacked by an Aethiop ... |
"We have the right to defend our country. We are compelled to attack Ethiopia. They will be pushed out from Somalia and we will take back our freedom by force," he added. "We have a right to live in peace and in freedom and a right to manage our affairs ourselves ... Until we get that point, we will continue the fighting," Ahmed said.
| Peace, freedom and managing affairs mean something different to him than to you and me. I think it's the Somali language ... |
The Islamists and elders from Mogadishu's dominant Hawiye clan refused to participate in internationally backed peace talks in Mogadishu, which opened on July 15, marking a key setback to the latest efforts to normalise the paralysed nation. Instead, the Islamists and other foes of Somalia's weak President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed are planning on opening parallel 10-day peace talks in Asmara on September 1.
| Asmara, you say? Guess that really does put the Eritreans hip-deep into affairs. |
Although Ahmed urged the United Nations and Western powers to support the Islamist initiative, he renewed salvos against the United States, which backed Ethiopia in its moves to drive Islamists from Somalia. "The US is a large government, but they are supporting Ethiopia, supporting the dictator [Ethiopian Prime Minister] Meles Zenawi, who is killing our people," Ahmed said.
| Maybe because you're a bat-shit crazy Islamist with ties to al-Qaeda? Just saying ... |
"Instead, we appeal to European countries, to the US, to the UN, to support us," he added.
Ahmed, who is regarded as a so called moderate in the movement that Western intelligence has said has been infiltrated by al-Qaeda extremists, flatly rejected the claims. "There are no al-Qaeda members in Somalia and we are not terrorists: we are simply Somalis," he said.
| Don't know how he kept his lips on ... |
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