Rival Islamist insurgents are squaring up for a fight over southern Somalia's strategic port of Kismayu after hardline al Shabaab rebels unilaterally named a new administration to run the area. Animosity has been growing between al Shabaab, which the United States says is al Qaeda's proxy in the failed Horn of Africa state, and another rebel militia, Hizbul Islam. Both groups want to control Kismayu, which is a lucrative source of taxes and other income for their fighters, and until this week they controlled the port in an uneasy alliance. Then on Wednesday, al Shabaab named its own local governing council, excluding all their Hizbul Islam rivals.
Residents say both sides are rushing in reinforcements in anticipation of battle, and on Thursday a senior Hizbul Islam leader said they would not recognise the new authority. "The men who call themselves al Shabaab have formed an administration with disregard to the other mujahideen," Sheikh Hassan Turki, Hizbul's deputy leader and the commander of southern Somalia's Ras Kamboni militant group, told reporters. "No one should claim total control of the city. There should be mediation before there is bloodshed ... they broke a promise about forming the town's administration and should fear Allah."
Leaflets denouncing al Shabaab, widely thought to have been printed by the Kamboni group, have been circulating in Kismayu in recent weeks, locals say, raising fears of a confrontation.