Sunday, May 02, 2010
MOGADISHU (AFP) — Somalia's Islamist group the Shebab, that claims it was targeted by explosions in which at least 32 died, Sunday vowed to hit back at the transition government and its African Union allies.
"The Muslim people of Somalia must fight the African Union troops of the occupying force using the means at their disposal, including suicide attacks," Sheikh Fu'ad Mohamed Khalaf, better known as Fu'ad Shongole, Shebab's head of mobilisation said on a local radio.
"Go to their compounds and make all the necessary sacrifices to fight these invaders," he urged on Somalia Weyn radio.
"We will seriously retaliate for the attack on the mosque," Shongole said, adding he would continue to preach there.
The exact cause of Saturday's explosions that rocked a mosque in the Bakara market district of Mogadishu remains a mystery.
But Shebab officials the blasts targeted Shongole who was in the mosque at the time.
"This was an act of terrorism carried out by mercenaries hired by the so-called government of Somalia," a spokesman for the group Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage said.
Explosions are common in Mogadishu but Saturday's incident was the worst since a suicide bombing in a hotel in December killed 57 people, including several government ministers.
The Shebab, whose leadership has proclaimed allegiance to Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network, has been fighting the fragile government and its AU allies alongside Hezb al-Islam, a smaller Islamist outfit.
Source: AFP