Saturday, March 28, 2009

Somali president denounces al-Qaida

Somalia's new president on Saturday told al-Qaida to stop interfering in the affairs of the war-ravaged country.

In a tape published last week, al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden called Somali President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed an "infidel" and urged Somalis to overthrow his government.

"Al-Qaida has never helped Somalis reach a peaceful solution and has never wanted Somalis to have a government," Ahmed told journalists in the capital, Mogadishu, on Saturday, a day after returning from a tour of African nations.

"Al-Qaida did not teach us the Islamic religion and has not given us any support so I urge them to leave us alone," he said.

Ahmed, elected president by parliament in January, is a former fighter with the Islamic insurgency that is trying to overthrow the government. His faction signed a peace deal with the government last year and Ahmed is seen by many as a moderate.

Government troops hold only a few blocks of the capital and the country is split among competing militias. Many are allied to Ahmed and his new government, although not under their direct control, but the hardline al-Shabab, which the U.S. State Department says has links to al-Qaida, is still fighting him

Source: AP

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