Somali rebels threaten attacks over Ramadhan

MOGADISHU, Tuesday

Somalia's radical Islamist group Hizbu Islam has threatened to double attacks against the country's transitional government during the Islamic holy month of Ramadhan.

At a press conference in Mogadishu, the chief spokesman of Hizbu Islam, Mohamed Osman Arus, reacted angrily to the capture of Bulo Hawa town at the border between Somalia and Kenya on Monday by pro-government forces.

The official stressed that Islamist movements (Al-Shabaab and Hizbu Islam) that are opposing the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) would recapture the town.

Mohamed Arus dismissed that Hizbu Islam had plans to enter into negotiations with the transitional government led by President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.

“Instead of talking to puppet government, we are going to double the attacks over the holy month of Ramadhan,” he said.

The Hizbu Islam official indicated that his movement was at war with government forces, African Union peacekeepers and Ahlu Sunna wal-Jamea, a moderate Islamist grouping allied with the TFG.

“We are going to multiply attacks against the puppets (government) and foreign mercenaries (AU peacekeepers better known as Amisom) and groups pretending to be moderate Islamists” said Arus.

The threat comes at a time when members of the public in Mogadishu and elsewhere in southern and central regions of Somalia are crying for cessation of hostilities during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadhan, which is to start in less than a week.

Other Islamist officials in Southern Somalia expressed similar reactions to the takeover of Bulo Hawa by pro-government forces on Monday.

Abdi Ali Nur of Al-Shabaab in Bardere town in Gedo region, 360 km southwest of Mogadishu, warned the public there against expressing sympathy for the forces that captured Bulo Hawa.

“Any person or group found orchestrating anti-Islamists (pro-government) moves will be dealt severely,” announced Nur.

Sheikh Hassan Yakoub Ali, the Information Official of the Islamist coalition ruling Kismayu, 500 km south of Mogadishu, accused Ethiopia of being the real power that captured Bulo Hawa, using Somali puppets under the pretext of Ahlu Sunna wal-Jamea.

Sheikh Yakoub has sworn that his fighters will go all the way from Kismayu, the port town along the Indian Ocean, to liberate Bulo Hawa town, almost 1000 kilometre northwards.