A major Somali Islamist rebel group on Tuesday confirmed for the fist time that its members were aligned to the al-Qaeda terror network, insisting that such a connection was necessary to take the international "jihad" forward.
Al-Shabaab, the military wing of the Islamist movement ousted by Ethiopian army-backed Somali forces over two years ago, said in a statement released Monday that the "jihad of Horn of Africa must be combined with the international jihad led by the al-Qaeda network".
The al-Shabaab group, which had until recently denied any links to the al-Qaeda, added in the statement that it was joining forces with the Kamboni, a similar but smaller Islamist rebel outfit in the war-torn country.
The Kamboni rebels are based in the southern town of Ras Kamboni and are currently being led by Hassan Turki, who the U.S. accuses of being a "financier of terrorism." The group was previously allied to the Hizbul-Islam - another militant group fighting the weak UN-backed Somali interim government.
Currently, the al-Shabaab group is engaged in fierce fighting with the rival Hisbul-Islam group for the control of the southern port city of Kismayo. The two rival Islamist groups were united until recently in their fight against the forces of Somalia's interim government and the AU peacekeeping troops. The recent power-struggle between the two groups have raised concerns that the fighting might spread to other areas jointly controlled by them.
The al-Shabaab militants, along with other allied Islamist insurgent outfits, control large areas in southern Somalia, where they enforce strict Islamic law or the Sharia. They have opposed past UN-sponsored reconciliation efforts in Somalia, insisting that they will negotiate with the country's UN-backed transitional government only after the AU peacekeeping mission leaves Somalia. They are now trying to oust the moderate Islamic government to set up a strict Islamic state.
The al-Shabaab group is presently attempting to gain the support of other similar Islamist militant groups in its anti-government offensive aimed at overthrowing Somalia's interim government led by President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.
Last year, Somali lawmakers elected Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed in Djibouti as the country's president. His election was in line with a UN-brokered peace deal signed between interim government of Somalia and the opposition Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS). It was aimed at ending 17 years of anarchy in the troubled Horn of Africa country
Before becoming the Somali President, Sheikh Sharif was the leader of the Islamic Courts Union, which was ousted from Mogadishu in a joint military operation conducted by Ethiopian army and forces of the Somali interim government in December 2006.
Somalia has not had a functioning government after the fall of the last government in 1991. Currently, a weak UN-backed interim government is trying to enforce its authority in the country. The fighting between Islamist insurgents and the government security forces has killed thousands of Somalis and displaced hundreds of thousands more, mostly from Mogadishu.
Presently, a 4,300-member AU force is struggling with peacekeeping efforts in Somalia after the militants turned to guerrilla warfare against the government and AU troops. So far only Uganda and Burundi have contributed troops to the AU peacekeeping force, which was initially planned with a strength of over 8,000.
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