Somali Islamists rejects new truce agreement

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2008

MOGADISHU (AFP) — A senior Somali Islamist leader, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, on Tuesday rejected a three-month truce reached between Mogadishu and its main political foes at UN-sponsored peace talks in Djibouti a day earlier.

"I do not believe that the outcome of this conference will have any impact on the resistance in Somalia. We shall continue fighting until we liberate our country from the enemies of Allah," Aweys told Mogadishu-based Shabelle radio.

"The aim of the meeting was to derail the holy war in the country," added Aweys, a hardline cleric designated a terrorist by the United States for suspected links to Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.

Somali Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein and Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS) chief Sheikh...