Bartamaha  (Nairobi):- Islamist militants based in Somalia’s semi-autonomous region of Puntland will wage a holy war against the administration there until their strict version of sharia law prevails, a rebel commander said late on Tuesday.

Sheikh Mohamed Saiid Atom, who says his fighters are allied to the al Qaeda-inspired al Shabaab insurgents behind this month’s coordinated bomb attack on Uganda’s capital Kampala, urged local residents and businessmen to take up arms.

“We shall never stop fighting Puntland. We are part and parcel of al Shabaab, we are brothers united by Islamic sharia (law),” Sheikh Atom told reporters in the town of Galkayo.

The United Nations says Sheikh Atom is one of the principal suppliers of arms and ammunition for al-Shabaab in Puntland.

A major pirate base, Puntland has been relatively stable compared with the rest of Somalia but in recent months violence and instability has spiked in the region.

Islamist rebels in central Somalia have threatened to hound the pirates out of their coastal lairs and in May seized Haradhere, a town that has profited heavily from piracy in the Gulf of Aden.

RECRUITING MILITIA

Local residents said the rebels had been recruiting militia fighters in the area and were camped out in the hills outside the port city Bosasso.

“Sheikh Mohamed Saiid Atom has been recruiting Islamists in those hilly areas since 2005,” said resident Hussein Ali.

“He has indoctrinated the youth using three means: a huge amount of money from the sales of weapons, sharia law and convincing his clan they have little political influence on Puntland’s administration,” Ali added.

The Kampala bomb blasts killed 76 people and thrust the festering conflict in Somalia and the rebels’ links with al Qaeda back into the international spotlight.

The July 11 attack was the first foreign strike by Somali militants, and analysts say their ability to launch attacks abroad has been helped by an influx of foreign jihadists.

The agreement by African leaders to send an extra 4,000 peacekeepers to Somalia is likely to have little impact in Puntland because the force is based in the capital Mogadishu.

The African Union force, known as AMISOM, is stretched as it is to shield the president’s residence and guard the port and airport. Al Shabaab and a second group, Hizbul Islam, control much of central and southern Somalia unchecked.

A pro al Qaeda website posted a statement saying separately saying it will launch television channel — Alkataaib — to spread its message in the anarchic Horn of Africa nation.

“The media war faced by the Mujahideen is of the heaviest and most important front in our war with infidel in Somalia, which makes us caretakers of the gaps in the media jihad. This pushes us to the battleground on the media jihad on the bigger Somalia front,” the site www.atahadi.com said.

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Source:-Reuters.

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