Bartamaha (Mogadishu):- Militants from al-Shabab and Hizbul Islam held a joint news conference at a mosque in Mogadishu at which they threatened attacks against the African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia’s capital and the countries of Uganda and Burundi.

The merger will help the group increase its attacks against what Hizbul Islam official Sheik Abdifitah Ali called African mercenaries, a reference to the 8,000-strong African Union force. The AU force helps protect the small slice of land controlled by the U.N. and the U.S.-backed Somali government.

“We have agreed to unite together and fight the foreign troops that back the apostate government,” Abdifitah said.

Sheik Ali Mohamud Rage, a spokesman for al-Shabab, said the insurgent group would tell other militant fighters around the world that insurgents in Somalia have united. Officials from the groups said earlier this month that the merger would happen.

“We are telling our mujahedeen brothers inAfghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere in the world that we have united in one name – that is al-Shabab. From now on we will concentrate our power on how we can redouble our attacks on foreign invaders,” Rage said.

The two groups had battled one another for control of Somalia. Al-Shabab over the last several weeks, though, had taken over areas previously held by Hizbul Islam, a development that brought about the merger.

Rage again threatened attacks in Uganda and Burundi, the two nations that provide the African Union forces. Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for twin bombings in Uganda during the July World Cup final that killed 76 people.

The bombings were al-Shabab’s first attack outside Somalia and heightened concerns about the group’s interest in international attacks.

Several hundred foreign fighters – many of them veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts – are members of al-Shabab.

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Source:-Washingtonpost.

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