Asmara chief Sharif Ahmed attacks Shiekh Turki's interview

[General Duke]

Islamist opposition chief denies al Jazeera report from Somalia

16 Sep 16, 2007 - 1:29:07 PM

 

ASMARA, Eritrea Sep 16 (Garowe Online) - A leading Somali Islamist official who was recently elected to head an opposition movement based in Eritrea has dismissed a critical video report aired by Al Jazeera TV last week as propaganda.

 

Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, executive chairman of the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia, said in the Eritrean capital Asmara on Sunday that the Al Jazeera report is a "complete fabrication."

 

 

Sheikh Sharif, ARS chairman

"The Islamic Courts do not need foreign fighters for we have enough Somali fighters," Sheikh Sharif said, referring to video images of masked non-Somali fighters somewhere in the jungles of southern Somalia.

 

The Al Jazeera report showed masked gunmen, including foreign fighters, target practicing their assault rifles and detonating landmines.

 

The Al Jazeera reporter also interviewed Sheikh Hassan "Turki" Abdullahi Hersi, the commandant of a training camp for Islamist fighters somewhere in the deep jungles of Somalia's Lower Jubba region.

 

Sheikh Turki was a leading military commander under the Islamic Courts movement when they were in power last year throughout central and southern Somalia.

 

He provided safe haven for retreating Islamist fighters and leaders as they withdrew from Mogadishu in the face of an Ethiopian army onslaught over the New Year.

 

U.S. warplanes bombarded Lower Jubba jungles in January, allegedly targeting fleeing Islamist commanders and al Qaeda operatives being "hidden" by the retreating Islamists.