Mogadishu, QN - Talks in Adado town in central Somalia seem hardly to succeed as the top Alshabab leader, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, who surrendered three days ago to a local Himan and Heeb administration, insists to continue Jihad and requests support.
Sources close to Aweys confirmed to Somalia's Qalin News Online that the hardliner, Aweys, who escaped from Barawe town in southern Somalia 10 days ago urged his Habargidir clan to support him to continue 'Jihad' and revive his desolved organisation Hezb Al-Islam.
"The Sheikh is in dream, he requested us to support him to revive Hezb Al-Islam and continue the Jihad and that is incredible" said a Somali PM who is member of delegation that reached Adado to see the options for Aweys.
"We came here to see his options and negotiate between him and teh Somalia government, but he is in dream, he is requesting us to support him to continue Jihad and that is not in the options at all" he added.
A high level delegation consisting of former ministers, lawmakers, traditional elders, businessmen and civil society members from Aweys' clan visited Adado to convince him to go to Mogadishu and discuss with the Somalia government in order to make his escape from Alshabab 'a high profile'.
The Somalia government is closely monitoring the talks and welcomed Aweys' abandoning Alshabab militant group, which it called a 'good step forward' but it abstained to comment on him as long as efforts going on in Adado.
The spokesman of the president, Abdirahman Omar Osman saidn, "The government will talk to anyone important for the stability of the country, we need to stop our youth dying in the fighting and prepare the country to host elections in 2016"
"We open doors for everyone who wants to stop the violence and wants to support the peace and stability of the country"
Although Aweys have no option to return to Alshabab, he wants to stand in a hardline possition to avoid simply falling in political suicide and end up in jail.
On the otherhand, the conflict among Alshabab members escalated after the execution top Alqaeda member Ibrahim Haji Jama (Ibrahim Afgaani) but known in Alshabab as Shaykh Abu Bakr Zaylai, who was arrested and later exceuted by Amniyat members of Alshabab who support the leader Ahmed Abdi Godane.
Threads and tweets from Alshahab members that were posted in Alshabab websites and social media confirm that Ibrahim Afgaani's killing caused many foreign fighters to end up in jail.
Aweys' escaped got conflicting views from the public, of which some supported his move as bravery, while others call on the government to treat Aweys as 'a war criminal' and put him in jail.
On the other hand, tweets attributed to Abu Mohammed Al-Somali enlighten the dimention of the internal conflict in Alshabab, which resulted Aweys to flee and many others were either killed or arrest by supporters of the leader of the group Ahmed Abdi Godane.
The tweets said, "Brothers from Shabaab led by Shaykh Abu Zubair issued a fatwa permitting the killing of Shaykh Abu Bakr Zaylai (Ibrahim Al-Afgaani), who was a companion of Shaykh Usama Bin Laden, with a long history of marching in the global jihad."
The tweets added "Foreign brothers are now being held prisoners by AlShabab to prevent news of Abu Bakr's killing from spreading."
The killing of Al-Afgaani forced top leader Sheikh Aweys to flee from Barawe and surrender and put other leaders including Sheikh Mukhtar Robow Ali in disaaray, while dozens of foreign fighters and senior Somali commanders are in Amniyaat custodies.
Contact Qalin: news@qalin.net
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Somalia: Arrested hardliner remains in hardline possition against the Somalia government
Mogadishu, QN - Talks in Adado town in central Somalia seem hardly to succeed as the top Alshabab leader, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, who surrendered three days ago to a local Himan and Heeb administration, insists to continue Jihad and requests suppo