Hiiraan Online (in Somali) — “Islamist Official Rejects Both Leaders of Rival ARS Wings”

At a press conference he held in Jowhar town, Shaykh Dahir Addow Alasow, who is one of the Islamic Courts officials based in Shabeellaha Dhexe Region [south-central Somalia], said that the peace agreement the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia [ARS] and the federal government reached in Djibouti does not
concern them.

Shaykh Dahir said the Djibouti agreement was intended to divide the power of Islamic Courts fighters. He said they had received reports that, among other things, the agreement called for merger of ARS fighters with government troops. Shaykh Dahir said they were not going to unite their fighters with the federal government
troops. “There is no way our fighters are going to unite with, eat together in the same place, work with and receive allowance together with troops serving the enemy. We are against that,” said Shaykh Dahir Addow Alasow, adding that that they were engaged in a war against government and Ethiopian troops.

Shaykh Dahir Alasow claimed at the press conference that they had obtained information that ARS men would be brought to some localities in Shabeellaha Dhexe Region, a move to which they were strongly opposed. “We neither support Shaykh Sharif nor Shaykh Hasan Dahir [leaders of the two rival ARS wings]. We support the
Book of Allah and the sunnah of the Prophet,” Shaykh Dahir Alasow said, in response to a question regarding which of the two leaders of the ARS factions based in Djibouti and Eritrea they supported.

The news conference held by Shaykh Dahir Addow came hours after Islamic Courts forces traded fire in Jowhar. The firefight was later brought to an end [through mediation].