Somalia opposition group to pursue peace talks despite U.S. air strike
Garowe Online, Somalia
May 3, 2008
ASMARA, Eritrea A key opposition leader in Somalia has said the opposition will continue to pursue peace talks with the country's Ethiopian-backed transitional government despite a deadly U.S. air strike last week.
Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, chairman of the Eritrea-based Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS), told Al-Jazeera TV that the opposition will participate at UN-sponsored peace talks with the Somali government that are scheduled to begin in Djibouti later this month.
Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, Somali opposition leader
"We will participate in the talks, even though American warplanes bombed Somalia," Sheikh Sharif said.
Another senior Islamist leader, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, told Reuters that the U.S. bombing of Dhusamareb in central Somalia on Thursday had cast doubt over the proposed peace talks.
Sheikh Aweys is a hardline cleric who is said to be the mentor of the late Adan Hashi Ayro, the leader of the Islamists' al Shabaab guerrillas who was killed during Thursday's U.S. air strike on a house in Dhusamareb.
More than 15 people, including many civilians, were killed during the bombing that flattened Ayro's house and two neighoring homes, according to Dhusamareb locals.
Al Shabaab's spokesman, Muktar Robow "Abu Mansur," has said that the armed group will not engage in peace talks with the Somali government and will instead continue its guerrilla attacks on Somali and Ethiopian targets.
The spokesman also threatened that al Shabaab will target U.S. interests in the Horn of Africa region.