Somali Insurgents Claim Yemen Boost
A.U. tanks in Somalia. Photo via Somali Weyn.
by DAVID AXE
A spokesman for the Somali Islamic group Al Shabab told reporters his forces have been bolstered by fighters from Yemen. “We have received fighters from the Arabian Peninsula — I mean in Yemen — to bolster our fighters on the ground,” Sheikh Ali Mohamoud Rage said. “There is not any other alternative for us [but] to do [this] … [A]s the saying goes, ‘one good turn deserves another.”
Rage is referring to reports that Al Shabab might send Somali fighters to Yemen to help Al Qaeda in its battle with U.S. and Yemeni forces.
Rage said there can be no peace or stability in Somalia until the African Union troops from Burundi and Uganda, pictured, pull out. Rage called for the overthrow of “the apostate government” led by President Sheikh Shariff Sheikh Ahmed.
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