Somali insurgent leader says Eritrea supports fight

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - An influential Somali insurgent leader said on Friday Eritrea supported the rebel fight against the government in a holy war that was as much an obligation for Muslims as prayer. Speaking in his office in northern Mogadishu, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys said a few Arab fighters had joined the rebellion, which is battling to overthrow Somalia's new government and President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed. Heavy fighting on Friday in the capital killed at least 45 people and wounded 182, the highest daily death toll in more than two weeks of intense battles, after government forces launched a dawn offensive on Islamist strongholds. "Eritrea supports us and Ethiopia is our enemy -- we once helped both countries but Ethiopia did not reward us," Aweys, dressed in a dark suit, told Reuters in an interview. Eritrea has been blamed for supplying the hardline Islamist insurgents with weapons -- a charge it has repeatedly denied -- and the United Nations says hundreds of foreign fighters have joined rebel ranks in recent months. "There may be two or three Arabs who were moved by Islam to fight alongside us. But there is no large number of foreign Mujahideen in Mogadishu. We and the Arabs are all Muslims -- so we are Arabs," he said...more..http://www.reuters.com/article/newsMaps/idUSTRE54L63G20090522