INTERVIEW-Somali security minister says to reform forces

NAIROBI, July 24 (Reuters) - Newly appointed Somali Security Minister Abdullahi Mohamed Ali vowed on Friday to reform the security forces in the Horn of Africa nation, seen by many as riven with internal divisions. Somalia's western-backed government is struggling to wrest control over the anarchic nation from powerful Islamist-led rebels and is hemmed into a few blocks of the capital Mogadishu. "I think, in wartimes, it is difficult for even a functioning government to organise its forces very effectively. We are trying to reform the police and the military," he told Reuters by telephone. "Our main priority is to gradually re-establish capable security forces that can defeat the terrorists." Hardline Islamist insurgents killed the former security boss, Omar Hashi Aden, in a suicide bomb attack in June in a central town as Aden coordinated operations against al Shabaab. A two-year insurgency has killed at least 18,000 people and sent another million or more fleeing from their homes. Somalia's army -- a mix of former rebels, clan militias and a few ex-army officers -- has been unable to beat al Shabaab militants or rebels from another Islamist group, Hizbul Islam...more..http://alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LO294854.htm