Somali Islamist Groups Squabble Over Abducted French Advisers,Islamists Abduct Two Frenchmen, al-Shabaab Demands They be Handed Over for Execution

July 15 (Bloomberg) -- Two French security advisers abducted in Somalia yesterday are being held by Islamist rebels and a rival group has asked for them to be handed over for execution, a police official said.
The unidentified men were abducted yesterday in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, while they were eating breakfast at the Sahafi Hotel. A militia that carried out the abductions handed them over to Hisb-ul-Islam, said Muhideen Ahmed, an official with the Mogadishu police, in an interview today from the city.
“Those who kidnapped the French security advisers handed them over to Hisb-ul-Islam,” Ahmed said. Al-Shabaab asked Hisb- ul-Islam to handover the hostages” in order to kill them.
Somalia is in its 18th year of civil war. Islamist fighters opposed to the government of President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed are grouped mainly under the al-Shabaab militia and the Hizb-ul-Islam movement. The U.S. accuses al-Shabaab of having ties with al-Qaeda. Hizb-ul-Islam is led by Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, the former head of the Islamic Courts Union that captured most of southern Somalia in 2006 before being ousted by U.S.- backed Ethiopian troops the following year. ..more..http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601116&sid=avlkIbm2IFlM