MOGADISHU, Sept 20 (Reuters) - The leader of Somalia's Hizbul Islam rebels on Sunday justified the suicide bombing of an African Union peacekeeping force's base and urged insurgents to carry out other similar attacks.Al Shabaab, the main rebel group, which Washington says is al Qaeda's proxy in Somalia, hit the African Union peacekeeping mission's (AMISOM) main base in Mogadishu with twin suicide car bombs on Thursday, killing 17 peacekeepers."We are calling our brothers in the fight against Muslim enemies to increase suicide bombings, which I believe is an acceptable tactic in Islam when it comes to defending your people and your religion," Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys said. A former ally of the U.N.-backed President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed said all weapons were fair game in the fight against Western powers. "People should kill with everything, even knives," he said.In a sign of the insurgents' growing influence in the chaotic capital, the rebels issued orders to schools on Saturday, against the use of textbooks from U.N. agencies and other donors, deemed to be un-Islamic."Some U.N. agencies like UNESCO are supplying Somali schools with text books to try to teach our children un-Islamic subjects," al Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage told Koranic students gathered at Mogadishu's Nasrudin mosque.Fighting has killed more than 18,000 civilians since the start of 2007 and driven another 1.5 million from their homes.Al Shabaab, together with Hizbul Islam, has been battling government troops and the African Union (AU) peacekeepers to impose its own strict version of Islamic law throughout Somalia.Al Shabaab's stern religious views are rejected by many Somalis, who are traditionally moderate Muslims. But some residents do credit the gunmen with restoring relative stability and a measure of law and order to areas under their control...more..http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKLK558685._CH_.2420
Somalia's Aweys calls for more suicide attacks - The Long War Journal
An Islamic Dark Age Looms in Somalia
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