Islamist rebels vow jihad on Somalia's Puntland

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Islamist militants based in Somalia's semi-autonomous region of Puntland will wage a holy war against the administration there until their strict version of sharia law prevails, a rebel commander said late on Tuesday.Sheikh Mohamed Saiid Atom, who says his fighters are allied to the al Qaeda-inspired al Shabaab insurgents behind this month's coordinated bomb attack on Uganda's capital Kampala, urged local residents and businessmen to take up arms."We shall never stop fighting Puntland. We are part and parcel of al Shabaab, we are brothers united by Islamic sharia (law)," Sheikh Atom told reporters in the town of Galkayo.The United Nations says Sheikh Atom is one of the principal suppliers of arms and ammunition for al-Shabaab in Puntland.A major pirate base, Puntland has been relatively stable compared with the rest of Somalia but in recent months violence and instability has spiked in the region.Islamist rebels in central Somalia have threatened to hound the pirates out of their coastal lairs and in May seized Haradhere, a town that has profited heavily from piracy in the Gulf of Aden.

RECRUITING MILITIA

Local residents said the rebels had been recruiting militia fighters in the area and were camped out in the hills outside the port city Bosasso. Continued...