Somalia: Government says Islamists maneuvers will have no effect on them

Mogadishu Sunday13 February 2010 SMC

The Somali Transitional Federal Government led by President Sheikh Shariff Sheikh Ahmed the former chairman of the Islamic Courts Union said that the recent maneuvers of the Islamists in the capital Mogadishu will have no slight effect on them. “The recent exercises of the insurgents will have no effect on the Somali Transitional Federal Government, and I am sure when one day the real action will come and we shall eliminate these so called insurgents from the country as whole,

if they are really people who are ready to fight the government and are bold enough let them come out of the places where ordinary civilians are densely populated, and we shall she the rest, firing mortars from where people inhabit doesn’t mean that your are bold enough, there are big grounds to fight in Mogadishu come out and don’t intermingle yourself with the civilians, and by pouring your militants in the country does not scare away the government soldiers” said Yusuf Mohammed Siyad Inda Ade the state Minister for Defence  speaking to Somaliweyn Website.  
The situation of Mogadishu has been tense for the last couple of weeks, and both the Islamists and the government have been using hot words via the media. And on the other hand thousands of the city dwellers have fled after they have sensed that there is likelihood of fighting between the government and the Islamists.
Last Friday the officials of the two armed Islamists factions in Somalia have announced holy war against the Somali government and the African Union troops in Somalia.