Islamist Hardliner takes Charge of Somali Opposition

A hardline Islamist Somali leader has announced that he has taken over the leadership of the country’s opposition. Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys said Tuesday that he had deposed the opposition’s former leader, Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, who he accused of signing an unacceptable peace deal with the country’s interim government in Djibouti last June. Aweys did not explain how the takeover had been reached. The United States has in the past regarded Aweys an associate of the jihadist Saudi terrorist, Osama bin Laden. [PE]