Somali Islamist Insurgents Reject UN-Mediated Truce

A key Somali insurgent group has dismissed a UN brokered peace accord signed last June between the country’s interim government and an opposition alliance. A spokesman for the Al Shabaab group said the accord was "null and void", adding that the group will continue fighting until an Islamist government is installed under Sharia law. Al Shabaab has waged almost daily attacks against Somali government forces and their Ethiopian allies in Mogadishu since the 2007 ouster of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU). [PE]