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MOGADISHU,
Somalia, August 8, 2009 — A powerful insurgent group in Somalia on
Thursday denied having any links to an alleged plot to shoot up an
Australian military base.
A spokesman for al-Shabaab, Sheik Ali Mohamed Rage, said "we have
nothing to do with them."
Last week, police detained five Australian citizens with Somali and
Lebanese origins in raids on 19 houses in the southern city of
Melbourne.
Police say the men were linked to al-Shabaab and were trying to find a
senior cleric who would approve the operation so they could become
martyrs.
Somalia has been without an effective central government for nearly two
decades, sparking fears that the lawless country could provide a haven
for terror.
The U.S. considers al-Shabaab a terrorist group with links to al-Qaida,
which al-Shabaab denies. The group controls much of Somalia and its
fighters operate openly in the capital in its quest to implement a
strict form of Islam in the country.
Government troops and African Union peacekeepers hold only a few blocks
of Mogadishu, but they still control key government buildings as well as
the port and airport.
A court allied to al-Shabaab on Thursday publicly whipped 12 women in a
town about 136 miles (220 kilometers) north of Mogadishu after
convicting them of not wearing the Islamic veil.
"As they were whipped they were shaking from the pain. Some of them I
saw later, crying in silence," said eyewitness Fadumo Ahmed.
Punishments such as stonings, amputations and beheadings are
historically rare in Somalia, which traditionally practices moderate
Sufi Islam. But a more extremist form of jihadi Salafist Islam with its
roots in Saudi Arabia has started growing during the chaotic warfare of
recent years, strengthened by an influx of hundreds of foreign fighters.
Source: The Associated Press, August 6, 2009
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