Daily Monitor
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
The militant group spokesperson made the remark on al-Andalus, a broadcaster run by the radical Islamist group on Sunday. “We are going to link Somalia’s territory from Ras Asayr (in the north) to Ras Kamboni (in the south),” said Sheikh Ali Dhere.
The outspoken cleric was welcoming news of a merger between al-Shabaab and an ardent Islamist militias fighting Puntland, a semiautonomous state in Northeastern Somalia.
Last week, Sheikh Yasin Khalid Osman alias Yasin Kilwa, a publicly unheard person, announced via the same radio that a group that has been fighting Puntland joined al-Shabaab, which itself recently merged with al-Qaeda.
According to the released voice of Sheikh Osman, the group that was based around Galgala mountain base just outside Bossaso town, the commercial capital of Puntland, 1,500 kilometres northeast of Mogadishu, was now part of al-Shabaab.