Top militant quits Al-Shabab after row

Thursday, April 02, 2015

MOGADISHU (HOL)---The former Al-Shabab intelligence chief says that one of the group's founders has quitted the Al-Qaeda linked group
after rifts within the group's leadership widened before a US drone killed the group's leader Ahmed Abdi Godane last year.

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Zakariya Ismail says that Sheikh Mukhtar Robow, one of Al-Shabab's senior leaders has left the group after a growing rift within the
group that saw the late Al-Shabab leader purging his rivals in a deadly infighting.

In an interview with the Voice Of America's Somali radio, Mr. Ismail who surrendered to the Somali government late last year said that
Robow currently lives in his birthplace under the protection of fighters from his clan.

"He is no longer with the group - he quitted it three years ago." He said in the interview.

On the other hand. Ismail identified the new Al-Shabab leader's real name as Ahmed Diriye, saying he wants to impose the same ideology of
Godane.

Robow's defection follows the surrender of Hassan Dahir Aways, another top Al-Shabab leader to the Somali government which later arrested him after he rebuffed government's instructions for him to declare he renounced terrorism and Al-Shabab, a request he utterly dismissed.

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