|  | | Abu Mansoor said al-Shabaab will fight "oppression" elsewhere once Ethiopian forces are defeated [AFP] | An armed group battling Ethiopian forces in Somalia has told Al Jazeera it will take its fight beyond the country once it defeats its rivals.
"We are fighting to lift the burden of oppression and colonialism from our country ... We are defending ourselves against enemies who attacked us," Abu Mansoor, the leader of al-Shabab, said. "Once we are successful with that we will fight on and finish oppression elsewhere on earth," he said.
Al-Shabab, meaning youth, split last year from the Islamic Courts Union which controlled much of Somalia, including the capital Mogadishu, until it was pushed out by government and Ethiopian troops in 2006. It has since retaken large areas of central and southern Somalia and is putting increased pressure of the transitional government, which exercises little control from its base in the town of Baidoa.
'Islamic rule'
In Marka, just 90km from the capital Mogadishu, Ibrahim Almaqdis, one of the fighters, told Al Jazeera: "We wish to tell Bush and our opponents our real intentions. "We will establish Islamic rule from Alaska and Chile to South Africa, Japan, Russia, the Solomon Islands and all the way to Iceland, be warned, we are coming."
Abu Mansoor said that al-Shabab's ranks had been bolstered by foreign fighters and urged others to join, saying that a core principle of the group was that all Muslims are citizens of Somalia.
"Many have already died fighting our cause and many others are here with us," he said. "We shall welcome any Muslim from any part of the world who wants to join us. We will allow him to wed our daughters and share our farms."
The group was created in 2001 by four Somali men who had trained in Afghanistan and is listed as a "terrorist organisation" by the US.
Relative peace
The Islamic Courts Union brought relative peace to the Horn of Africa nation during its six months in control, enforcing strict laws and renewing hopes that the Somalia would become stable enough to allow aid agencies the freedom to operate.
However, their defeat by the Ethiopian and government forces has brought renewed violence as various anti-government forces have mounted near-daily attacks.
In Marka, Al Jazeera found people welcoming al-Shabab and dressing their children like the fighters who have been the only people to bring some semblance of peace to Somalia in recent years.
More than one million people have been displaced by the fighting in Somalia, one third of the population rely on emergency food aid and the chaos has helped fuel kidnappings and piracy off the coast
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Comments
For me, the Islamic State is not the only aim of Islamic struggle. And it is wrong to make or potray non-muslim as enemy of Islam. They're enemy only if their action comfirm so. Prophet Muhammad s.a.w went to gazwah not b'coz of state, wealth, power, gold, glory... etc. War is the last choice, when dakwah was rejected by kuffar. The ultimate aim is bring mankind to Allah and accept Islam, to save mankind for hellfire and be put in the paradise in the hereafter, but if they refuse to accept Islam, they have a choice to pay jizyah. Majority ulama said that: "no jihad before dakwah is done." WaAllahualam bissawab. Thanks.
SOMALI FIGHTERS DESTROYING SHRINES
Somali fighters used hammers to destroy the graves of clerics and other prominent people
Al-Shabab, an armed group fighting transitional government and Ethiopian forces in Somalia, is descrating religious shrines in the south of the country, Al Jazeera has learned.
The ancient graves of clerics and other prominent people are among holy sites being targetted by the armed group in the port city of Kismayu.
Al-Shabab took control of Somalia's third-largest city about four months ago and quickly announced it would not tolerate anything it deemed un-Islamic.
Al Jazeera correspondent Mohammed Adow said Kismayu's Roman Catholic church was torn down just days after they seized power after bloody fighting.
He said: "The 60-year-old church had not been used for nearly 20 years and not a single Christian lives in the city - but that was not a good enough reason for the militias to spare the building.
"They are planning to replace it with a mosque."
The fighters then turned their hammers on graves, some of which contained the remains of followers of Sufi, a mystical form of Islam.
The sites have been revered for decades and are regularly visited be people paying homage to the dead, a practise al-Shabab has condemned as being akin to idolatry.
"We are a chosen lot by Allah to try and correct the mystics of the people and guide them," Hassan Yaqub, a spokesman for the Kismayu administration, told Al Jazeera.
"We have a responsibility to the people to guard the people against all evil deeds."
Public flogging
In Marka, another coastal town in the south of the country, Al Jazeera witnessed the public implementation of Sharia, or Islamic law.
We are happy with the Islamists, we now have peace and the criminals have no where to hide"
Kismayu resident
Three men accused of smoking hashish were given a public flogging before the al-Shabab fighters set fire to the drugs that were purportedly found when the men were arrested.
Such practices have become more frequent as al-Shabab has increased its influence across southern and central Somalia, taking back many of the areas which were formerly controlled by the Islamic Courts Union until late 2006.
In October, a 13-year-old girl was reportedly stoned to death in Kismayu after she was found guilty of adultery.
The UN later said that she had been raped.
Last month, 32 people were whipped for taking part in a traditional dance in the town of Balad, about 30km north of the capital Mogadishu.
Public support
The crowds which were made to witness the flogging in Marka appeared to be overwhelmingly supportive of the new measures being taken by the new Islamist authorities.
"We support their efforts 100 per cent. The establishment of Sharia is a source of joy for us all," one resident told Al Jazeera.
Another said: "We are happy with the Islamists, we now have peace and the criminals have nowhere to hide."
Somalia has had no effective government since a coup removed Siad Barre from power in 1991, leading to an almost total breakdown in law and order.
The only relative stability areas of the country have enjoyed in recent years was during the short period of rule by the Islamic Courts Union in 2006.
"For the Somali people the choice is really a very difficult one ... which one would they want to live with, a strict Sharia or a situation with no security," Billow Kerrow, a Kenya-based regional analyst, told Al Jazeera.
"I think in the beginning they might find it easier to implement a very strict code of Islam, but as the government responsibilities start setting in the challenges will be enormous ... to try and practice a system which will be accommodating to all."
aljazeera