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Kismayo's Indian Ocean port is al-Shabab's last major moneymaker. The militants levy taxes on incoming goods, much as they did at Mogadishu's largest market until losing control of it last year. The loss of Bakara market cost al-Shabab millions of dollars in annual revenue, Ankunda said, one reason they cannot afford to lose Kismayo. Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga promised this week that Kenyan troops would take control of Kismayo by August. "The information we have is that the Shabab will try to defend Kismayo. The information we have is indeed that they are preparing for a fight," Ankunda said. Mohamed's former al-Shabab commander, Sheik Mustaf, called the defector last week just as Mohamed was speaking with a few reporters. He put the call on speakerphone as an interpreter translated the conversation. Mustaf commands 200 to 300 men in southern Somalia, Mohamed said, and was known as a cruel and feared al-Shabab "judge." If a suspect was taken before Mustaf, the judgment was typically the amputation of an arm, Mohamed said. "Why don't you return to Allah," Mustaf asked Mohamed during the phone call. Mohamed responded that one day he would welcome his former commander to the government side. Mustaf met that prediction with deep laughter, and told his former fighter he would kill him with his own hands the next time they met.
Standing with Mohamed was a second al-Shabab defector, Mohamed Abdi Abdullahi. The 45-year-old said he left al-Shabab two months ago in response to the militant group's decision to formally join al-Qaida. Abdullahi, who has earned a living as a gunman most of his adult life, said he wants peace so that his five children can go to school and have access to health care. "Everybody is tired of war," he said. Somalia has not seen peace since 1991, when clan-based warlords toppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on each other. The rise of Islamist militants over the last decade fueled even more fighting.
[Associated
Press;
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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