Somalia: Who is Ahlu Sunna Wal-jamaca Sufi militia?
Moderate Sufis emerged last year to take on Somalia`s powerful al-Shabaab, an extremist group with ties to al-Qaeda. They have won several key areas and have engaged in power-sharing negotiations with the government.
From behind green sandbags, Abdul Gader fired his rusting AK-47 down a narrow road. A Koran, its pages open, rested on the earth near his sweat-soaked body. So did a pile of bullets. Before him was territory controlled by radical al-Shabaab fighters. Behind him was territory Gader and his comrades had taken away from them.
“They are the enemy of my religion and my culture,” Gader, a strapping 17-year-old with a boyish face, declared after pumping another burst of bullets at his targets lurking among crumbling houses.