Hundreds of women and children marched through the rubble-strewn streets of Somalia's capital to protest against al Qaeda-linked militants on Monday, officials said. The protesters, clad in white Somali traditional clothing and chanting "Down with al-Shabab," were angered after members of the extremist group dug up graves of venerated clerics over the last week.
They also protested the influx of foreign fighters to Somalia, said Mohyadin Hassan Afrah, who heads Mogadishu's civil society umbrella group that helped organise the march. Foreign fighters have flocked to Somalia to back the country's myriad Islamic groups since 2006. Their number has increased in the past year or so and most have joined al-Shabab as it launched major attacks on the fragile government. Many of the fighters are from Pakistan, Yemen and North Africa.
Al-Shabab has prohibited the decoration of tombs and destroyed what the group considered to be idolised tombs in areas under its control over the last couple of years. "Al-Shabab's wicked actions are not acceptable. We call for a holy war against them," said Sheik Somow of the moderate Islamist group Ahlu Sunna Waljama that recently signed a power-sharing deal with the Somali government.
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