MOGADISHU, Somalia Nov 28 (Garowe Online) - Splits have emerged among Somali insurgents waging war in the capital against the government and its Ethiopian military backers, sources said.

Earlier this month, Adan Hashi Ayro, leader of the Al-Shabaab guerrillas responsible for most attacks, called on loyal fighters to target African Union peacekeepers serving in Mogadishu.

Somalia's masked insurgents

His call for attacks was followed two days later by a mortar attack on AU barracks in central Mogadishu where one of the attackers was shot and killed by Ugandan soldiers serving under the AU mandate.

Ayro's calls for war against the peacekeepers allowed for a "deep split" to develop among the Al-Shabaab leadership, according to a VOA report. [ Full story]

But in interviews with confidential sources, what Garowe Online has learned suggests that the developing split within the insurgency is between the Al-Shabaab militants and clan fighters largely drawn from Mogadishu's dominant Hawiye community.

The Hawiye clan fighters are violently opposed to the imposition of a Darod-led national government, with the military backing of Ethiopia. They see the Ethiopian army as invaders who have committed war crimes against the people of Somalia, especially in Mogadishu.

The Hawiye and the Darod, Somalia's two largest clans, have been engaged in political and armed conflict since the 1980s, leading to the collapse of the central government in 1991.

But the Al-Shabaab guerillas, observed as an armed faction within the ousted Islamic Courts movement, are pushing for an Islamic agenda that opposes all foreign forces, including international peacekeepers, and aims to establish an Islamic state across Somalia.

Source: Garowe Online