JOWHAR, Somalia Nov 2 (Garowe Online) - The executive chief of Somalia's Islamic Courts Union (ICU) held private meetings with senior insurgency commanders in the southern town of Jowhar, Radio Garowe reported Sunday.

Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, who also chairs the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS), led an ARS delegation to Jowhar yesterday and was warmly received by locals and the region's ICU administration. Full story

On Sunday, Sheikh Sharif's delegation met with Sheikh Abdulkadir Ali Omar, who was deputy chairman of the ICU executive committee during the Islamists' rise in mid-2006.

Further, Sheikh Abdulkadir is the ICU's senior ground commander in the insurgency and has not left Somalia since the Ethiopian invasion two years ago.

No official word emerged from the private talks between the ARS officials and ICU insurgency commanders, but insiders linked the talks to the Djibouti Agreement.

A number of ICU splinter factions have rejected the Djibouti Agreement, which provides a timetable for Ethiopian army withdrawal and calls for a ceasefire.

Source: Garowe Online