KISMAYO, Somalia Oct 4 (Garowe Online) - An influential Islamist leader in Somalia has disagreed with Al Shabaab hardliners over the control of a key southern port, four days after Al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam factions clashed in Kismayo, inside sources tell Garowe Online.

Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, the chairman of Hizbul Islam faction, held a secret meeting with Al Shabaab's reclusive leadership overnight Saturday in Afgoye town, 30km south of Mogadishu in Lower Shabelle region, the sources said.

Sheikh Aweys

Al Shabaab leaders, Sheikh Ahmed Abdi Godane and Sheikh Mukhtar Robow "Abu Mansur," were present at the secret meeting with Sheikh Aweys.

The secretive meeting was hidden from Somali media, but commanders on both sides confirmed to Garowe Online that the meeting took place with Al Shabaab's leaders asking Sheikh Aweys to "make a concession" over Kismayo.

"Sheikh Aweys took a strong position that Kismayo authority be handed over to Hizbul Islam…and that Al Shabaab apologize for attacking a Hizbul Islam official," said a member of Hizbul Islam who declined to be named in print.

Sheikh Abu Mansur

Al Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Ali "Dheere" Mohamud had publicly stated after the Kismayo battle that Al Shabaab was "not at war" with Hizbul Islam, but Al Shabaab was fighting Sheikh Ahmed "Madobe" Mohamed. Hizbul Islam's leaders have defended Sheikh Ahmed Madobe as a senior commander of Hizbul Islam.

Sheikh Abu Mansur reportedly "organized the meeting" in Afgoye with the intention of resolving the political and military crisis over Kismayo fighting, which has raised tensions between Al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam, according an Al Shabaab source.

The Al Shabaab source described the meeting as "a failure" after the two sides "disagreed" over the situation in Kismayo. The two sides "agreed to a second meeting," the sources added.

An independent source told Garowe Online that Sheikh Aweys informed Al Shabaab's leaders that they fought against clans "who joined the jihad from as far away as Ethiopia," namely Ogaden and Harti clans, of the larger Darod clan-family.

Sheikh Aweys, who led the rise of the Islamic Courts Union in 2006, belongs to the Hawiye clan-family that is dominant in Mogadishu, the capital. Al Shabaab has been accused of arming and using militias from the Marehan clan, also part of the Darod clan-family.

Al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam have jointly fought against Somalia's UN-recognized interim government in Mogadishu since May, when Sheikh Aweys returned to Somalia after a two-year exile in Eritrea. Both Islamist factions have vowed to overthrow the government and install an Islamic state.

The Kismayo fighting has divided the two sides and there are growing military tensions in many regions of southern and central Somalia where fighters loyal to Al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam are both present, but no reports of fighting yet.

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Source: Garowe Online