Islamic Leader Vows to Stay in Somalia

Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, leader of the Council of Islamic Courts speaks during his news conference in Mogadishu, Tuesday, Dec 26, 2006. Islamic fighters were in a tactical retreat Tuesday, a senior Islamic leader said, as government and Ethiopian troops advanced on three fronts in a decisive turnaround in the battle for control of Somalia. Somalia's internationally backed government called on the Council of Islamic Courts to surrender and promised them amnesty if they lay down their weapons and stop opposing the government, spokesman Abdirahman Dinari said from Baidoa, the seat of the government. Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, leader of the Council of Islamic Courts' executive body, said the group had asked its troops to withdraw from some areas. (AP Photo/Mohamed Sheikh Nor) (Mohamed Sheikh Nor - AP)

KISMAYO, Somalia -- Somalia's Islamic leader vowed Friday to continue the fight against Ethiopia.

"We will not leave Somalia," Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, the executive leader of the Council of Islamic Courts told The Associated Press. "We will not run away from our enemies. We will never depart from Somalia. We will stay in our homeland."

He spoke from the southern coastal port of Kismayo, where his forces retreated after abandoning the capital Mogadishu, which they had held for six months.

The Islamic movement had taken control of much of southern Somalia, often without fighting, after defeating a coalition of warlords to capture Mogadishu in June. But its fighters collapsed when Ethiopia, which has the most powerful army in the region, sent reinforcements across the border to help Somalia's internationally recognized government.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi had vowed Thursday to crush fighters he described as extremists in the Islamic movement and their foreign allies, predicting it would take a few weeks longer.

Ahmed's movement had pledged to bring Quranic law to Somalia, and some of its members espoused an extreme form of Islam. The United States accuses the movement of harboring al-Qaida terrorists.