Somali leader says Islamists use child soldiers

By Ibrahim Mohamed

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somali President Sheik Sharif Ahmed accused hardline Al Shabaab Islamist rebels on Sunday of forcing children to fight in battles to oust his government in the Horn of Africa country.

Al Shabaab is seen as a proxy for al Qaeda in Somalia and includes foreign jihadists. It has carried out executions, floggings and amputations to enforce its authority, mainly in the southern Somali port of Kismayu.

The insurgents control most of southern Somalia and parts of the Horn of Africa nation's capital. Western nations fear they could destabilise the region and provide safe havens for hardline Islamists from elsewhere.

"The terrorist groups forcibly conscript children for soldiers and al Qaeda is involved in this, even their leaders have admitted that," he told reporters.

Violence from the Islamist-led insurgency has worsened this month, with a minister, the Mogadishu police chief, and a legislator killed.

On Sunday, ten masked al Shabaab men, who follow a strict version of sharia law, hurled large stones at a young man until he died, in the Middle Shabelle region.

"The culprit raped and killed an 18- year old girl... we sentenced him to be stoned to death according to Islamic rule," said Shiekh Abdul Baasid a local judge.

The Islamists cut a hand and a leg each off four teenagers as punishment for robbery on Thursday.