国际英语新闻：Somali PM vows to fight "foreign jihadists"

MOGADISHU, Feb. 10 (Xinhua) -- Somali Prime Minister Mohamed Abdulahi Mohamed on Thursday said the government forces will fight foreign Islamist fighters while calling on local rebels to abandon extremism.

Mohamed made his statement during a visit to the base of 500 new graduates of Somali security forces in the capital Mogadishu.

"We have spoken with them (rebels) on several occasions and told the foreign elements who are waging attacks on us that we will fight them and will get rid of them," The Somali premier told the new cadets in Mogadishu.

The Somali government is struggling to contain the Islamist group of Al Shabaab which is accused of harboring foreign Islamist fighters. The group controls much of the southern and central land of the war ravaged east Africa country.

Hundreds of foreign fighters are believed to be battling alongside Al Shabaab which has announced its allegiance to the international terror group of Al Qaeda led by the fugitive cleric, Osma bin Laden.

The prime minister told cadets that the foreign elements came to Somalia as from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Chechnya where the Al Qaeda network operates, and that they were expected "to rid the country of the foreign jihadists."

The Somali government forces, with the backing of the 8,000- strong African Union (AU) peacekeeping mission, fight Islamist fighters on a daily bases in Mogadishu where the government controls only parts of it.