MOGADISHU, July 17: Islamists who control Mogadishu and a large swathe of southern Somalia have opened a Shariat court to serve two government-controlled regions, officials said on Monday.

The Islamic movement has set up nine new courts in areas it has seized since driving out US-backed warlords from Mogadishu on June 5, but it is the first time the Islamists have established a court in an area they do not yet control.

The move is likely to inflame tensions between the Islamists and the government, which is struggling to assert its authority beyond is temporary base in the provincial town of Baidoa.

A day after the interim government agreed to continue talks with the newly powerful Islamists, the Islamic movement announced it had opened the Al-Bayan court in the Bay and Bakol area which falls under the direct control of the government.

Top Islamist leader, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, called on the Digil and Mirifle clan in those areas to cooperate.

“We ask you to hand over all your weapons to this court,” Sharif told a gathering of Islamic officials and wealthy businessmen from the two regions.—Reuters