The radical Somali Islamist leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys said on Wednesday that his forces would fight any foreign troops coming to aid the Somali government, reiterating his call for the African Union peacekeepers in Mogadishu to leave.

Dahir, who is on the U.S. list of the wanted for links with terrorism, was speaking at a press conference in his group's stronghold in the south of Mogadishu.

"We do not want any more foreign intervention in our country and if any foreign troops set foot on our soil we will fight them," said the firebrand Sheikh who returned from exile in April this year.

Aweys, who leads the Hezbul Islam group, said forces of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) should leave the war-torn Horn of Africa nation in order to facilitate peace and security in Somalia, noting "the forces are part of the problem rather than the solution".

Nearly 4,300 peacekeepers from Uganda and Burundi are currently deployed in Mogadishu as part of envisaged 8,000-strong AU peacekeeping forces to be replaced by a UN peacekeeping mission if certain political and security conditions are met.

Source: Xinhua