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Hardline Islamist takes over Somalia's opposition

Hardline Islamist takes over Somalia's opposition: "MOGADISHU, July 22 (Reuters) - Somalia's hardline Islamist Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys said on Tuesday he had taken charge of the exiled opposition in Eritrea from its moderate chairman who attended U.N.-brokered peace talks last month.

'Now I Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys am the chairman of the executive committee as well as the general head,' Sheikh Dahir Aweys, who is on U.S. and U.N. lists of al Qaeda associates, told Reuters by phone.

Aweys takes over as head of the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia (ARS) from the moderate Sheikh Sharif Ahmed.

'Sheikh Sharif was replaced because he and his group hated and left the Somali Re-Liberation group in Asmara,' he said.

Somalia's interim government and some members of the ARS signed a deal in Djibouti last month calling for the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers and agreeing to a ceasefire after a month.

Aweys and other hardline Islamists rejected the pact."

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