Somali Islamic militia say will fight if provoked

NAIROBI, June 8 (Reuters) Somali Islamic militia who seized Mogadishu this week will not launch an assault on the last warlord stronghold of Jowhar unless they are attacked, their leader said today.

''We have no plans to attack them in Jowhar. We are monitoring the coalition militia movements. If they attack us, we will of course answer them,'' Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, chairman of the Mogadishu Islamic courts, told Reuters by telephone.

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