Somali Islamists distance itself from bin Laden

NAIROBI, July 2 (Reuters) Somalia's powerful Islamist movement today distanced itself from Osama bin Laden's view that deployment of troops to the Horn of Africa country was part of a crusade to crush budding Islamic rule.

''Osama bin Laden is expressing his views like any other international figure. We are not concerned about it,'' Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, the moderate former leader of the Islamists group told reporters in Mogadishu.

REUTERS CH PC1629