The hardline leader of Somalia's newly powerful Islamists said today militia who shot dead two people demanding to watch the World Cup have been jailed and will face sharia law.
In the latest sign of a radical tendency within the movement that now controls a swathe of south Somalia, Islamic militia shot a cinema owner and a young girl during a protest against a ban on watching Germany play Italy in the semi-final.
"With the co-operation of the elders of the district, we have put those who were behind the killings in prison," Islamist leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys told local HornAfrik radio.
"Those who killed the two civilians will face sharia law as soon as possible," added Aweys, a cleric appointed overall leader a few weeks after the Islamists kicked out of Mogadishu US-backed warlords who had run the city for 15 years.
Four others were wounded in Tuesday night's shooting in the central town of Dusa Mareb, Aweys' home area.
There have been other reports of militia from the Islamic sharia courts - out of which the movement grew - stopping viewings of the World Cup, provoking protests.
Islamist leaders say that is not their policy, but rather the work of over-zealous militiamen.