MOGADISHU (Sh. M. Network)—Al-Shabab Islamists said Sunday they will continue fighting against the government till it collapses and the African Union troops leave the country.

The spokesman of the Shabab, Sheik Mukhtar Abu Mansur, said they were fighting in Mogadishu and other central towns what he called infidels and their stooges.

Al-Shabab and Hisbul Islam groups are fighting against the Somalia government which controls a few blocks in Mogadishu.

Separately, Sheik Yusuf Mohamed Siad Indho Ade who held a press conference in Mogadishu declared that his group joined the government and vowed to defend it.

He described the Islamist rebels as violence makers and called for the Somali people to defend the government.

The Islamist leader with eleven battle wagons joined the government on Sunday and met with Somali president Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed and Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke in the presidential palace.