Islamist chief reportedly Yemen-bound

Islamist leader Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, seen by Washington as a potential key to reconciliation in postwar Somalia, was out of custody in Kenya and reported to be leaving soon for Yemen.

Several Islamist leaders have taken refuge in Yemen since their movement’s defeat late last year in an offensive by Somalian government forces backed by the Ethiopian military.

Ahmed, who is widely perceived as a moderate compared with other senior Islamists, was one of the two main leaders of the movement, which took the capital, Mogadishu, in June and ruled a swath of southern Somalia until its defeat.