"We have confirmed that the militants are now holding hundreds of children whom they snatched from schools

Mogadishu-Sunatimes: The international community-backed transitional government of Somalia has on Monday strongly accused the Alqaeda-linked terrorists in Somalia, Alshabab of kidnapping school children to forcibly use them for fighting.

: The international community-backed transitional government of Somalia has on Monday strongly accused theAlqaeda-linked terrorists in Somalia, Alshabab of kidnapping school children to forcibly use them for fighting.

The newly-appointed minister for education Abdi Nur Moalim Mahmoud told reporters in Mogadishu Monday that his ministry was very worried about the developments that Al shabab militants last week kidnapped hundreds of children from schools and holly Quran Madrassas in areas under their control.

"We have confirmed that the militants are now holding hundreds of children whom they snatched from schools for the past several days and they are currently under forcible recruitments, as we have known from sources close to the militants" the education minister said.

"It is very disappointing development that the militants have started to kidnap school children who are the country’s future eyes, this new policy is intended to destroy Somalia’s knowledge and that is un acceptable" the education minister added.

He said that this is one of the hardships that militants have bee causing on the vulnerable Somali civilians for the past five years and he called on the Alqaeda-proxy in Somalia to change such terrible behavior.

Al shabab which is considered as the Alqaeda branch in east Africa has been fighting Somali government for the past three and a half years in a bid to topple it and instead establish Islamic rule in the horn of African country.

But analysts say that the kind of Islamic rule which Al shabab wants to introduce into Somalia is like that existed in Afghanistan before the fall of Taliban late in 2001 in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks that rocked the United states the same year.

Sunatimes news desk