[JURIST] Somali MPs on Friday asked Prime Minister Ali Gedi [BBC profile] to expel several warlords from the Somali cabinet after 150 people were killed in Mogadishu last week during fighting between Islamic factions and the warlord militias. The MPs say the warlords, including the Ministers of the Departments of Security, Commerce, Religious Affairs, and Militia Disarmament, broke ceasefire agreements signed when the current transitional Somali constitution [JURIST report] was signed in 2004 after 13 years of relative anarchy.

Protesters chanted anti-US slogans during demonstrations in Mogadishu this week, as many critics believe the warlords are secretly funded by the US to resist Islamic fundamentalists from gaining control of sections of the war-torn country. The interim Somali government [JURIST report] led by President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed [BBC profile] is too politically and financially weak to effectively confront the warlord militias. Reuters has more.