Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys (b. 1935) is a former army colonel and current Somali religious leader affiliated with militant Islamist groups such as al-Itihaad al-Islamiya, and Hizb al-Islam, which merged with al-Shabaab in 2010, and formerly a leading and more radical figure within the Islamic Courts Union. Wanted by the Somali government and threatened by infighting within al-Shabaab, he surrendered in 2011 and currently lives under house arrest in Mogadishu. Aweys is a member of the Habr Gidr subclan of the Hawiye.
Sources:
Abdel Bari Atwan, After Bin Laden: Al Qaeda, the Next Generation (London: Saqi Press, 2012).
Joseph Winter, “Profile: Somalia’s Islamist Leader,” BBC News, June 30, 2006, accessed February 18, 2014.