Applying STRATFOR analysis to breaking news An armed faction of Somali Islamist militants loyal to Sheikh Ahmed Madobe will henceforth be known strictly as the Ras Kamboni Brigades, an aide to Madobe announced May 13. In publicizing the name change (by which Madobe's group will simply revert back to its original name), Madobe has thus formally quit the Somali Islamist group Hizbul Islam. In practical terms, however, Madobe has been acting independently of Hizbul Islam, an umbrella group formed in February 2009, for quite some time. Hizbul Islam brought together four separate clan-based Somali militant groups to fight against the Western-backed Transitional Federal Government (TFG), and was originally led by Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, the former head of the Islamic Courts Union, which briefly ruled large portions of Somalia (including the capital of Mogadishu) before the 2006 Ethiopian invasion.