(CNN) -- Amid the worsening conflict in his country, Somalia's president made a plea for Somalis living in the United States to stop sending their young men to fight. A Somali rebel points a heavy machine gun in the direction of government forces July 3. "I call on the Somali-American community not to send their youth to Somalia to fight alongside al-Shabaab," President Sheik Sharif Ahmed said on Sunday. He was referring to the Islamist militant group that is waging a brutal war against his administration in Mogadishu. "I am saying to those young men from abroad: 'Your families fled your home to America because of insecurity. You should not return here to ferment violence against your people,'" he said.
@highlight
President Sheik Sharif Ahmed says U.S.-Somalis joining Islamist rebels
@highlight
Many Somalis went to U.S. after 1992 American intervention in Somalia
@highlight
Fresh fighting has erupted between transitional government and rebels
@highlight
U.N. estimates 200,000 people have been forced to flee Somali capital
Islamist
Islamist
The transitional government has struggled to establish authority, challenged by @placeholder groups that have seized control of Mogadishu and much of the south.
Mogadishu
The transitional government has struggled to establish authority, challenged by Islamist groups that have seized control of @placeholder and much of the south.