Somalia 'Uncontrollable' Because of Al Qaeda Influx, PM Says

NAIROBI - Calling Somalia "the new front for Al Qaeda and extremists groups," Prime Minister Omar Shamarke warns that without more support from the international community, the country's fragile government may fall to an increasingly radicalized insurgency.

Somalia's Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke gives a joint press conference with UN...

Somalia's Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke gives a joint press conference with UN special representative for Somalia Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah (not pictured) at the end of a meeting of the 15th International Group on Somalia on June 10, 2009 in Rome. The International Somalia contact group is an informal group established in 2006 at the UN headquarters to support peace and reconciliation in Somalia.

(Tiziana Fabi/AFP/Getty Images)

In an interview with ABC News, Prime Minister Shamarke says the ongoing violence in the war-torn country has taken a decidedly international turn. A large in flow of Al Qaeda-backed foreign fighters coming into Somalia has made the country "uncontrollable," says the Prime Minister. He says his moderate Islamist government, which has been in power for less than six months, needs international help to make it a fair fight.

"We don't have an edge in terms of capability and that's why we have requested this international emergency help to salvage the country," says Shamarke. "We cannot prevail on these extremist groups when they have Ak-47s, and other weapons and we only have Ak-47s."

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In a memo obtained by ABC News dated in May, U.S. officials requested an exemption to the arms embargo Somalia has been subject to for the last 17 years. The memo requests permission to ship 19 tons of ammunition including small arms, RPGs and mortars directly to Somalia's Transitional Federal Government forces. It states, "In light of the on-going fighting in Mogadishu, this emergency support is needed to ensure the continued war fighting capacity of the NSF [National Security Force] and the survival of the TFG."

The Somali government claims there are thousands of foreign fighters in the country coming primarily from Pakistan and Yemen to fund and fight along side al Shabaab, the country's primary insurgent group. African Union officials working with the mission in Somalia, known as AMISOM, have also said they think the number of foreign fighters within Somalia could be in thousands, but U.S. officials believe the number to be smaller.

Despite differences in opinion of the exact number of extremists present, the Somali government and the United States are in agreement over their concern that this government may fall to al-Shabaab and other insurgent groups, who now control the majority of the country.