So­ma­lia (AP) — A com­man­der of So­ma­li­a’s Is­lamic ex­trem­ist rebels de­nounced said the coun­try’s re­cent elec­tion of a new pres­i­dent and vowed to con­tinue fight­ing the gov­ern­ment, the first of­fi­cial com­ment from al-Shabab since the pres­i­den­t’s elec­tion ear­lier this month.

In an au­dio mes­sage re­leased by al-Shabab’s ra­dio arm Sun­day, Sheikh Has­san Yaqub, a se­nior com­man­der of the ex­trem­ist group, called So­ma­li­a’s new pres­i­dent Mo­hamed Ab­dul­lahi Mo­hamed an “apos­tate” and warned So­ma­lis against sup­port­ing him. Mo­hamed, who holds both So­mali and U.S. cit­i­zen­ship, was elected Feb. 8.

The al-Shabab leader also re­ferred the new pres­i­dent as “evil-minded,” re­call­ing his eight-month tenure as the prime min­is­ter of So­ma­lia in 2010 and 2011, dur­ing which the ex­trem­ists lost con­trol of Mo­gadishu, the cap­i­tal.

“Re­mem­ber how much harm he in­flicted upon Mus­lims dur­ing his time as prime min­is­ter,” said Yaqub.

The group has since lost most of its key strong­holds across south and cen­tral So­ma­lia to a multi-pronged of­fen­sive by al­lied So­mali and African Union forces.

De­spite be­ing ousted from most of So­ma­li­a’s cities and towns, al-Shabab con­tin­ues to carry out deadly at­tacks, many by sui­cide bombers, across large parts of south and cen­tral So­ma­lia, in­clud­ing Mo­gadishu.

Al-Shabab’s as­saults threaten this na­tion’s at­tempts to re­build from decades of chaos.