[2] During the mid-2000s he was a leading figure in the CIA backed Somali Warlord Alliance fighting the Islamic Courts, transitioning during the Ethiopian military occupation the following year to Commissioner of Police for the Transitional Federal Government.

[citation needed] Abdi Hasan Awale rose to prominence as Mohammed Farrah Aidid's interior minister in its clashes with UN forces during the so-called "nation-building" phase of UNOSOM II in 1993.

[2][4] In 2006, he fought with the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT) against the Islamic Courts Union in the Second Battle of Mogadishu.

[5] He defected from the alliance in June 2006, saying, "Since the formation of ARPCT, Mogadishu has been a centre of a military crisis that has led to the needless death of hundreds of people, therefore I decide to quit the alliance to build on the gains of the Islamic tribunals and give peace a chance".

[6] In December 2006, he led an engagement on behalf of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG), backed by a sizable contingent of Ethiopian troops, known as the Battle of Bandiradley.