It served as the principal political opposition to the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia (TFG) and participated in the 2007 and 2008 years of the insurgency.

Roughly 400 delegates of the Somali Congress for Liberation and Reconstitution, which included members such as ICU Executive chairman Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, former TFG Speaker of Parliament Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden, former Somali National Army General Jama Mohamed Ghalib, former TFG Deputy Prime Minister Hussein Mohamed Farrah, along with prominent members of women's groups approved a constitution and committee.

[2] Reporters present for the creation of the ARS believed it was unlikely that the alliance would be Islamist-led, as the opposition would be hoping to draw on the broad political support and fundraising opportunities of the Somali diaspora.

The alliance further decried the African Unions newly established peacekeeping operation, AMISOM, as an occupation force and demanded its withdrawal.

Notably, the alliance announced it would refuse to engage in talks with the Transitional Federal Government unless Ethiopian forces withdrew from Somalia.

If there were ever a formula for bloody and protracted war in Somalia, it is Ethiopian occupation, which is already unifying diverse elements of the Somali population in fighting.

[1] During a November 2007 visit to the United States by ARS leader Zakaria Mohamed Haji-Abdi, he publicly called in on Somali Americans to enlist in the resistance against the Ethiopians during a rally at the Minneapolis Convention Center.