One of the most senior figures to defect from Somalia's al-Qaeda-linked militant group al-Shabab has urged his former colleagues to stop targeting civilians and to begin negotiations with the Somali government.

In his first interview with a foreign journalist, Zakariya Ahmed Ismail Hersi - who once had a $3m (£1.9m; €2.7m) bounty from the US government on his head - condemned al-Shabab's attack on Garissa University College in Kenya in April, where 148 students were killed.

Speaking at a government safe-house in Mogadishu, he described it as "wrong and unlawful" and offered his condolences to the victims and their families.

Inside his heavily guarded residence he tells me the story of his rise through the ranks of the jihadists until the group's policy of extreme attacks on civilians forced him to flee for his life.

Mr Hersi's defection - a lengthy process that appears to have begun in 2013, if not before - is now the centrepiece of a new government amnesty initiative designed to convince other militant leaders to follow suit.

"The path became wrong and I had a tipping point," he said in fluent English.

(BBC)