Ahmed said on Monday the Somali government was not happy with the deployment of Kenyan soldiers across the border because the incursion went beyond an initial agreement for logistical support for Somali soldiers.

Kenya sent thousands of troops and heavy weapons into Somalia 10 days ago in a campaign to push Somalia’s Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabab rebels away from the border, following a series of kidnappings by Somali gunmen on Kenyan soil.

Kenyan soldiers have advanced on several fronts along with Somali troops and allied militias but there has yet to be a serious showdown with Al-Shabab. The first major confrontation is expected to be in the strategic transit town of Afmadow.

In the Somali town of Dhobley near the border with Kenya, hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets on Tuesday waving Kenyan and Somali flags and burning pictures of the president.

“We want Kenya and Somalia to fight Al-Shabab in every corner. We do not have any other hope for life,” Gedi Farah, an elder from the Dhobley area, told Reuters.

“Kenya, do not believe the words of our weak, mad president. Please fight Al-Shabab and go deep into Somalia. We want to return to our homes,” he said.

Somali military officials and a spokesman for the pro-government Ras Kamboni militia urged the demonstrators to calm down, saying the president’s remarks were not in line with the Somali government’s position.

“The Somali government does not support Al-Shabab. It is only the president and that will be solved,” said Col. Yasin Warfa, a government military official.

Since being elected as president in 2009 under a UN-hosted peace process, Ahmed has failed to stamp any authority on a country that has lacked effective central government control for two decades.

Since launching an insurgency in 2007, Al-Shabab has seized large chunks of southern and central Somalia and is still battling government troops and African Union soldiers from Uganda and Burundi in parts of the capital Mogadishu.

The group includes hundreds of foreign fighters who are urging jihad against the government and Al-Shabab has also struck outside Somalia, killing 79 people in the Ugandan capital Kampala last year.