Somalia's Shabaab 'still far from defeat' | News24

Somalia's Shabaab 'still far from defeat' | News24

With reinforcements expected, Somali and African forces fighting Shabaab extremists speak confidently of victory, but analysts warn of tough battles ahead and say that military campaigns alone will not bring peace.

The al-Qaeda linked Shabaab have fled a string of towns in the past two years ahead of the advancing African Union force in Somalia (Amisom) - fighting alongside Somalia's rag-tag army, various aligned militia forces and Ethiopian troops - and commanders brag that the Islamists are on the back foot.

"Al-Shabaab is standing on one leg, and we are doing our best to hack off that leg and liberate the small areas they still control," Somalia's Minister of Defence Abdihakim Haji Mohamud Fiqi told AFP.

"Their military strength is weakened, they are now launching just desperate attacks."

United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson said last month that Amisom advances had "ground to a halt" because it lacked a sufficient number of troops.

Diplomats say the UN Security Council is expected to soon authorise 4 000 more troops for the African Union force in Somalia, boosting the five-nation fighting force by a quarter to at least 22 000 strong.

But even as the extremists have lost ground, Shabaab commanders have increasingly developed the force's capability to carry out guerrilla attacks, regular events inside Somalia including storming a UN compound in June.

But they have also showed their ability to stage attacks in neighbouring Kenya, with the September massacre of shoppers and staff in Nairobi's upmarket Westgate mall in which at least 67 people were killed.