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| Al-shabaab militants |
On Saturday, al Shabaab said it had seized two
small towns in the Lower Shabelle region: El Saliindi, 65 km (40 miles) south
of Mogadishu en route to Marka, and Kuntuwarey, on the road between the capital
and Barawe.
Islamist militants al-Shabaab
seized control of two towns over two days in southern Somalia and attacked two
African Union (AU) convoys in the same region, a spokesman for the group and a
local official said on Saturday.
Both captured towns were on routes towards Indian
Ocean ports south of the capital Mogadishu and came after al Shabaab fighters
attacked an AU base in the same area on September 1.
Last year, African Union peacekeepers known as
AMISOM drove al Shabaab back in the south and seized the port of Barawe in
October, a coastal town used by the Islamist militants to bring in arms and
fighters from abroad for years.
Al Shabaab lost control of the main southern port
of Kismayu and the port of Marka in 2012, so the loss of Barawe was a setback,
leaving the group with no access to the sea in the south of Somalia.
The al-Qaeda affiliated group, which is seeking
to overthrow the Western-backed government and impose its harsh version of
Islamic law, attacks the AU-led peacekeeping force and Somali officials
regularly.
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