Somalia - African Union forces and Somali government troops are mounting pressure on al-Shabab fighters to vacate their bases in Mogadishu, Press TV reports.


Somali’s national army took control of the Daynille district, the last stronghold of al-Shabab in Mogadishu, following an early assault on Friday morning, a Press TV correspondent reported.

The battle brought business and transport to a standstill along the major road that links Mogadishu and Afgooye, a key agricultural town in West of Mogadishu.

Al-Shabab has lost most of its bases in the ongoing fighting. The group is also losing key bases in south and central Somalia.

The group vacated Mogadishu in August 2011 after coming under pressure from Somali troops and its allied forces but the groups top command argue that the exit was a tactical pullout. Since then, al-Shabab has struck several times in the capital.

Somalia has been without an effective central government and descended into chaos since 1991, when warlords overthrew former junta ruler Mohamed Siad Barre.

The weak Western-backed Transition Federal Government (TFG), propped by a 12,000-strong African Union force from Uganda, Burundi and Djibouti, has been battling al-Shabab fighters for the past five years.

Somalia is one of the countries generating the highest number of refugees and internally displaced people in the world.

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Source: Press TV