Somali Islamists claim to have seized town
The Islamist al-Shabaab militant group says it has seized a southern Somali town from rival Hizbul Islam rebels after clashes killed at least 12 fighters. The two groups were former allies, but are now fighting over who should control the region’s strategic southern port of Kismayu. Al-Shabaab dominates much of southern Somalia and parts of the country’s capital, Mogadishu, where it pummels some 5,000 African Union peacekeepers and government troops with exhausting regularity. The group wants to impose strict sharia law throughout Somalia, but its suspected links to al-Qaeda make it a US intelligence priority, and the target of a dirty little war. Read more: Reuters, The Telegraph
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