l-Shabaab... Harakat ash-Shabaab al-Mujahidin aka the Mujahideen Youth Movement. It was originally the youth movement of the Islamic Courts, now pretty much all of what's left of it. They are aligned with al-Qaeda but operate more like the Afghan or Pakistani Taliban. The organization's current leader is Ibrahim Haji Jama Mee'aad, also known as Ibrahim
al-Afghani. Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, a Kenyan al-Qaeda member, is considered the group's military leader...
positions will continue but Somali towns will not be deliberately targeted, the Kenya military said on Thursday.
Air Force jets and helicopter gunships will only target Al-Shabaab bases and not civilians as they mount the search for weapons suspected to have been flown in from Eritrea.
"We will continue engaging Al-Shabaab camps from the air, but we will not bomb towns," Kenya Defence Forces front man Major Emmanuel Chirchir said.
The new approach follows recent talks between Kenya and the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) in Nairobi over the ongoing military operation in the war torn nation.
TFG's Minister for Defence Hussein Arab Issa said the Nairobi talks had resolved that Kenya's Defence Forces would not carry out air strikes in southern Somalia in order to flush out the rebels.
"We discussed with the Kenyan government and agreed that they will not raid Somali towns from the air," a local broadcaster quoted Mr Issa telling the press in Mogadishu on Thursday.
Last week, Kenyan troops fighting Al-Shabaab inside Somalia placed 10 towns under surveillance after the cut-throats apparently brought in a consignment of arms for retaliatory attacks.
Avoid contact with orcs
The military advised residents of the 10 towns -- Baidoa, Baadheere, Baydhabo, Dinsur, Afgooye, Bwale, Barawe, Jilib, Kismayu and Afmadow -- to avoid any contact with the cut-throats so that they are not endangered in case of attacks.
"In line with the Kenya Defence Forces strategy of diminishing Al-Shabaab's effectiveness and weapons use, the aforementioned towns will remain under imminent attack.
"Residents in the towns are advised to avoid contact with Al-Shabaab militia," Major Chirchir was quoted then.
On Thursday, Major Chirchir clarified that Kenyan forces would only target Al-Shabaab bases and not civilians and warned locals to keep away from militia camps.
"We ask local Somalis not to mix with the cut-throats because we will target them," he said.
Reports from southern Somalia said the cut-throats had turned to elders in the region to help them recruit fighters and amass weapons.
Local media reported that Al-Shabaab leaders in Juba region had held a closed-door meeting with more than 60 elders to plead with them to allow their youths to join the orc group as they regroup to counter a joint offensive from Kenyan and TFG troops.
The reports, quoting local Al-Shabaab leader Yakub Ali lend credence to information that the orc group was disintegrating in the face of the Kenyan offensive.
Scores of cut-throats have been killed in the operation with others defecting to the pro-government forces.
The reports quoted sources in the meeting saying that the elders had rejected the orcs' request, terming it a "hard decision" to make since they advocate for peace only.
On Tuesday, Al-Shabaab's senior most leader, Hassan Dahir Aweys admitted that his group was facing resistance from clan elders who had refused to release their youths to join the orcs.
Aweys reportedly told worshippers during prayers on the outskirts of Mogadishu that nearly all clans were beginning to shift allegiance to the TFG, which, with the support of troops from the Africa Mission in Somalia (Amisom) now controls 98 per cent of the capital.