Somalis continued to flee Mogadishu on Wednesday as Islamist insurgents shelled the presidential palace and gathered around the capital city to confront a long-promised government offensive.
Somali Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke (pictured) said Sunday that government troops were ready to launch a major offensive by the end of this month to expel insurgent groups from the country's capital Mogadishu.
Yemen has warned Somalia's al Shabaab against seeking to infiltrate the country a day after the Islamist movement said it was ready to send reinforcements to help a Yemeni-based al Qaeda affiliate fight off US strikes.
Somalia's hardline Shabaab insurgents Friday said they will send fighters to Yemen to help an al Qaeda affiliate behind the failed Christmas Day jetliner bombing in its fight against government forces.
A fierce battle in Mogadishu on Thursday killed at least 21 civilians and wounded dozens after insurgents fired on the Somali president's plane, prompting an artillery response from peacekeepers.
Hundreds of families have fled the southern city of Kismayo amid heavy clashes after rival Islamist factions al Shabaab and Hezb al-Islam ended their uneasy alliance and battled for control of the strategic port city.
At least 17 people, mainly combatants, have been killed in clashes between the al Qaeda-inspired Al Shabaab militia and government forces in the town of Yet on the border with Ethiopia, local witnesses say.
At least 14 people were killed in blasts that targeted an African Union peacekeeping base in Somalia's restive capital Mogadishu on Thursday. Rebels from the hardline Islamist group al Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Islamist rebel group al Shabaab has demanded that the French government ceases to support Somalia's government if France wants to secure the release of a French security advisor the group has been holding for two months.
Somalia's Shabaab Islamist militia has vowed to avenge the death of a regional al Qaeda leader, Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan (pictured), in a US strike on Monday. Nabhan was wanted by US authorities in connection with the 2002 attacks in Mombasa.
