Somalia’s president expects new military push to begin in days

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Somalia's President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud told Reuters on Tuesday he expected a new military drive by African Union and Somali forces to start in the next few days to push al Shabaab militants from more territory.

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6 August 2014

Al Shabaab ruled most of the southern region of Somalia from 2006 until 2011 when African forces drove them out of Mogadishu and then expelled them from most urban centers in a nation that has faced war and turmoil for more than two decades. 

But the al Qaeda-aligned Islamists, who sought to impose a very strict version of Islamic sharia law, still hold swathes of territory. Mohamud said those areas would be the focus of the operation, building on successes from another push earlier this year that reduced al Shabaab