The blast points to the al Qaeda-linked rebels' ability to hit back with covert strikes and continues a pattern of attacks in other urban strongholds from where they have retreated under military pressure, including the capital.
A spokesman for al Shabaab's military operations, Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, said the bomb was planted inside a district administration office building now housing Somali troops and warned of more attacks.
"This is only an introduction to the forthcoming explosions," he told Reuters. The militants had succeeded in "killing many", Musab said.
The government said the explosion caused no casualties.
Kenyan troops fighting under the AU flag entered Kismayu for the first time on Tuesday after launching an offensive against the port on Friday, forcing the rebels to flee.
They followed hundreds of Somali government troops and allied militia fighters who deployed in the city on Monday.
Al Shabaab's strength is hard to gauge. Mohamud Farah, a spokesman for Somalia's government forces, said between 4,000-5,000 fighters were hiding in the southern Juba regions.
Hundreds of foreign fighters had joined the insurgency at its peak from countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kenya, Tanzania as well as the United States and Britain, Somalia's last government said.
"Foreign fighters (also) started leaving when they saw their space was shrinking," a Nairobi-based security adviser said, referring to the offensive by African Union and Somali government troops that has steadily won back rebel-held ground over the past 14 months.
After the surrender of Kismayu, defection rates among footsoldiers were also expected to pick up, with the rebel group seen as a losing proposition.
What will be left behind, analysts say, is a hardline core.
Whether al Shabaab is able to wage a prolonged campaign of guerrilla attacks on Kismayu will largely hinge on Mogadishu's success in establishing a regional administration that satisfies competing clan interests in the south.
"If you have marginalised clans, al Shabaab will find allies in them. If all clans are on board it will be hard for al Shabaab to infiltrate Kismayu," the security adviser said.
Read more: http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE89200D20121003
from REUTERS
By Abdi Sheikh
Wed Oct 3, 2012 5:38am GMT
Washington Time
Kabul Time
London Time
0 comments:
Post a Comment