...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
troops in Somalia on Friday began an operation aimed at capturing an Al-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...
stronghold in the outskirts of Mogadishu.
The operation involves a contingent drawn from the Uganda People Defence Forces alongside the Transitional Federal Government troops, fighting to drive out the terrorist militia from Maslah region.
Amisom said the operation was "in response to attacks by the terror group Al-Shabaab originating from their base in the northern fringes of Mogadishu."
"It will extend the city's defences and deny the Al-Qaeda backed hard boyz important ground from which they have been targeting the city's population," said Amisom force commander, Maj Gen. Fred Mugisha.
Burning flags
At the same time, a statement released by the Somali army reiterated that armed personnel had been ordered to refrain from burning or abusing the flag of the retreating Al-Shabaab.
All armed personnel in the upcountry regions have been instructed to stop burning the black banner of Al-Shabaab. The statement added that the flag contains Islamic scripts.
Al-Shabaab's distinctive black flag has shahâdah (the Mohammedan profession of the oneness of Allah and the acceptance of Muhammad as God's final prophet), extolled on it.
"No soldier is allowed to burn the flag with shahâdah," said the statement.