20100920
africanews

Somali government is planning to launch a new offensive against Islamist rebels in southern Somalia.

Somali Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Sharmake said on Sunday that several thousand forces trained in neighbouring Kenya and Ethiopia will carry out the offensive.

The second front against Al-Shabaab and Hizbul Islam rebels in south and central Somalia will take place before the end of the year.

Foreign-trained Somali forces will try to take over towns including the port of Kismayo which is the "key to handicap all the financial resources of the war they conducted," Sharmarke told reporters.

Kenya has recruited 2,000 Somali fighters based in northern Kenya while Ethiopia trained another 1,000 forces under a German-funded program.

"Those forces have now completed their training and we are expecting them to come back and really now open a different front. Unless you open different fronts you're not going to end this war ", the prime minister said.

The new tactic comes after government forces, helped by African Union AMISOM peacekeepers, pushed back Al-Shabaab offensive in the capital in August.

Islamist rebels control much of southern Somalia and also the capital Mogadishu while Somali government force runs a few blocks in the capital, where at least 6,300 African Union peacekeepers are guarding the airport and presidential palace.