Somali government forces and African peacekeeping troops on Sunday seized two towns in the Middle Shebelle region after the withdrawal of Al-Shabaab militants, a Somali official said.
The forces captured the towns without any confrontations with Al-Shabaab, the spokesman of the Middle Shebelle provincial government told Somali radio.
He said government and African forced have combed the two liberated towns.
The Somali government has unleashed a major offensive to flush out Al-Shabaab from areas under its control.
The militant group continues to control several towns in the southeastern Lower Shebelle region.
In November, Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud vowed that 2014 would witness the end of the Al-Qaeda-allied militant group.
Somalia has remained in the grip of on-again, off-again violence since the outbreak of civil war in 1991.
The country had appeared to inch closer to stability with the recent installation of a new government and the intervention of African Union troops tasked with combatting Al-Shabaab.
By Abdel-Qader Foudi
englishnews@aa.com.tr
