African Union and Somali troops took control on Sunday of the al Shabaab militant stronghold of Barawe on the southern Somali coast, after the al Qaeda-linked militants fled without resistance, a Somali official said.
The African Union and the Somali military launched a joint offensive in March to drive the Islamist fighters out of towns and areas they control, and stepped up their campaign in August after a surge in gun and bomb attacks in Mogadishu.
Shabaab members across Somalia have been arrested and smaller towns retaken, but the rebels still hold swathes of territory. Barawe is the biggest al Shabaab-held town that the offensive has targeted so far.
"We have completely taken Barawe town from al Shabaab. There are now no al Shabaab in the town, they escaped when they saw our forces approaching hours ago," Abdikadir Mohamed Sidii, the governor of the Lower Shabelle region, where Barawe is located, told Reuters.
"We have settled most of the troops on fringes of the town in order not to scare the residents. Only a few infantry are now inside. The mood is calm and there is neither attack nor resistance, residents are calm," Sidii said.
Al Shabaab officials were not immediately available for comment, although Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, their military operation spokesman, told Reuters earlier that militants on Saturday burned two government vehicles near Barawe.
He declined comment on whether the Islamist militants had abandoned the town.
Hussein Nur, a university lecturer in governance and leadership in Mogadishu, said Barawe's loss was a blow to Shabaab.
"Economically, it was a port where they exported charcoal and imported what they needed. Militarily, it was a strategic place where Shabaab leaders and foreigners hid and trained bombers," he told Reuters.
"For the government, it means al Shabaab no longer has a base in the range of about 200 km away from Mogadishu. However, this is not the elimination of al Shabaab. They are still strong and control large swathes Somalia."
Barawe, about 180 km (110 miles) south of Mogadishu, had been fully controlled by the Islamist militia with almost no government presence since 2006.
Al Shabaab banned many aspects of modern life in the town, and applied its strict literal interpretation of Islamic sharia law, ordering executions, floggings and amputations for crimes such as theft.
REUTERS