Somali families flee on foot and on trucks from Elasha Bihaya after Somali government soldiers moved in to prepare for attacks against the militant group al-Shabaab, south of the capital Mogadishu, April 1, 2012. (Photo: Reuters)
Somalia's Al-Qaeda allied Shebab have urged followers to open a new front in the northern breakaway region of Puntland, as the rebels find themselves encircled by regional armies in the south.
Influential hardliner Sheikh Abdulkadir Mumin, who issues Islamic decrees for areas under the command of the extremist gunmen, left in recent days the Shebab-held Afgoye region outside Mogadishu for the north.
"The people of Puntland must join the struggle like the people of southern Somalia to defend the will of God," Mumin said Friday in a broadcast on the Shebab's Radio Andalus.
Mumin, one of the most senior Shebab leaders to leave the insurgent's southern Somali heartlands, was "accompanied by a large number of young fighters who come from the Puntland regions," the broadcast added.
"Men and women, merchants and intellectuals, must take up their guns," added Mumin, who is believed to be now based in the rugged Golis mountains.
The broadcasts add weight to analysts' reports that some Shebab factions are shifting from increasingly hostile southern Somali bases, under attack from Ethiopian and African Union troops, including Kenyan soldiers in the far south.
The Golis mountains, straddling the porous border between Puntland and self-declared independent Somaliland, is honeycombed with caves and difficult to access.
Officials fear it could become the ideal hide-out for extremists and foreign fighters in Somalia, and it is already the base of Mohamed Said Atom, a rebel commander allied to the Shebab who is fighting Puntland's moderate government led by President Abdirahman Mohamed Farole.
"The war is starting in every part of Puntland... you have to buy your guns and fight -- in the south, even the elderly and girls are part of the struggle," Mumim said.
"I warn you, one day the land will be controlled by mujahedeen," he added.
AU troops in Mogadishu have advanced to the outskirts of the capital, while Somali government soldiers, allied militia forces and regional armies have driven Shebab fighters out of several key towns.
Despite the losses, the Shebab -- Somalia's most brutal militia -- remain a serious threat to internationally backed efforts to restore stability in the Horn of African country plagued by a devastating civil war since 1991.
"It is not true that the mujahedeen are losing the battle as alleged by the enemy of Allah," Mumim added. "This is the beginning of jihad."
The absence of an effective central government in Somalia over the past two decades has allowed armed groups, pirate gangs and extremist militia to carve up the country into mini-fiefdoms.
Although the Shebab have lost ground recently, analysts warn that they still remain a serious threat to efforts to restore stability in Somalia.
Since abandoning fixed positions in Mogadishu in August, the Shebab have been chased out of most of their southern strongholds, with the notable exception of the port of Kismayo.
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