military-mind wrote:Du$ty wrote:Helima a north Mogadishu resident said on Friday
"a woman who has been wiped by militant group Al-Shabab in the past for wearing a bra had her nipples chopped off"

It looks like as part of the new "offensive" that they were talking about since December 2009, they are in full gear to dehumanize the Movement of Al-Shabaab Al-Mujaahidiin. These constant bombardments of negative campaign against Al-Shabaab are part of the psychological war that is waged against it. I remember just several months before the 2006 invasion, similar campaigns were waged against the UIC. It looks like it is a repeat of the same strategy. The only difference is Al-Shabaab is more lethal today than it was in 2006 but some of the tribes in the South are being turned against it also. It doesn't mean every clan is united against it but at least certain sections of both Hawiye and Daarood in Southern Somalia are against it.
What is going for Al-Shabaab is none of its Somali opponents are ideologically committed against it or have the organizational structure to mount a sustained military campaign against it.
This is the main reason why you have General Gabre in Mogadishu today. Ethiopians are outraged with the prospect that the TFG will eventually collapse or become dysfunctional entity due to the internal power struggle and the leadership infighting that is constantly present in this TFG. It has been reported that the backers of AMISOM have told Shariif Axmed that he will have to stabilize the different organs of his government or at some point they will pull the plug out of AMISOM and cancel its mandate. The Ethiopians were outraged with that prospect as they have no stomach with another costly military adventure in Somalia. Rumor has that most of the countries which are footing the bill for this conflict against Somali Islamists have concluded that unless the Somalis come up with a viable military option against Al-Shabaab, no amount of foreign military help will be able to uproot them.
Only time will tell which way it will go.