MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somali troops backed by peacekeepers seized three rebel bases in the capital Mogadishu on Wednesday, the government said, in a new offensive against hardline Islamist militants.
The country's interim government -- whose mandate ends in August with no firm plans in place for what will follow -- has struggled to end a four-year insurgency that has killed at least 21,000 people.
From early morning, Burundian troops from the African Union (AU) peacekeeping force, known as AMISOM, advanced block by block on foot along the city's industrial road, which leads to the Bakara market, a major insurgent hideout.
"We have captured three al Shabaab bases," Defence Minister Abdihakim Haji Fiqi told reporters. "Our enemies have been weakened and the fighting will continue until we have captured the city.
AMISOM says its soldiers have now secured more than half of Mogadishu covering more than three-quarters of the population.
It was not possible to reach al Shabaab for comment. An al Shabaab suicide car bomb killed at least 17 people near a police training camp in Mogadishu on Monday.
Prime Minister Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed said there could be further bomb attacks by the rebels loyal to al Qaeda.
"We understand the weakened al Shabaab may plan bombings. But we are very vigilant and have brave forces," Mohamed, unusually dressed in military fatigues, told a news conference in the rubble-strewn capital.
Medics reported at least 20 people had been killed.
MORTAR ATTACK
Separately, Somali troops and government-allied militia launched a brief offensive on al Shabaab rebels controlling the town of Balad Hawa in southern Somalia, a stone's throw away from the Kenyan border.
Local resident Mahmud Yusuf said he had counted at least 15 bodies in the town's dusty streets, including women and children. Al Shabaab remained in control, he said.
Across the frontier, Kenyan security forces ramped up security in the border town of Mandera.
East Africa's largest economy has long cast a wary eye at its anarchic neighbour where first clan warlords and now Islamist insurgents have reduced governments to impotence.
"We are on alert and aware that rebel groups are fighting. They are fighting inside Somali territory," said David Ole Serian, provincial commissioner of the frontier North Eastern province.
One mortar bomb, believed to have been fired from Somali territory, landed near Mandera's police station, residents said.
Kenya closed its border with Somalia in January 2007. However thousands of Somalis still cross the desert frontier each year to reach refugee camps in Kenya.
"Families living close to the border have moved away with their belongings. People are scared. School children have been sent home," said Ibrahim, a primary school teacher in Mandera.
(Additional reporting by Sahra Abdi in Nairbi and Noor Ali in Isiolo; Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by Helen Nyambura-Mwaura and Mark Trevelyan)
