On its part, the US has announced a reward of 7 million dollars (roughly Rs 38 crore) on the head of Al Shabaab's founder Ahmed Abdi Al-Muhammad.
Decades of weak government amid grinding poverty have long made Somalia a target for radical Islamist groups.
Al-Shabaab's predecessor was al-Ittihad al-Islami (AIAI), which worked to create an Islamist emirate in Somalia.
It was, in part, funded by former al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.
AIAI, which the U.S. State Department designated as a terrorist organization, strengthened after the fall in 1991 of Siad Barre's military regime and amid the years of lawlessness that ensued.
