A soldier from the Kenyan Contingent of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) stands in front of a vehicle that was destroyed a week earlier by Kenyan Air Force missile strikes inside a warehouse at Kismayo airport, formly under the control of the Al-Qaeda-affilated extremist group Al Shabaab. Kenyan AMISOM troops moved into and through Kismayo on 02 October 2012, the hitherto last major urban stronghold of the Al-Qaeda-affiliated extremist group Al Shabaab, on their way to the city's airport without a shot being fired following a month-long operation to liberate towns and villages across southern Somalia from Afmadow to Kismayo. Al Shabaab, the once feared and brutal extremist group, has lost a succession of strategic towns and villages across Somalia to AMISOM and Somali National Army (SNA) forces in sustained operations against them since they withdrew from fixed positions in the capital Mogadishu in August of 2011. AU-UN IST PHOTO / STUART PRICE.