An officer stands among recently trained members of the Somali National Army (SNA) ahead of a passing-out parade 14 August 2012, at an African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) training facility on the western fringes of the Somali capital Mogadishu. 660 Somali soldiers who had recently returned from 8 months training in Bihanga, Uganda, passed out along with 48 elite commandos, following a display of tactical and security exercises which included demonstrations of house-clearing, manning of vehicle checkpoints and explosives detection. The latest batch of SNA troops trained outside of Somalia will now deploy across the country, including one battalion to the semi-autonomous region of Puntland, in continuing operations supported by AMISOM, which has wrested control and liberated large areas and towns of strategic importance across Somalia from the Al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorist group Al Shabaab. AU-UN IST PHOTO / STUART PRICE.