Soldiers of the Somali National Army (SNA) watch from the roadside as a convoy carrying troops from the Kenyan Contingent of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) begins an advance on the Somali port city of Kismayo.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.