MOGADISHU: The Somali army and international peacekeepers have “fully secured” a strategic town from Islamist militants after over a week of fighting, the Defense Ministry said. Since the beginning of last year, the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Shabab group has seized dozens of towns and villages in an offensive that has reversed nearly all of the gains made by the troubled Horn of Africa nation’s army in 2022 and 2023. On Aug.