'They are on the run': Somalia leads fight against al-Shabab.

 Enough was enough. For 13 years, extremists with al-Qaida’s East Africa affiliate had controlled Mohamud Adow’s village in central Somalia, imposing harsh ideology and arresting local teachers and traditional leaders.

Then, word came that Somali forces in a surprising national offensive had expelled the fighters from nearby villages. A small group of residents sneaked out one night in August to meet wit Somali troop commanders and invited them into their village of Rage-El. The 80-year-old Adow was among those taking up arms, joining a local militia fighting alongside Somali forces
in rural battles with battered guns.

“The people were living in agony,” said Adow, one of several witnesses interviewed by The Associated Press. In what is being called “total war” by the government of President Hassa Sheikh Mohamud's that was elected in May, Adow and others across the Horn of Africa nation are being encouraged to stand up to the al-Shabab extremists who have long embedded in Somali society, exploiting clan divisions and extorting millions of dollars a year from businesses and farmers in their quest to impose an Islamic caliphate.

On Thursday, Somalia’s government announced a “people’s uprising” as it seeks to pressure al-Shabab from all angles, including financial ones.