Kim Ghattas is a BBC correspondent covering international affairs and a senior visiting fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She is the author of "The Secretary: A Journey With Hillary Clinton From Beirut to the Heart of American Power."
Somali hardline islamist Hisbul Islam militia walk past at a training camp on the outskirts of Afgoye district in Somalia's lower Shabelle region October 20, 2009. Hardline islmaist factions such as Al-Shabaab and Hisbul Islam continue to pose a threat to AU peacekeepers that are in Somalia to reinforce government military forces and prevent a takeover of capital Mogadishu by Islamist forces having threatened the African peacekeeper, whom they accuse of being foreguards of a christian crusade, with further deadly offensives. 17 AMISOM peacekeepers were killed in Mogadishu last month in a twin car bomb attack that was claimed by a Somali insurgent group. AFP PHOTO/Abdurashid ABDULLE (Photo credit should read ABDIRASHID ABDULLE ABIKAR/AFP/GettyImages)
