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Al-Shabaab pledged to recapture the town of Beledweyne on Monday (January 2nd), two days after government security forces cleared the insurgents out of the town, AFP reported.

The al-Qaeda-linked group said fighters are reinforcing positions around Beledweyne, a large town 30 kilometres from the Ethiopian border in Somalia's central Hiiraan region.

Somali officials said government and allied forces are also advancing on other al-Shabaab strongholds. "The campaign for the liberation of the country from al-Shabaab terror is gaining speed, as new fronts are opened against the terrorists," Somali army chief Gen. Abdulkarim Yusuf said in a statement.

Residents in the town of Jowhar said that al-Shabaab fighters are urging them to take up arms to fight Ethiopian and Somali troops in Beledweyne, Radio Bar-Kulan reported on Monday.

Al-Shabaab reportedly tried to recruit residents using loudspeakers mounted on pickup trucks.

Al-Shabaab faces new pressure with the loss of the Hiiraan region and their previous defeat in Mogadishu. The port city of Kismayo has become its only source of financial support, and in recent days has been the centre of increased fighting between security forces and al-Shabaab, AFP reported.