The helicopter pilot is worried. Any more than 20 minutes in this shattered frontline village and Somalia's Al-Shabaab militants could start lobbing mortars at their position.

Roughly 1,000 Somali National Army (SNA) forces are holding Awdheegle, a strategic town roughly 35 miles (60 kilometres) outside the capital Mogadishu, with the help of an African Union contingent after it was retaken less than seven weeks ago from the Al-Qaeda-linked militants.

But their hold is shaky and the helicopter -- one of the few in the SNA fleet and showing its age -- is a tempting target for the insurgents just a few miles away.

"Five more minutes, and I would have left you," the pilot tells the reporters as they clamber back in, the chopper stuttering up and banking over the town's remains.

There is n

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