NAIROBI, Kenya — Somalia's Islamist militants, Al Shabaab, which recently announced its formal incorporation into Al Qaeda, seems to be losing ground.

On Wednesday Ethiopian and Somali soldiers took the central town of Baidoa which is a key strategic city that had once served as a seat of government.

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Ethiopian soldiers backed by government-aligned militia have pushed Al Shabaab out of other towns and villages along Somalia's western border in recent months adding to the pressure Al Shabaab is under elsewhere in the country.

In the south Kenya's army is making slow progress in its advance on Kismayo, a port town and militant stronghold, while in the capital Mogadishu African Union peacekeepers are forcing Al Shabaab ever further from the center of the city.

It is too early to count Al Shabaab out but they are facing a stronger military onslaught than at any time since their insurgency began five years ago.

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NAIROBI, Kenya — It's been a long time coming but now it looks as if the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), a peacekeeping force that is only now approaching its long-mandated strength of 12,000 is going to get a much-needed boost with more than 5,000 new troops.

The new cap of 17,700 has been requested by the African Union but has to be approved by the UN Security Council. Diplomats here in Nairobi have been indicating that this would happen and now Reuters is reporting the same.

The expectation is that there will be announcement next week ahead of an international conference on Somalia, convened by British Prime Minister David Cameron, to be held on Feb. 23.

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If the new troops numbers are given the nod it should allow AMISOM to move outside Mogadishu, placing detachments in regional towns and putting extra pressure on Al Shabaab.

Kenyan troops in the south of Somalia will "re-hat" as AU soldiers but there is no expectation that Ethiopian troops in the west will do the same.

The bigger force will necessarily require extra resources and AU officials talk of air support — transport as well as, perhaps, attack helicopters — something that would give AMISOM the upper hand in battles with Al Shabaab and reduce casualties: many of the hundreds of AMISOM soldier who have died could have been saved if there had been effective medevacs available rather than just slow-moving armored vehicles.

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Since August when Al Shabaab withdrew from Mogadishu under pressure from AMISOM, the force's commanders have been keen to show their efficacy.

This week they have, for the first time, pushed down the Afgoye Corridor, a road leading south from the capital into the Al Shabaab heartland. 

AMISOM has the upper hand, but it still has a long way to go to rid Somalia of the Islamist extremists.

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NAIROBI, Kenya — A joint video message from Al Qaeda's head Ayman al-Zawahri and Al Shabaab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane was posted on the web on Thursday declaring that the Somali Islamist militants are now formally part of the Al Qaeda terror network.

This should not come as a surprise. Al Shabaab pledged its allegiance to Al Qaeda in early 2009, a year after it was designated a Foreign Terrorist Organisation by the US. But the connection has always been loose.

Al Shabaab has employed Al Qaeda style tactics — roadside bombs, individual suicide bombers and coordinated suicide attacks — which indicate links in terms of training and therefore personnel. Some senior Al Shabaab commanders (including Godane) are Afghanistan veterans with personal connections to Al Qaeda leaders. And Al Shabaab has provided support to Al Qaeda operatives including Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, one of the masterminds of the US embassy bombings in 1998 who was shot dead in Mogadishu last summer.

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In the 15-minute video message translated by the Site Intelligence Group Zawahri is quoted as saying:

"Today, I have glad tidings for the Muslim Ummah that will please the believers and disturb the disbelievers, which is the joining of the Shabaab al-Mujahideen Movement in Somalia to Qaeda al-Jihad, to support the jihadi unity against the Zio-Crusader campaign and their assistants amongst the treacherous agent rulers."

Zawahri's message was preceded by an audio recording of Godane in which he pledged allegiance:

"We will move along with you as faithful soldiers... In the name of my mujahedeen brothers, leaders and soldiers... I pledge obedience."

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There are likely to be two impacts for Al Shabaab, one weakening and one strengthening.

On the one hand Godane's declaration will exacerbate existing divisions within Al Shabaab between those with a nationalist Somali agenda and those who wish to fight a more global jihad, thus weakening the group which is already under growing regional military pressure.

At the same time becoming a fully-fledged Al Qaeda franchise might bring Al Shabaab greater resources, more fighters and greater ambition to launch attacks outside Somalia, most likely in neighboring Kenya or Ethiopia, both of which have sent troops to Somalia in recent months to fight Al Shabaab.