The militant Somali Islamist group al-Shabaab paraded newly trained fighters in the capital, Mogadishu, on Thursday, the Somali radio station Shabelle reported.
“These forces are our reserve and they will break the enemy’s back,” said Sheikh Ali Mohamud Ali Dhere, a spokesman for al-Shabaab.
Top commanders of the group addressed the new fighters at the Maslah compound in northeast Mogadishu.
The spokesman said that the new unit is named after Sheikh Mustafa Abu Yazid, a member of al Qaeda killed in a suspected U.S. drone strike in Afghanistan this year.