**Troops loyal to Somalia’s UN-backed government have regained control of a town from radical Islamist fighters - the second such victory in recent days.**Commanders with the moderate Ahlu Sunna group say they took Luq town, near the Ethiopia border, without a fight.
On Monday Ahlu Sunna drove radicals out of the nearby town of Bulo Hawo as part of a government offensive.
Militant groups are locked in a fight with government forces and each other for control of the country.
Thousands of civilians have been killed and more than a million driven from their homes because of fighting in the past two years.
On Tuesday, the UN said Somalia was now the world’s most dangerous country for aid workers.
Forty-two workers have been killed since January 2008 and a further 33 abducted, the UN said.
Fears
In recent days, forces loyal to the government have stepped up a campaign to drive radical fighters out of towns in the south-western province of Gedo.
The BBC’s Mohammed Olad Hassan, in the capital, Mogadishu, says Hizbul Islam, who had controlled Luq town, fled when they heard the troops were approaching.
A local elder in Luq told AFP news agency there had been no fighting.
“We saw the pro-government militia enter the town… and they now control it.”
But locals expressed fears that militias could be gathering on the outskirts to launch a counter-attack.
Hizbul-Islam and its ally al-Shabab are fighting the UN-backed interim government and together control much of southern Somalia.
Both groups are said to have links to al-Qaeda and have been reinforced by foreign fighters