A curious BBC News report 'Defections put militant al-Shabab on the run in Somalia':http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18364762

Citing a defector:
Abu Khalit said he had little time for the foreign fighters who provide the Islamist group with its ideological backbone. "They hide their faces from us. They live in safe houses, and we are not allowed inside...I realised they were not about religion..They were about killing people".
Near the end:
now the group is in retreat - many here sense its weakness and that may turn out to be the most fatal blow of all.
For a slightly bizarre sign of change:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-18357660