WASHINGTON -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- The United States is providing weapons and ammunition to Somalia 's transitional government as it fights al Qaeda-linked Islamic militants , State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said Thursday . Somali government soldiers , who are fighting Islamic militants , patrol Mogadishu . `` At the request of that government the State Department has helped to provide weapons and ammunition on an urgent basis , '' he said . `` This is to support the Transitional Federal Government 's efforts to repel the onslaught of extremist forces which are intent on destroying the Djibouti peace process . '' Kelly said the weapons shipments are in accordance with U.N. Security Council resolutions , which ban some arms shipments to Somalia . There is growing concern that Somalia could be the next base for al Qaeda as U.S. forces pound their positions in Afghanistan and Pakistan . CIA Director Leon Panetta recently said that the intelligence agency is keeping tabs on the region as a possible destination for fleeing al Qaeda operatives . `` Our concern right now is that likely safe havens are areas in the Horn of Africa , like Somalia and Yemen , that are countries that because of their political status can be attractive to al Qaeda in order to operate there , '' Panetta said earlier this month . `` We are focusing on those countries as well in order to ensure that there is no safe haven for al Qaeda as we continue to pressure them , continue to push them , and hopefully continue to make the effort to destroy them , not only in Pakistan but throughout the rest of the world . '' Somalia is not new territory for al Qaeda , according to CNN 's terrorism analyst Peter Bergen . `` Al Qaeda was running training camps in Somalia in the early and mid-1990s , '' he said . `` If this is now coming back , this is something that al Qaeda has already done and it 's worrisome for the future . ... `` The fact that we 're seeing evidence of this already happening in both Yemen and Somalia suggests that , A , the drone program in the tribal areas of Pakistan has been effective , but , B , you know it 's pushing al Qaeda into areas where they 'll build up larger operations . '' Somalia recently called on its neighbors to send military forces to help government troops stop hard-line Islamist militants from taking over . The call for help came hours after a third top politician was killed this month in ongoing fighting . The deaths included Mogadishu 's police chief and Somalia 's internal security minister , who was killed in a suicide car bombing in the central city of Beledweyne . A Pakistani militant who is a high-ranking official in al Qaeda is leading the fighting in Somalia against the government , said Sheikh Adan Madowe , Somalia 's parliament speaker . Madowe warned that militants will spread fighting into the rest of the region if they topple the government in Somalia . The United States is concerned that Somalia 's weak government could fall to the Islamist insurgency , as it did in 2006 before Ethiopian forces ousted the militants from power later that year . `` We think this government ... represents Somalia 's best chance for peace , stability and reconciliation , '' Kelly said Thursday . `` This government is the best chance they 've had in the last 18 years . '' Somalia 's current President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed is a former member of the Islamic Courts Union , which took part in the 2006 coup . His decision to renounce the bloody insurgency and try to establish peace in Somalia has put him at odds with Islamist hard-liners who are still battling for control of Somalia . Residents and journalists in Mogadishu , Somalia 's capital , have reported seeing foreign fighters among Al-Shabaab , the radical Islamic militia that is battling to overthrow the weak transitional government . Those foreign fighters recently distributed recorded messages from al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden calling for the overthrow of the government . Al-Shabaab , also known as the Mujahideen Youth Movement , was officially designated as a terrorist organization by the United States in March 2008 . It is waging a war against Somalia 's government in an effort to implement a stricter form of Islamic law , or sharia .