WORLD NEWS: SOMALI GOVT CONFIRMS 12 MILITANTS KILLED IN AIRSTRIKE
Read Time:2 Minute, 8 Second
The Somali government reported Thursday that 12 militants were killed when Somali and US forces conducted an airstrike on a location targeted by the Al-Shabaab Islamist group.
The attack occurred after Al-Shabaab terrorists invaded the strategic town that Somali military leaders use as a base, Adan Yabaal, located 220 kilometers (140 miles) north of the capital, Mogadishu.
After militants were driven back in recent years, growing attacks by the Al-Qaeda-affiliated group, like the one on President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s convoy, are escalating fears of a jihadist comeback.
The communications ministry said in a statement posted on X that the strike by the US Africa Command and Somali military forces on Wednesday night “aimed to neutralize the threat posed” by Al Shabaab.
“The targeted strike hit a site used by the militants as a gathering and hideout,” it said. “Preliminary reports indicate that 12…operatives, including senior leaders, were eliminated.”
During the massive operation supported by African Union peacekeeping forces in December 2022, Somali government forces seized Adan Yabaal from Al-Shabaab.
According to a military spokesman, Al-Shabaab attacked the town at daybreak on Wednesday, detonating bombs on trucks before militants battled their way inside.
Al-Shabaab asserted that its militants had overpowered the Somalia military and taken possession of Adan Yabaal, but the official said the army was receiving reinforcements from neighboring areas to protect the town.
AFP couldn’t verify such reports.
Adan Yabaal was captured by militants, according to two locals who spoke to AFP.
The president had visited the town recently, with state media reporting he had met with military commanders to review the ongoing military offensive against Al-Shabaab.
In the southwest, Somali forces and allies killed 35 militants around Baidoa town in the early hours of Thursday, after they attempted to attack an army base there, the ministry said.
Earlier this month, Al-Shabaab fired multiple mortar rounds near Mogadishu’s airport, disrupting international flights.
Halane camp — a fortified compound that houses the United Nations, aid agencies, foreign missions and the headquarters of the African Union’s Support and Stabilisation Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM) — was also targeted.
The group has seized key locations in Middle and Lower Shabelle, coastal regions on either side of Mogadishu.
A bomb blast that narrowly missed the convoy of President Mohamud in March underscored that Al-Shabaab again poses a risk in the capital itself.
Al-Shabaab has been fighting the government for 15 years, but the African Union-led peacekeeping force helped push the jihadists onto the defensive in 2022 and 2023.
AFP
Happy
0 %
Sad
0 %
Excited
0 %
Sleepy
0 %
Angry
0 %
Surprise
0 %
0
0