Army Chief: Over 150 Al-Shabaab militants killed in Somalia within a week

MOGADISHU, Somalia - The operations against Al-Shabaab militants have heightened in Somalia, the Somali National Army [SNA] chief Odowaa Yusuf Rageh has said, noting that the military has killed over 150 terrorists in the last week, the highest ever in as many months according to official records.

The battleground of the most recent epic duel was in Adan Yabal and Masjid Ali Gudud areas within the troubled Middle Shabelle which had been the breeding ground for the militants for a long time. The military managed to secure the Adan Yabal district from the militants after seven years of control.

General Rageh, who has at times supervised the operations on the ground, said the militants have suffered immense losses in the crackdown, something which is now being attributed to their massive surrender to the Somali National Army across the country.

“We killed a total of over 150 Al-Shabaab militants during the operation this week, we killed 50 terrorists 30 km east of Aden Yabal town and over 100 others near Masjid Ali Gudud in the same region, SNA forces with International partners intensify counter-terrorism," Rage said.

Somalia’s SNA forces together with local forces namely Ma’awisley forces liberated many areas under Al-Shabaab militants earlier in Hiiraan and Middle Shabelle in the past four months. President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud projects that by the end of this year, the militants would have lost Galmadug and HirShabelle.

To supplement forces who are fighting with the militants, the government of Somalia has announced plans to repatriate over 5,000 soldiers training in Eritrea from this month. The last batch of the trainees, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said, is expected to arrive by end of January 2023.

"They have gained requisite skills which will definitely help them to battle the debt within our county. Our mission and vision is to secure our country from the Al-Shabaab and I can proudly say that we have walked along that path and we are almost winning this war," the president said.

The US Africa Command, the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia [ATMIS], and the local militia have been instrumental in inflicting massive losses on the militants in strategic towns across the country. The Al-Shabaab extortionists are fighting to topple the fragile UN-backed federal government of Somalia.

GAROWE ONLINE