At least 30 pro-government fighters and dozens of al Shabaab militants were killed in Somalia during a year-long offensive against the al-Qaeda-linked group, an army officer and clan elder said. As Somali troops and allied militiamen struggle to root out al Shabaab, which has been waging an insurgency since 2006, clashes in the Shabellow forest on Wednesday illustrated the obstacles they face.
In central Somalia, the army and allied clan-based militias launched a military campaign last year that seized significant swathes of land from the militants, but has had mixed results since then. While government forces have captured several major towns, al Shabaab has reclaimed some territory and conducted deadly raids on military bases.
Somalia asked the UN last month to halt a planned drawdown of 3,000 African Union peacekeepers due to “several significant setbacks” on the battlefield.Major Ahmed Nur told Reuters news agency that Somali forces drove back al Shabaab fighters on Wednesday but were surprised by sniper fire.
“We killed al Shabaab like flies, but when we tried to take the weapons from their dead, hidden snipers took out our men,” he asserted
He said that 30 government soldiers and militiamen were slain, while 55 al Shabaab terrorists were killed. Abdullahi Mohamed, a local clan head, stated 33 pro-government fighters and “dozens” of al Shabaab were slain.
Nur went on to say that ten of his colleagues were injured on Thursday when a helicopter, believed to be operated by one of Somalia’s foreign backers, accidentally bombed them. The latest attack against al Shabaab has concentrated in central Somalia.
The government has vowed a second phase that would target the group’s strongholds in the country’s south, where analysts believe it will be much more difficult to vanquish.