Ethiopia identifies three Al Shabaab leaders among those killed in this week’s fighting against the Army

July 30 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Ethiopian government has identified in recent hours three senior officials of the jihadist organization Al Shabaab among the more than 200 killed during the fighting in recent days in the Somali region, near the border with Somalia.

It is, according to information from the state chain Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation (EBC), quoted by the Ethiopian Embassy in Djibouti, the head of propaganda Fuad Mohamed Jalaf, responsible for financing events of the group and intellectual participant in attacks against military posts in Somalia ; Abdulaziz Abu Musa, spokesman for the organization, and Ubeda Nur Issu, commander for the Bokol area and the Ethiopian border.

The Ethiopian Government Communication Service said Thursday in a statement on its Facebook social network account that Al Shabaab, which crossed the border with Ethiopia and tried to attack some areas in the Somali region, suffered serious losses in personnel and property in the intense fighting with special forces in the region and the coordinated efforts of the federal security forces.

Al Shabaab launched an offensive against the Somali region last week, briefly taking control of two towns in the Ato area, an area that has once again been the scene of new attacks this Friday night, as reported in the last hours the Ethiopian Army on Facebook. The group claimed through its propaganda channels that the fighting had resulted in the death of 87 Somali soldiers and published images of the bodies of several of them.

Al Shabaab attacks on areas near the Ethiopian border are rare due to the strong presence of Ethiopian security forces in the area. Addis Ababa is also part of the deployment of the African Union Transitional Mission (ATMIS), which this year replaced the AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) after 15 years of operations against jihadism.

Somalia is facing an increase in the number of attacks by the Islamist militia Al Shabaab, both in the capital, Mogadishu, and in other areas in the south of the country, which has led the new president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, to promise that will focus its efforts on security during the first hundred days of its mandate.