March 26 (EUROPA PRESS) –
Somalia’s president, Hasan Sheikh Mohamud, is preparing to announce the start of the second phase of the major “total war” operation against the terrorist organization Al Shabaab, which will take place in the center and south of the country.
The president is this weekend in the Middle Shabelle region, in the center of the country, and a recent front line of combat in the town of Aden Jabal between the Army and the terrorist group, responsible for the bloodiest attacks in recent history. of Somalia, which had its former regional stronghold in that city until its expulsion earlier in the year.
According to the Somali government, around 3,000 Al Shabaab militiamen were killed during this first phase of the operation.
Garowe On Line sources understand that the second phase will have the double objective of consolidating its control over the approximately 70 reconquered towns and starting a new offensive down the coast of the country until it reaches the terrorist strongholds in the south.
To do this, Somalia hopes to have the additional help of new military deployments from Kenya, Djibouti, Ethiopia, as well as the usual collaboration of the US Army.
In fact, this past Saturday a delegation headed by the head of the Ethiopian Army Deployment Forces, Tesfaye Ayalew, traveled to the Somali city of Beledweyne to coordinate the evolution of an upcoming offensive in the Hiraan region.
Al Shabaab, however, is reluctant to completely abandon the positions requested in the first offensive by the Somali Army, as demonstrated by its attack this past Saturday against the town of Runirgood, in Middle Shabelle, from which it had previously withdrawn. At the moment there are no records of victims.
CLASHES BETWEEN AL SHABAAB AND ISLAMIC STATE LEAVE 40 DEAD
This weekend also reported that at least 40 Al Shabaab militants have been killed in fighting with rival Islamic State jihadists in clashes in the Golis mountains in northeast Somalia.
According to the official Somali news agency SONNA, three leaders of the Al Shabaab organization were among the dead. The clashes began, the outlet adds, last week with a suicide attack against a group of Al Shabaab militants on Mount Carmis.
The main Islamic State faction active in Somalia is led by Abdul Qadir Mumin, a former al Shabaab leader who switched sides in October 2015 and announced the founding of the so-called Islamic State of Somalia.
