The Somali government has reported that more than a hundred Al Shabaab members have been killed in operations carried out by the Somali army on Wednesday.
The Somali Ministry of Information has reported that the Armed Forces have carried out two operations, together with the National Intelligence and Security Agency, by which they have managed to report the death of 97 Al Shabaab militiamen.
The first operation, carried out from the air, killed 50 members in the Galgadud region, in the center of the African country. Meanwhile, the second operation was located in the Lower Shabelle region, in the south, through which 47 militiamen were killed.
The Somali authorities thanked both the local population and international partners for the «successful operation» to eradicate the «attacks against the public» allegedly planned by the armed groups, according to the country’s intelligence information.
Somalia has stepped up offensives against Al Shabaab in recent months and has even banned the group’s name to refer to the organization, which has ties to Al Qaeda. Thus, it has demanded that it be referred to as ‘jauarij’, a word meaning «deviant sect».
The offensives against Al Shabaab, which are supported by local clans and militias, are part of a series of decisions taken by the new president, Hassan Shaykh Mohamud, who promised on taking office to put the fight against terrorism at the center of his efforts to stabilize the African country.
Earlier on Wednesday, the country’s executive announced the seizure of several localities in the Galgalud region, after several days of fighting against the aforementioned group. The spokesman of the Somali Ministry of Defense, Abdulahi Ali Anod, indicated that the Somali troops took the locality of Wabho and the areas of Uarhole, Elbore and Elgorof, according to the Somali news agency SONNA.
