Somalia’s government said Thursday that its forces killed 47 al-Shabaab terrorists in two separate operations, with an airstrike eliminating 12 fighters in the central region and another 35 shot dead during an attempted assault on a military base in the southwest.
The airstrike carried out late Wednesday came hours after fighters from the al-Qaeda-linked group that has been waging an insurgency since 2007 attacked a strategic town in the area.
Al-Shabaab, which wants to seize power and rule based on its skewed interpretation of Islamic law or Sharia, briefly captured villages within 50 kilometers (30 miles) of Mogadishu last month, raising fears among residents of the capital that the city could be targeted.
Several senior al-Shabaab fighters were among those killed in the airstrike carried out by Somali forces and the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) in the central Adan Yabaal district, Somalia’s government said.
“The targeted strike hit a site used by the militants as a gathering and hideout … Importantly, there were not civilian casualties,” the Ministry of Information said in a statement on the social media platform X.
In a separate incident Thursday, the national army killed at least 35 fighters near the city of Baidoa, the ministry said.
Heavy fighting broke out Wednesday in the town of Adan Yabaal, which lies about 245 kilometers north of Mogadishu and has been used as an operating base for raids on al-Shabaab.
The outcome of the battle was not immediately clear, with government forces and al-Shabaab giving conflicting accounts of who was in control of the town.
Al-Shabaab said its forces had overrun 10 military installations during Wednesday’s fighting.
Somali forces have recaptured the villages briefly seized last month but al-Shabaab has continued to advance in the countryside, leading the government to deploy police and prison guards to support the military, soldiers have told Reuters.
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