Tag: al Shabaab

More than 70 Al-Shabaab militants were killed and 30 others captured in battle with Somalia’s Puntland forces in the past four days, Mohamud Hassan, Puntland Minister of Information, has said.

Hassan who made the disclosure on Monday in Mogadishu, said the battle took place in Suuj Valley in Nugal region, Northern Somalia.

He said that government forces had overpowered the insurgents.

“We have killed 70 Al-Shabab fighters and we also arrested 30 of them.

“This is a military victory against terrorist group,” he said.

The minister said that more than 500 militants, who stormed the region, were surrounded by Puntland forces, adding that those who escaped were being pursued.

Al-Shabaab has been facing major onslaught from Somali security forces backed by the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM) troops.

Kenyan soldiers have killed more than 50 militants in the past week in Southern Somalia.

Al-Shabab militants have overrun an African Union military base in Somalia.

The group claimed to have taken “complete control” of the camp and killed more than 60 Kenyan soldiers, the BBC reports.

Militants attacked the base in el Ade, southern Somalia, early on Friday and fighting continued for several hours, a Kenyan military spokesman said.

He said it was a Somali army camp that was overrun, and that Kenyans fought militants from their base nearby. He could not confirm any casualties.

A suicide bomber attacked a popular restaurant in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, on Saturday, killing himself and at least three others, Somali police said.

The attacker, dressed in a business suit over a suicide vest, detonated the bomb after entering the Village Restaurant, which is opposite Somalia’s National Theatre, police said.

“So far, three civilians are dead,” Major Nur Ali, a senior police officer, told Reuters.

In comments on state radio, Somalia’s information minister, Mohamed Abdi Hayir, blamed the attack on al Shabaab, the al Qaeda-aligned Islamist militants who wage frequent attacks in the capital as part of a campaign to bring down the Western-backed Somali government.

“The al Shabaab suicide bomber did not cause many casualties,” he said, adding that most of the people in the restaurant were able to escape before the bomb was detonated.

A spokesman for the group could not be reached for comment.

Saturday’s attack marked the third time suicide bombers have attacked the restaurant.

Two bombs ripped into a hotel in the Somali capital on Sunday and security forces fought Islamist al Shabaab gunmen who stormed inside the building for hours afterwards, police and witnesses said. At least 11 people were killed.

Al Shabaab, which has frequently launched attacks in Mogadishu in its bid to topple the Western-backed government, said it was behind the assault on the Sahafi hotel where government officials and lawmakers stay.

“Mujahideen (fighters) entered and took over Sahafi hotel where enemies lived,” Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab’s military operations spokesman, told Reuters.

The incident mirrored tactics used before by al Shabaab, in which it detonates bombs to break through security at targets and then sends in fighters.

Major Ahmed Nur, a police officer, told Reuters that a car bomb rammed the entrance to the hotel and was followed by second blast, which a security guard said was a second vehicle bomb.

Police said at least 11 people were killed, including the hotel owner, a lawmaker, a former military commander, a radio journalist and other civilians.

“We have also rescued many government officials by a ladder through the back wall,” said Major Ismail Nur, another police officer.

At least 12 Ugandan soldiers who served as African Union peacekeepers were killed when militants attacked their base in Somalia this week, a Ugandan military spokesman said on Thursday.

The statement suggested a lower death toll than the 70 claimed by al Shabaab, which carried out Tuesday’s attack, although spokesman Paddy Ankunda said he could not confirm if peacekeepers of other nationalities had been killed.

The AU peacekeeping mission, known as AMISOM, has not yet released casualty figures for Tuesday’s attack, which came roughly a year after al Shabaab leader, Ahmed Abdi Godane, was killed in a United States air strike.

“We won’t relent in our efforts to pacify Somalia, it’s a mission we must accomplish no matter what,” Ankunda told Reuters after announcing that the bodies of the 12 Ugandan soldiers would be flown home this week.

Akunda said the delay in announcing the death toll was due to protocol requiring next of kin to be informed first.

Somalia-focused diplomatic sources had initially said the toll was expected to be “very large” lending some credence to the figure claimed by al Shabaab.

But one source said on Thursday that fewer people may have been killed in the attack than previously feared, although the number would only be clear when AMISOM announced it.

Al Shabaab often exaggerates the success of its attacks, while officials play down losses.

Al Shabaab militants attacked an African Union (AU) base in southern Somalia early on Tuesday, the Islamist group and residents said, with unconfirmed reports that dozens of AU soldiers were killed.

The al Qaeda-aligned militants said one of their fighters rammed a car bomb into the base and then gunmen poured inside the facility run by the AU peacekeeping mission in Somalia.

Al Shabaab said 50 peacekeepers were killed in the attack on Janale base, about 90 km (55 miles) south of the capital, Mogadishu. In the past, the group has exaggerated the number of troops it has killed and officials have played down losses.

“Now Janale base of AMISOM is under our control,” Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, Al Shabaab’s military operations spokesman, told Reuters.

Captain Bilow Idow, a Somali military officer based in a town near Janale, said the base was effectively cut off as the militants had destroyed a nearby bridge.

“No reinforcement can reach there,” Idow said. “There is much death and damage.”

AMISOM and government officials could not be reached for comment but nearby residents confirmed the attack.

“After morning prayers we heard a big explosion followed by heavy gunfire in the AMISOM base. We do not have further details as we are indoors,” resident Ahmed Olow said.

At least two police officers and a civilian died on Monday when a bomb blew up their vehicle in Kenya’s coastal county of Lamu, police said, and al Shabaab militants said they carried out the attack.

At least four others were wounded in the midday blast that a senior police officer said was caused by an improvised explosive device planted in the middle of the road.

“We arrived and found the vehicle already burnt and three dead. We rescued five officers and three civilians,” area police Chief Chrispus Mutali said.

Al Shabaab, the militant group in neighbouring Somalia, claimed responsibility for the attack.

“We targeted a police convoy near Lamu. The remotely-controlled bomb destroyed one police car and there are casualties and damages,” Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab’s spokesman for military operations, told Reuters.

Mutali said survivors were taken to hospital with serious injuries.

“Five officers have been accounted for. We are trying to establish the whereabouts of the sixth,” Mutali said, adding it was not clear who was behind the attack.

The incident occurred at Bodhai area, a few kilometres from a military camp where 11 al Shabaab militants were killed by Kenyan soldiers last month when they tried to attack the camp.

Lamu has witnessed repeated al Shabaab attacks. Last year gunmen left at least 60 civilians dead in a night rampage through the town of Mpeketoni.

The attacks have hurt tourism, with a report from the Kenya Tourism Board describing 2014 as the worst year ever for the sector.

Gunmen from the Somali Islamist group al Shabaab killed at least eight officers in a raid on a police station near the capital, police and the militants said on Saturday.

Al Shabaab fighters at about 1am local time stormed a police station on the edge of Afgoi town, 30km southwest of Mogadishu, killing eight officers and stealing three pick up trucks, including one that had a machine gun mounted on it.

“Al Shabaab killed eight of my colleagues and took three of our cars last night,” Major Abdikadir Hussein, a police officer told Reuters from Afgoi.

“We traced them this morning, killed 10 of them and secured our pick up car with a gun hooked on,” he added, saying the militants ran off with the other two vehicles.

Al Shabaab, which wants to topple a Western-backed government in Mogadishu, has in the past stepped up the number of raids during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which began on Wednesday.

The group’s military operations spokesman, Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, told Reuters his fighters had killed 12 officers in the raid on the Afgoi police station and lost one gunman in the second battle.

The African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia said on Friday a convoy of Ethiopian soldiers was attacked a day earlier by the al Shabaab Islamist group and that a logistics team was headed to the scene to seek further details.

The al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab carries out frequent attacks in Somalia as it seeks to impose its strict interpretation of Islamic law and overthrow the Somali government, which is backed by Western donors and African peacekeepers.

“What we know is that al Shabaab attempted to ambush AMISOM on Thursday evening but Ethiopian national defence forces (ENDF) of AMISOM repulsed them,” said Paul Njuguna, a spokesman for the peacekeeping force known as AMISOM.

AMISOM is made up of troops mainly from Kenya, Uganda and Burundi. Ethiopia has also sent in soldiers, but they are not under AMISOM command.

Al Shabaab said through a spokesman it had been behind the attack and claimed it had killed 30 soldiers and captured a truck equipped with an anti-aircraft gun. Al Shabaab and officials often given conflicting figures.

The militants also said they had blocked the main road from the capital Mogadishu to another major town, Baidoa, impeding AMISOM’s access to the site of Thursday’s attack, and that they had carried out a suicide car bomb attack against another Ethiopian convoy that was sent for reinforcement.

“Now we understand they are advancing on foot since we made the road impassable,” Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab’s military spokesman, told Reuters on Friday.

Ethiopian officials could not immediately be reached for comment.