At least seven troops, including the base commander, were killed when Al-Shabaab militants raided a military base in central Somalia on Tuesday, an officer said.
According to Captain Aden Nur, a military official in a neighbouring town, attackers from the al-Qaeda affiliate drove a suicide vehicle bomb into the base in the village of Hawadley before opening fire.
“We repelled al Shaabab. We lost seven soldiers, including our commander,” Nur said.
In a statement, Al-Shabaab claimed credit for the attack and stated that “many apostate soldiers and their leader” had been slain.
The outpost, which is 60 kilometres north of Mogadishu, was liberated from al-Shabaab control in October of last year by government soldiers and militias from affiliated clans.
The August-starting offensive has made great progress. The government declared on Monday that it had taken control of Harardhere, an al-Shabaab bastion on the coast of the Indian Ocean that it has held for ten years.
Al Shabaab’s fighters have increased their gun and bomb attacks on the military and civilians, particularly in places it has been driven from, as pressure on the organisation has increased.
Since 2007, the group has waged battles to overthrow Somalia’s national government and impose its rigid version of Islamic law.
Insurgency has exacerbated Somalia’s severe food problem. There are severe food shortages affecting more than 200,000 Somalis, and certain areas of central Somalia are on the verge of starvation.
