The Somali military in conjunction with civilian volunteers has conducted a planned military operation against the terrorist militant group Al-Shabaab in the Middle Shabelle region, killing at least 50 al-Shabab militants.
The country’s national army, in a statement signed by Somalia’s national army command Saturday says the army’s planned operation against the militants took place in Darul-nicim, Middle Shabelle province.
The village on the outskirts of the recently liberated strategic town of Adan Yabal, 217 kilometres north of the capital, Mogadishu, has witnessed heightened military activity in the last three weeks.
“The Somali National Army, with the help of local people, have killed around 50 Khawarij in an operation in the village of Darul-Nicim in the Middle Shabelle region and other villages under Adan Yabal district,” the army posted on Twitter on Saturday evening.
The Somali government now designates the al-Shabaab group as Khawarij. The operation comes a day after Somalia’s deputy information minister, Abdirahman Yusuf Omar Al-adala, said the army had killed at least 88 al-Shabab fighters in the same province within 48 hours.
Meanwhile, the governor of Somalia’s central region of Hiran, Ali Jeyte Osman, pledged $30,000 bounty to any al-Shabaab fighter who kills al-Shabab spokesperson Ali Mohamud Rage, known as Ali Dhere.
Osman spoke to Somali security personnel and local clan militias Saturday after visiting several villages on the outskirts of the central town of Beledweyne, the provincial capital of Hiran region. He said the government would give a $10,000 reward for every al-Shabab militant killed.
The Somali military has recaptured a large part of the central states of Galmudug and Hirshabelle from the militant group.
The Horn of Africa nation has been fighting al-Shabab since 2007. Militants have been carrying out deadly attacks on government troops and African Union peacekeeping forces in Somalia for more than a decade.
Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who was re-elected earlier this year, had announced an “all-out war” against al-Shabaab terrorist group.