MOGADISHU, Somalia – The Somali Nationwide Military on Thursday mentioned it had repelled a daybreak assault by Al-Shabaab militants on the village of Wargadhi, situated within the Masajid Ali Gaduud district of Center Shabelle area.
The assault started with a collection of explosions, adopted by an intense firefight between authorities troops and the militants, in response to a navy assertion. The military claimed that Al-Shabaab fighters have been “crushed” in the course of the confrontation.
Commander Mohamed Ibrahim, head of the 18th battalion of the elite Gorgor commandos, denied experiences that Al-Shabaab had captured Wargadhi. “I and my forces are at the moment on the bottom,” he mentioned in an announcement broadcast by state media.
He described the engagement as a “lesson” for the insurgents, including that their our bodies have been “left scattered” throughout the battlefield.
A brief video launched by state media confirmed the commander and his troops stationed at a monument in Wargadhi, refuting Al-Shabaab’s earlier declare that it had seized the world from the SNA.
“That is Wargadhi. The Nationwide Military and native Macawisley forces are in full management. The claims that the village was taken are baseless,” mentioned Commander IIbrahim.
State media reported that a minimum of 40 Al-Shabaab fighters have been killed within the preventing, and that safety operations have been ongoing to pursue any remaining militants within the neighborhood.
The navy assertion got here shortly after Al-Shabaab claimed to have taken management of Wargadhi and seized weapons in the course of the assault, whereas additionally alleging to have inflicted casualties on Somali troops.
Al-Shabaab, an Al-Qaeda-linked group, ceaselessly launches assaults on authorities forces and civilian targets in a bid to topple the internationally backed Somali authorities.
