The Somali Army announced Saturday that it has regained control of the strategic town of El Dhere Burale, between the regions of Hiraan and Middle Shabelle, a regular point of activity of the terrorist organization Al Shabaab during the last decades.
The operation culminated this week with the participation of the 5th Battalion of the National Army and the special commandos of Danab, who have managed to regain this town, considered as an essential crossing area between the two regions, according to the statement reported by the news portal Goobjoog.
The fighting has left at least a hundred jihadists dead, especially on Wednesday, as a result of an air attack by the Army, launched on the outskirts of the city, explained the Deputy Minister of Information of Somalia, Abdirahman Yusuf Al Addaala, to the news portal Hiran on Line.
According to the deputy minister, about ten senior Al Shabaab officials were killed in the operation, including a prominent leader in Middle Shabelle, identified as Hassan Nur.
Al Addaala took the opportunity to deny that at least 49 soldiers were killed during an attack in the region of Galguduud, bordering Hiran and Middle Shabelle, according to the jihadists themselves.
As part of the «total war» against Al Shabaab declared by Somali President Hassan Shaykh Mohamud, the Somali army is taking advantage of the uprising of two clans in drought-stricken central Somalia who have had enough of living under the yoke of the jihadist organization.
In fact, the Somali National Army and U.S.-trained commandos began backing in September the militias of these clans, known as the «macawisley» to «encourage such uprisings in Al Shabaab-controlled areas in Somalia,» according to Omar Mahmud, a researcher with the International Crisis Group think tank, to the news portal ‘The New Arab’.
Sources in Somalia suggest to the portal that the fighting right now involves between 2,000 and 3,000 «macawisley», who have reportedly joined the army’s operations against Al Shabaab. The jihadists are believed to have between 5,000 and 8,000 troops across the country.
