At least seven military personnel, including a senior member of the Danab special forces, were killed Friday in an attack by the Al Shabaab terrorist group on a base in the Somali town of Galcad, north of the capital, Mogadishu.
The attack began with a car bombing and killed several people, including Hassan Mohamed Osman, deputy commander of the U.S.-trained Danab force, according to Somali radio station Radio Shabelle.
Al Shabaab claimed to have taken control of the military base and to have killed dozens of soldiers during the assault, although the Somali authorities have not yet commented on what happened.
For their part, the Somali authorities have indicated that more than a hundred members of Al Shabaab have been killed in the clashes and have stressed that they have regained control of the town, which they took during the day on Monday, as reported by the Somali state news agency, SONNA.
Mogadishu has thanked the «international friends» who have helped in the operations, without further details for the moment. The United States has carried out bombing raids against Al Shabaab positions in support of the Somali Armed Forces.
For his part, Somali President Hassan Shaykh Mohamud has expressed his condolences for Osman’s death and said that «he has fallen a martyr in an operation to liberate the country.» «He is a hero that history will remember. He will be remembered for the role he played in eradicating the ‘juarij’,» he added, using a term meaning «deviant sect» by which the government refers to the terrorist group.
In this regard, he stressed that the deputy commander of the Danab forces «was a symbol of the liberation of Somalia from the ‘juarij’ and his gap will be filled by other heroes of the Somali Army who are ready to sacrifice their lives for the defense of the country.»
The terrorist group has launched several attacks in recent weeks in response to the reinforcement of offensives by Mogadishu. Mohamud assured Wednesday that the «second phase» of these operations, carried out with the support of clans and local militias, will soon be launched as part of a series of decisions taken by the president, who promised upon taking office to put the fight against terrorism at the center of his efforts to stabilize the African country.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
