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Somali forces liberate key city from al-Shabab militants

A Somali soldier stands guard next to the site where al-Shabab militants carried out a bombing attack against a military intelligence base in Mogadishu on June 21, 2015. (© AFP)

Somali and African Union forces have liberated the city of Baardheere in southwestern Somalia that served as one of the few remaining strongholds of Takfiri al-Shabab militants in the restive country, military sources say.

“We have complete control over Baardheere, and our forces are currently searching for explosives left behind by the terrorists,” senior Somali military commander Abdi Ali announced on Thursday.

According to Ali, 20 al-Shabab militants as well as four Somali troops were killed during clashes on Wednesday, with witnesses reporting that Somali soldiers entered the city with tanks, heavy weaponry and helicopters.

“The troops entered our town from different directions without encountering much resistance from al-Shabab,” said a witness identified in press reports as Abdinasir Said.

The recapture of Baardheere, also known as Bardera, is regarded locally as a major blow to al-Shabab terrorists, who reportedly used the country’s agricultural hub as an operational base as well as a source of income by collecting taxes from its residents.

Moreover, Somalia’s Information Minister Mohamed Abdi Hayir Mareye said the anti-terror offensive “is going very well and Somali government forces and AMISOM (African Union Mission to Somalia) are making advances, liberating town after town.”

He further urged humanitarian agencies to assist the government in extending relief aid to residents fleeing the fighting, estimated to number in the thousands.

Mareye also repeated a government offer of amnesty to those al-Shabab militants abandoning the group.

The development comes as the Takfiri militants have been flushed out of nearly all major towns, as Somali and AU troops have mounted a joint offensive to purge them from rural areas still controlled by the group in south and central Somalia.

There are currently more than 20,000 AMISON forces in Somalia, which have been helping the government in its fight against al-Shabab since 2007.


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