Thursday September 15, 2022
Beledweyne (HOL) - Danab special commandos led by Col. Hassan Turre continued their operations against Al Shabaab in Hiiraan with a sweep in the Buq-aqable, 90 KM south of Beledweyne, on Wednesday evening.
Somalia's armed forces chief, General Odowaa Yusuf Rageh, said 18 Al Shabab fighters, including senior leaders, were killed during the operation, which targeted an Al Shabaab base.
The area, which has been a stronghold for Al Shabaab for at least a decade, is the most recent to be liberated by government forces.
On Thursday, Somalia's Ministry of Information issued a statement warning Al Shabaab militants that surrendering to the SNA is their only way out of the ongoing government offensive.
"The country's Armed Forces are conducting operations to track down and eliminate terrorist groups in Somalia. The terrorists are reminded that the only way to survive the ongoing operations is to surrender to government forces, abandon their sacrilegious interpretation of Islam, and reintegrate into society."
The Somali military said that over 20 villages were liberated during security operations in two regional states.
Somali officials have recently met with top US officials to increase support for the SNA's offensive against Al Shabaab in central and southern Somalia.
On Thursday, Hirshabelle's President, Ali Abdullahi Hussein Guudlawe, met with US Ambassador to Somalia, Larry André, to discuss ongoing security operations in Hirshabelle.
Somali President Mohamud also met with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin at the Pentagon near Washington on Thursday to discuss the US military's re-engagement in Somalia following then-President Donald Trump's abrupt withdrawal of troops in late 2020.