Somali forces kill scores of Al Shabab fighters in heavy fighting

Security sources say insurgents were ambushed as they launched attack on army installations and villages

Somali soldiers patrol in convoy near Sanguuni military base, about 450 km south of Mogadishu, Somalia. AFP

Somalia’s army claimed to have killed more than 100 Al Shabab terrorists, surrounding the militants as they attempted to storm three army bases on Monday.

Local security sources said 135 fighters were killed and 80 wounded, making it one of the heaviest losses for the group, which has terrorised the Horn of Africa since its formation in around 2006.

Security sources told The National that signals intelligence – intercepted communications – helped pre-empt the early-morning attack on three outposts outside Kismayo, leading the insurgents into an ambush. Jubaland state forces and the Somalian National Army co-operated in the operation, officials said.

Videos on social media in the aftermath of the attack in Jubaland – one of the country’s federal regions – showed scores of dead men in military fatigues with government forces in the background.

“Jubaland Forces intercepted communications between the militants and government informers hiding near the towns they planned to attack,” Abdirahman Salah, a security analyst in Kismayo, told The National on Monday.

“The informers were told to share maps and erroneous details about troop movements and numbers. This morning, around 5am, more than 200 militants simultaneously attacked Buulo Haji, Harboole and Biibi villages in Lower Juba region.”

Somalia's Al Shabab militants assemble in an undisclosed rural location. AFP

Mr Salah said Al Shabab walked into a death trap. Captured weapons and ammunition, including rocket-propelled grenade launchers and support machineguns, were displayed by the government forces.

“Al Shabab attacked with suicide cars, rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machineguns” he said. “In Buulo Haji, which was their main target, one of the suicide vehicles exploded on their fighters, another one fell in a ditch and the third they ran away from. It was a disastrous attack. They lost 100 men in Bula Haji alone.”

Al Shabab claimed to have killed 71 government soldiers. Officials and witnesses in Jubaland refuted the claims.

Government forces said two soldiers were killed in Harboole while 10 were injured, mainly in Buulo Haji, the epicentre of the attack on the three villages, which were previously controlled by the militants. The injured were flown to the capital, Mogadishu, for treatment, security sources said.

Al Shabab loss

“Today’s huge loss to Al Shabab in Harboole and Bulo Haji in Jubaland is a testament that their days are numbered, and it shows that the brave government forces have the ability to dethrone Al Shabab from all areas [where] they are hiding in Somalia,” Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said on Monday.

Jubaland's president Ahmed Mohamed Islam, also known as Madoobe, said the victory against Al Shabab was a result of good co-operation between the public and government forces and called for closer ties to defeat the militants.

Since his re-election in 2022, President Mohamud has declared a “total war” on Al Shabab. He has targeted them economically by freezing the sources of their funds – reportedly millions of dollars – as well as fighting them ideologically, by challenging their violent interpretation of jihad, or holy war.

Al Shabab has nonetheless persisted, despite a joint international effort with Somalia’s government that has included the US, EU, Turkey, Britain, Italy and many African Union peacekeepers since 2007.

The group has continued attacks on the capital in recent years and is believed to be in talks towards a co-operation deal with the Houthi rebels in Yemen, according to a US intelligence assessment in June.

The Houthis have made the Gulf of Aden and Bab Al Mandeb almost impassable with their attacks on international shipping, claiming the campaign is in support of Gaza, which is under massive assault by Israel in its war on Hamas.

Al Shabab has carried on due to lawlessness in some parts of the country.

Last week, clan militias in central Somalia ambushed government forces escorting two trucks laden with guns and ammunition, which the government claimed to have intercepted from illegal arms smugglers from Ethiopia. It is unclear whether Al Shabab was the recipient of the looted arms.