Somalia: The Federal Government Troops and Ethiopian Troops Attack Shabab Bases in Gedo

map by Evan Centanni (www.polgeonow.com)

Mogadishu (sh.M.network ) A fierce battle between Somali government troops helped by their Ethiopian counterparts against Alshabab milia started in different parts of Gedo.
The government troops and the Ethiopian army started there journey from Garbaharey a town in gedo  region.They started their mission at a palace called Birta deer a small town 18 kilometers south of Garbaharey.Officials from the government contacted shabelle media  informed us that this town was in the hands of Alshabab before the battle started.

Abdi barre Abdi an official from the Government informed Shabele that they have taken over Strategic places from the militia and they will continue to fight out Alshabab from the region.

The official informed the media that there have been casualties of three government troops injured and praised that an equivalent or more have been done to the militia.He added that they will continue their fight against the group and are now heading towards other towns that are Alshabab strongholds in the region

from allAfrica/Shabelle
By Maalik_som, 24 March 2013

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Al-Shabab Retakes Somali Town After Ethiopian Pullout

map by Evan Centanni (www.polgeonow.com)

Militant group al-Shabab has retaken a town in central Somalia after Ethiopian troops unexpectedly pulled out.

Witnesses say al-Shabab occupied the town of Huddur, the capital of Somalia's Bakool region, immediately after the Ethiopian withdrawal on Sunday morning.

The commander of Somali troops in the region, Colonel Hassan Isaaq Omar, told VOA's Somali Service that Ethiopian troops remain in other parts of the area.

"It is true they have pulled out from Bakool," he said, "but on the other hand, Ethiopian troops are in many other areas in Bay, Bakool and Hiran regions and they are still in these zones. Having said that, it’s true they withdrew from Huddur and pulled back to a town about 90 kilometers away called Elbardeh."

Neither Somali nor Ethiopian officials have offered a reason for the withdrawal from Huddur. Omar said it is his understanding that Ethiopia is not planning a full-scale withdrawal from Somalia.

Ethiopian troops helped the Somali government and African Union forces drive al-Shabab out of its strongholds in central and southern Somalia last year.

The militants, known for imposing a harsh form of Islam on the areas they control, still rule parts of the Somali countryside and carry out periodic attacks.

Omar said following the withdrawal, al-Shabab killed the imam of a mosque in Huddur on Monday night.

from VOA News
March 19, 2013

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Somalia: Al Shabab Ambushes Ethiopian Convoy Outside Baidoa

MOGADISHU (Sh.M..Network ) – Heavy armed Al shabab fighters reportedly ambushed a military convoy carrying Ethiopian forces outside Baidoa, Somalia’s third largest city, 250 Km northwest Mogadishu.

Local residents said Shells and gunfire heard around Awdinle, a small town just 15Km east of Baidoa following the ambush attack on Eithopian forces on Monday, causing indefinite casualties on both sides.

“I saw an Ethiopian military vehicle burning and dead bodies lying nearby a roadside explosion site at Awdinle area, after the fighting stopped,” said one resident.

In the aftermath of the attack, Mahad Abdirahman Aden, said Ethiopian troops fired rounds of mortars indiscriminately on a residential area, killing dozens of innocent civilians in Awdinle.

Ambushes and roadside bombs are the remnants of an Islamist movement that was ousted by the government and its Ethiopian allies in February at the start of this year.

from Shabelle
12 November 2012

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• Somalia: Al Shabab Ambushes Ethiopian Convoy Outside Baidoa (allafrica.com)

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Roadside Bomb Hits Ethiopian Troops in Beledweyne, Central Somalia

BALADWEYNE (Sh. M. Network) - Witnesses say a roadside bomb hit Ethiopian soldiers in Somalia’s central town of Beledweyne, causing heavy casualties.

According to the local residents, who spoke with Shabelle Media via phone under anonymity, said the blast was targeted on Ethiopian soldiers along with Somali troops who were passing a village in eastern part of Beledweyne town early hours on Thursday.

Following the attack which was used a remote-controlled line mine, Somali and Ethiopian forces opened fire at nearby civilians, but no deaths reported so far.

Casualties on Somali and Ethiopian troops are yet to be established. The Ethiopian military rarely comments on its ongoing operations.

Ahmed Abdulla Inji, a TFG security official in the town, confirmed the explosion to Shabelle Media, adding that the attack Ethiopian and TFG forces began a massive security operation in the area, taking several suspects into custody.

Tensions were very high, and many security personnel lined the streets, restricting the movements of residents and vehicles for a while after the attack. No one or group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack.

from Shabelle
June 28th, 2012

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11 killed in Bloody Battle against Somali, Ethiopian forces

HUDUR (Sh.M.Network)— At least 11 people have been killed in the latest clashes between Al Shabaab insurgents and Somali and Ethiopian troops in Somalia’s southern of Bakol, locals said on Tuesday.

Residents told that the clashes sparked after Al Shabaab insurgents stormed the district of Hudur, 420 kilometers (260 miles) southwestern Mogadishu, where Ethiopian and Transitional Federal Government (TFG) troops were largely stationed.

Somali military officials told Shabelle Media station in the capital by telephone from Hudur town that the Al shabab fighters have overnight attacked the town from different direction to take it over. They also said the TFG forces alongside Ethiopian troops repelled the attacking militants, killing at least 7 fighters.

The official of Somalia military forces did not specify the casualties on TFG side during the battle in Hudur on Monday night which was a tough one that TFG and Ethiopian troops managed to drive back Al Shabaab agents and maintain the control of the town.

Reports indicate that the fighting forced hundreds of local residents to flee from their houses as both warring sides were receiving reinforcements that could lead heavy and deadly battle.

Al shabab, which is battling to topple the UN-backed Somali government and the regional forces under AMSIOM, has yet commented on the combat so far.

from Shabelle

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Suicide bomber kills one in southern Somalia

MOGADISHU, April 17 (Xinhua) -- A suicide bomber killed a Somali soldier after blew himself up at a police station in Somalia's southern town of Baidoa, witnesses and police said.

The bomber was stopped twice by a soldier at the gate of the police station before he detonated his explosives, killing himself and the soldier, Abdishakur Ali, a police officer told Xinhua by phone from the town of Baidoa.

The town of Baidoa, 250 km southwest of the Somali capital Mogadishu, had been under the control of the militant group of Al- Shabaab before they were ousted by Ethiopian and Somali government forces in February, said the police officer.

The radical group has since been carrying out guerilla attacks against Somali government and Ethiopian troops in the area, he said.

Ethiopian troops backing Somali government forces have retaken a number of towns and villages in the south and the center of Somalia, while African Union peacekeeping troops based in the capital Mogadishu managed to oust the Al Qaeda-allied group from the city, added the police officer.

Al-Shabaab who have been losing ground to African armies from neighboring countries as well as AU peacekeeping forces known as AMISOM have vowed to change its tactic to guerilla warfare and staged a number of high profile suicide car bomb attacks and roadside explosions.

AMISOM deployed 100 of its soldiers in Baidoa as an advance team for 2,500-strong peacekeeping force in the region.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack but the Al-Shabaab group which carried out deadly attack at a market in Baidoa early in the month often takes credit for such attacks.

Somalia has not had an effective central government since the overthrow of late ruler Mohamed Siyad Barre in 1991.

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Somalia: 100 Shabaab 'Dead' in Battle

Nairobi — More than 100 Al Shabaab militants were killed during intense fighting Tuesday with fighters of the Ahlusunna Waljamaa in the town of Dhusamareb in Central Somalia.

The Head of the Political Section of Ahlusunna Waljamaa, Abdisalan Adan Hussein told Capital FM News in Nairobi that at least ten of their members were killed during the fighting, and thirty more wounded.

"There a lot of Al Shabaab bodies littered in the town as we speak," Hussein said in an interview in Nairobi.

Hussein said "the fighting started at 5am when the Al Shabaab raided our town, but we were prepared and our forces were able to defend the town and our people."

"The casualties on our part are very minimal, but the Al Shabaab have suffered major casualties, they have left behind a lot of their fighting equipment," he added.

Tension remained high in the town of Dhusamareb which was littered with bodies by late Tuesday.

Al Shabaab however, tweeted claiming that their forces had not suffered major casualties during the Tuesday fighting.

Their claims were immediately dismissed by officials of Ahlusinna Pajama as "propaganda."

"They are not telling the truth, they are the ones who have been beaten, we were well prepared and we knew they were coming. Our forces were prepared," Hussein said.

The fighting occurred when Al Shabaab fighters on pickup trucks mounted with machine guns stormed Dhusamareb town at dawn.

They were aiming to drive out the pro-government militia Ahlusunna WalJamaa, an Ethiopia-backed force who follow Somalia's traditional Sufi branch of Islam.

Dhusamareb is a strategic town in the central Galgadud region controlling a key road.

The Shebab face increasing pressure from pro-government forces and regional armies, and last month lost control of their strategic base of Baidoa to Ethiopian troops, the second major loss in six months after abandoning fixed bases in capital.

Kenya sent its troops into southern Somalia to fight them in October, blaming the Al Shabaab for the abductions of several foreigners. Its troops have now been incorporated into the AU force.

Ethiopian forces entered Somalia a month later in the west, as international diplomatic, military and relief efforts focus on ending the conflict in the south.

The Shabaab and other militia groups have tried to exploit the power vacuum in Somalia, which has had no effective central authority since plunging into war 21 years ago when president Mohamed Siad Barre was toppled.

from allAfrica

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Eritrea: Ethiopian Forces Raid Asmara's Bases

Cape Town — Ethiopian troops mounted a raid into neighbouring Eritrea on Thursday and claimed to have destroyed "three mercenary camps".

The Ethiopian Defense Force described the incursion as a "counter-attack" after the killing of foreign tourists in Ethiopia by "Eritrea's mercenaries," reports the Ethiopian News Agency (ENA).

Eritrea's foreign ministry responded by saying the Ethiopians had attacked Eritrean army outposts near the border between the two countries in a "provocative attack" which "seems to have [been] chosen to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the arbitral ruling of the Eritrea Ethiopia Boundary Commission."

The rulers of the two countries, once allies, have been in a tense stand-off for the last decade after falling out and fighting a border war between 1998 and 2000.

ENA quoted an Ethiopian army spokesman, Colonel Gebrekidan Gebremariam, as telling journalists that its forces had "successfully annihilated the destructive force of the Eritrean government" in the areas of Ramid, Gelahben and Gembe. He accused Eritrea of "activity bent on destabilizing the peace and security of Ethiopia."

Eritrea in turn accused Addis Ababa of "incessant acts of aggression...

for the last ten years" and of "illegal occupation of sovereign Eritrean territories..."

An Ethiopian foreign ministry spokesman, Dina Mufti, told the London Financial Times that its attack on Thursday was "a proportionate act, we are responding to what the Eritreans have done," the Times reported.


from allAfrica

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Somali Al-Shabaab says killed over 70 Ethiopian soldiers in surprise attack

MOGADISHU, March 10 (Xinhua) -- Somali Al-Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Abu Musab said on Saturday in a statement that his fighters killed more than 70 Ethiopian troopers in a surprise attack on their army base in southern country, but local residents put the number at 10.

Musab also acknowledged the deaths of five of his group's fighters in the battle. His claim could not be immediately independently verified.

The Islamist militants launched an attack on the military base in the village of Yurkud in the southern Gedo region on Saturday.

But local residents put the toll at 30, including 20 Islamist fighters, and said scores of others were injured in the attack.

"This is the fiercest battle launched by the Islamists against the Ethiopians since they entered Somalia. I can tell you 20 of the Islamists fighters got killed and the rest included government forces and Ethiopian troops," local resident Hashi Yarow told Xinhua by phone from the area.

Islamist fighters have lost the two key towns of Baidoa in the south and Beledweyne in the north to Ethiopian troops backing Somali government forces.

Al-Shabaab has lost a number of key areas in the south and centre of the country as the radical group faces concerted offensive from Somali government forces backed by African Union peacekeepers and armies from neighboring Ethiopia and Kenya.

Somalia which has been embroiled in civil conflict for the past two decades has not had a central government in control in whole country since the collapse of former strongman Mohamed Siyad Barre in 1991.

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