Somali transitional government forces vowed Saturday to rid Mogadishu of all “violent elements,” a day after a major offensive aimed at dislodging Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab militia from the capital. “There are still a few pockets of resistance of the defeated terrorists.
They launched at least six desperate counter-attacks last night, but the TFG (government forces) and AMISOM (African Union Mission in Somalia) troops have repelled them,” a government military official said as the Shebab vowed to fight on. “Our forces consolidated the positions they captured yesterday and the situation is quiet this morning, but the military campaign to eliminate violent elements from Mogadishu will continue,” added the official, Abdulahi Mohamed.
Meanwhile an official in Galmudug, a semi-autonomous province of central Somalia, said a foreigner had been kidnapped there. The foreigner of unknown nationality was on the airport road near the town of Galkayo “when two pickup trucks full of gunmen stopped the vehicle and took him away,” he said.
Mohamed said six Somali government troops had been killed and 18 wounded since the start of the offensive in Mogadishu. An AFP photographer said three Somali soldiers and a government official were killed when Shebab fighters attacked a convoy including journalists near the front line. Mohamed said Friday’s offensive left 22 Shebab fighters dead, a claim denied by the rebels, who also said they withdrew from some positions for tactical reasons.
“The Christian enemy and their allied apostate Somali troops attacked our positions from four directions,” Shebab spokesman Sheik Abdulaziz Abu Musab told reporters.
Only UN forces will be able to eliminate them. Shebab militia
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