By Reuters
Fighters from Somalia’s Al-Shabab Islamist group on Tuesday overran a military base in the southern Jubaland region that they had lost to the army in January, a Somali officer and a local resident said.
Al Shabab, an affiliate of Al-Qaeda, has come under intense pressure from the military and allied clan-based militias, who launched a major offensive last year. But the group has repeatedly shown its ability to strike back with major attacks.
Read: Somalia’s president Hassan Sheikh history of corruption 2012-2017
Read: Somalia’s president Hassan Sheikh history of corruption 2012-2017
There has been no fighting in the past week, fuelling speculation in Somalia that the offensive has stalled. The government said it was merely observing a pause before launching the next phase of operations.
Al-Shabab attacked the base in Janay Abdale, about 60 km (37 miles) to the west of the port city of Kismayu, early in the morning with a car bomb and gunfire, Major Abdullahi Hussein told Reuters from Kismayu. He said Al-Shabab had cut communications in the area and that the army had sent reinforcements.
Read: Somalia’s president Hassan Sheikh history of corruption 2012-2017
The Jubaland government said regional and national forces had inflicted a “big blow” on Al-Shabab but did not provide details. Casualty figures were not immediately available for either side.
Halima Osman said her husband, who survived the attack and managed to get out of the base, had called her with a colleague’s phone.
“He told me they ran into the bush after the bombing and fierce fighting killed many of his friends and the military vehicles were burnt,” she told Reuters.
Al Shabab confirmed it was behind the attack. “We control the base. We took all their weapons,” it said in a statement.
Forces from Jubaland had wrested control of Janay Abdale from Al-Shabab in January as part of the offensive which first began in the centre of Somalia before spreading south.