AU troops capture Shebab stronghold

Friday, July 24, 2015

Somali government troops backed by African Union forces on Wednesday captured the Shebab stronghold of Bardhere, one of the last key bases of the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamists. photo | file 

In Summary

The loss of Bardhere will be a blow to the Shebab, as control over territory helps it find recruits and source revenue through taxes

Mogadishu. Somali government troops backed by African Union forces on Wednesday captured the Shebab stronghold of Bardhere, one of the last key bases of the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamists, officials said.

The militants also confirmed the loss of the town, but insisted they had not been defeated and that fighting was continuing.

“We have secured control of the town,” Siyad Ahmed, a Somali military official, told AFP by telephone from the southern town. “The allied forces are now conducting mine clearing operations in the different neighbourhoods.”

“There was no a major resistance, and the violent elements fled when our troops approached. They have emptied the town,” Ahmed said.

Witnesses in a nearby villages reported heavy fighting between the Somali government and African Union troops with the Shebab, before the militants pulled out.

They also said residents of Bardhere, situated 350 kilometres west of the capital Mogadishu and under Shebab control since 2008, had also fled.

A Shebab commander, Sheikh Ahmed Abu-Ubeyda, confirmed the militants had lost the town but insisted they had not been defeated and that fighting was continuing.

“The allied invading Christian forces and the Somali apostates entered parts of Bardhere this afternoon but the Mujahedeen are putting up resistance,” he said.

“The Mujahedeen fighters are still in the area and this fight will last longer than the enemy thinks,” he added.

The fall of Bardhere comes less than a week after the African Union Mission in Somalia, or AMISOM, launched “Operation Jubba Corridor” -- an offensive it said as aimed at flushing the insurgents out of rural areas in southern Somalia.

The offensive has involved Ethiopian and Kenyan forces, officials said.

The loss of Bardhere will be a blow to the Shebab, as control over territory helps it find recruits and source revenue through taxes on local business and trade.

The group, however, has bounced back from similar defeats in the past -- maintaining its capacity to conduct ambushes in rural areas as well as high-profile raids inside Mogadishu.

A statement from the Kenyan military described its capture of a key bridge near Bardhere, used by the Shebab to move its fighters and supplies within Somalia and towards Kenya, as an “operational milestone in the fight against Al-Shebab”. (AFP)