By Agence France Presse (AFP)
Wednesday, March 09, 2011
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MOGADISHU: Somalia’s pro-government forces closed in Tuesday on bastions of the insurgent Al-Shabab group, in their largest coordinated drive in years to wrest back the country from Al-Qaeda-inspired rebels.
The offensive started last week with a major battle in Mogadishu that saw government troops reclaim large swathes of the capital.
The Somali transitional government’s troops are backed by the 8,000-strong African Union mission in Somalia as well as by the Sufi militia Ahlu Sunna wal Jamaa and tribal militias.
Their offensive aims to stretch Al-Shabab, who have controlled most of southern and central Somalia for three years with a limited number of men but has been supported on the ground by jihadi fighters from around the world.
Witnesses and officials said Ethiopia was trucking in troops to Al-Bur district, a key Al-Shabab stronghold in central Somalia. “I saw dozens of trucks belonging to the Ethiopian military heading toward Al-Bur. It looks like they are joining Ahlu Sunna’s war against Al-Shabab,” said one local resident, Ise Maalim.
Abdifatah Ibrahim Gesey, a state official in Dolow district, further south, said “the war to eliminate Al-Shabab’s threat from the country has begun … our goal [is] to cleanse this country of Al-Qaeda and their Somali followers.”
Bulo Hawo, near the Kenyan border, was recently recaptrued by government troops after a bloody battle which security sources in the region said killed at least 80 people. Luq, also near Kenya, was retaken without any fighting.
According to officials and witnesses, pro-government forces have also deployed around Beledweyne, a strategic town near Ethiopia’s border which is key to the flow of military supplies and trade. Al-Shabab fighters were also believed to be bracing for a battle in the city of Baidoa that rebels captured to make it one of their strongholds.
“This is the most coordinated offensive I have seen … It could change the political map of Somalia,” said a foreign security expert based in the region.
Al-Shabab were reported to have launched a massive recruitment drive to contain the government’s advance.
Their national spokesman, Sheik Ali Mohamoud Rage Ali Dhere, said Al-Shabab “have changed their tactics to resistance warfare.”
“We will carry out the same guerilla war against the Ethiopians that forced them to flee the country,” he said, referring to the two-year occupation by Ethiopia that ended in 2009. – AFP
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