Monday, January 05, 2009
Area residents said insurgents with al-Shabaab, a fundamentalist militia with reported ties to al-Qaida, have retreated in the face of an advance by Ethiopian troops allied with Somali clan chieftains in at least three Gedo districts, including the provincial capital Garbaharey, Radio Garowe reported Monday.
Al-Shabaab, however, is reportedly still in control of the key Gedo city of Bardhere it has ordered an around-the-clock curfew starting midday Sunday.
Somali militia commander Col. Warfa Sheikh Aden told reporters that local clan militias had taken over the districts from al-Shabaab without a fight. Gedo, a region along the Somali-Ethiopian border, has seen an upsurge in insurgent activity in recent weeks, Garowe Online reported.
The Somali broadcaster Shabelle Media Network said Col. Barre Hirale, a former warlord-turned-lawmaker who was forced out of the port city of Kismayo four months ago by al-Shabaab insurgents, was leading the Somali clans in Gedo.
Source: UPI, Jan 05, 2008