Hiiraan Online

Thursday, December 22, 2011

The news came as an alleged defector from the militia claimed he was forcibly recruited to fight with the militants.

And a TFG spokesman announced in Burhache town, about ten miles inside Somalia on Thursday, that Al Shabaab was increasingly using civilians as shields to avert Kenyan air-strikes and disputed allegations that Kenyan planes killed non-combatants in Hosingo, South of Somalia on Wednesday.

TFG spokesman Colonel Warfa Adan said Kenyan forces and their Somalia counterparts have captured great territory since October and killed hundreds of foreign fighters including Al Shabaab’s conscripts from Asian and African countries in Gedo.

TFG officials told The Standard that they have received information indicating the collapse of Al Shabaab’s structures in the wake of Operation Linda Nchi offensive, but remained cautious about some of the defectors. Military sources indicated that Al Shabaab forces are fleeing Garbaharey, the capital of Gedo, with artillery and small arms despite initial suspicion that they would try to retake towns taken from them after the rains had subsided.

On Tuesday night, Al Shabaab lost a fighter, a rifle and radio equipment in a heavy gunfight as they tried to retake a TFG base in Busar, 50 kilometres in Somalia.

"We can assure the world that we are going to eliminate terrorism from Somalia," Colonel Warfa said and added that the operation against Al Shabaab will not be derailed in the dry season because the militants are reported to suffer low morale.

"They are weak. We have clashed several times and every time they come, we defeat them," he added.

The official dismissed claims civilians were killed in Hosingo air raid and accused Al Shabaab of resorting to hostile propaganda to conceal their losses.

"Al Shabaab always disclaim their dead to arouse passion against KDF," he said and added that a couple of days ago, the militants forced civilians onto a pick-up truck they were driving around El Ade in Gedo to avoid air strikes as Kenyan planes flew above.

"The pick-up was not struck because there were civilians in it," Warfa said and warned local people in Al Shabaab strongholds to avoid contact with the militants.

"We have always told the people that anyone who comes close to Al Shabaab can be targeted."

Al Shabaab lost Burhache to TFG forces on March 4, this year after holding it for three years but have launched several attempts to recapture it. The most audacious attempt was on September 11 when an estimated 3,000 Islamist fighters attacked the town from three directions in trucks mounted with heavy machine guns.

Al Shabaab lost the bid to retake the town and TFG officials are confident the militants are on the run.

"They are trying to use asymmetrical tactics," according to the TFG spokesman who disclosed that a great deal of foreign fighters remain in Gedo’s mountain ranges.

"Foreign fighters in Somalia are mainly from Asia and Africa," the spokesman said and added that the alleged foreigners are mainly engaged in training Al Shabaab fighters.

On Thursday, the alleged defector Ali Abdillahi Mohamed who fled to the joint forces at Mudale, about 80 kilometres inside Somalia from the Kenyan border also claimed that Al Shabaab was running low on supplies.