More Than 20 Fatalities in Somalia Amidst Battle Between Security Forces and Islamic State Militants
WASHINGTON — It was a grim scene over two relentless days of tumult in Somalia’s Northeastern State territory where recent skirmishes claimed the lives of over 20 individuals and left a further ten nursing battle scars. The security forces clashed with Islamic State insurgents in a fierce showdown, as shared by officials on Tuesday.
Speaking to VOA’s Somali Service, the steely Brigadier General Mohamud Mohamed Ahmed, who orchestrates Northeastern State’s security responses, painted a stark picture of the skirmish. He disclosed that the altercation resulted in the demise of 15 IS militants while seven valiant Northeastern State soldiers also met their fate in these confrontations spanning Sunday and Monday.
In their cunningness, IS combatants employed makeshift explosive contraptions to guard their encampments around the Ufeyn sector. The soldiers, playing the dangerous game of landmine sweep, faced tragedy when one exploded unexpectedly, claiming six lives and leaving three more soldiers counting their wounds.
With a deep breath, Ahmed conveyed the ongoing operations against the Islamic forces, which were primarily situated amidst the rugged Cal Miskat peaks in the Bari hinterland. These grueling endeavors stretched into Monday.
“Our brave soldiers engaged the insurgents within the Laba-Afle vicinity on Monday. The face-off resulted in seven insurgents joining the great beyond. Unfortunately, the skirmish also exacted a price, with one soldier succumbing to injuries as four others joined the list of the wounded,” Ahmed recounted solemnly.
Scores of local folks, cloaking themselves in anonymity like shadows in low light, confided in VOA about witnessing the remains of militants scattered with abandon on routes ascending to the Cal Miskat foreshadow.
The ball was set rolling in a military crusade last month when Northeastern State upped its ante against extremist elements in the region, after laying the groundwork for many moons.
Northeastern State’s head honcho, the assertive Said Abdullahi Deni, rallied a clarion call to the denizens, urging them to throw their weight behind the mission. This operation has its eyes set explicitly on shooing Islamic State firebrands back to their rocky rabbit holes.
The untamed lands of Northeastern State have unfortunately been seasoned playgrounds for terror says orchestrated by al-Shabab and the Islamic State fanatics. However, the ongoing offensive has decided to direct its focus towards IS, like a hawk zeroing in on its prey.
While the Islamic State ilk remains a bite-sized menace compared to the gnawing al-Shabab phenomenon, people in the know have alerted about its energizing chill bite.
Word from both military honchos Stateside and Somali watchdogs have flagged last year as a booster period for IS, fattening their cohort considerably.
In conjectures spun by security aficionados, IS had been trudging along with a tidy assembly of 100-400 combatants. However, their drumbeat has gathered force, now swelling to 500-600 faithful, experts estimate.
A considerable number hails from far and wide — sprouting roots from the Middle East and the African sands of east and north.
The saga of IS in Somalia traces back to October 2015. It was a defection story, of erstwhile al-Shabab comrades rallied under the zealous call of cleric Sheikh Abdulkadir Mumin, who took a solemn oath drawing swords for then-IS chieftain Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Incidentally, Mumin avoided the grim scythe of a U.S. air offensive on May 31, 2024, truly a cat with nine lives.
Peering through a wider lens, a UN counterterrorism gatekeeper sounded the klaxon last year over a surge in assaults orchestrated by IS network blitzes across Somalia, Mozambique, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Report By Axadle
