Shabelle

Saturday April 4, 2026 Mogadishu (AX) — Somali security forces struck at the heart of al-Shabab’s bomb-making machinery on Saturday, killing nine militants in coordinated operations in the Lower Shabelle region, according to the National Intelligence and Security Agency. NISA said in a statement that the raids were carried out with the support of international partners and were aimed at dismantling sites used to produce improvised explosive devices, the signature weapon of the al-Qaida-linked group. The first phase of the…

Friday March 27, 2026 Mogadishu (AX) — More than 40 al-Shabab militants were killed on Thursday when the group tried to reclaim a town recently taken in southern Somalia, according to officials. The African Union Support and Stabilisation Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM) said the clashes broke out in Mubarak, a strategically placed settlement in the Lower Shabelle region that joint forces from the Somali National Armed Forces and African Union troops seized earlier this month. According to AUSSOM, militants launched an attack on…

Friday March 27, 2026 Mogadishu (AX) - A fierce clash in southern Somalia left more than 40 al-Shabab militants dead after the group tried to claw back control of a recently captured town, officials said Thursday. The African Union Support and Stabilisation Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM), said in a statement that the fighting erupted in Mubarak, a strategic town in the Lower Shabelle region that joint Somali National Armed Forces and African Union troops seized earlier this month. According to AUSSOM, the militants struck a…

Saturday March 21, 2026 Mogadishu (AX) — Marking Eid al-Fitr on Friday, Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud prayed alongside Somali Armed Forces units in Gendershe, the coastal Lower Shabelle town recently wrested back from al-Shabab. He was accompanied by the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) director, top cabinet members, the Somali National Army commander and the national police chief, sharing the holiday with frontline soldiers. In remarks after the prayer, Hassan Sheikh said his government will move…

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SHALANBOOD, Somalia — The sand moves like a tide here, swallowing lanes, schools and low-slung homes on the edge of the Indian Ocean. Among the dunes, hundreds of farming families who fled Lower Shabelle’s contested villages are piecing together life in makeshift shelters, rationing water by the cup as fighting and failed rains erase the certainty of the past. Families from Mushani, Garilow and Barire streamed into the outskirts of Shalanbood in November after government forces and African Union troops clashed with Al-Shabab…

Somalia says NISA raids kill more than 40 Al-Shabaab militants in Hiiraan, Lower Shabelle MOGADISHU, Somalia — Somalia’s National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA), working with international partners, said Saturday it killed more than 40 Al-Shabaab militants in coordinated counterterrorism operations in the central Hiiraan region and the southern Lower Shabelle region. NISA said the first raid unfolded in the Waab-Weyn and Isgoyska Madashyo-Weyn areas under Mahaas district in Hiiraan, targeting fighters the agency…

MOGADISHU, Somalia — Somalia’s National Intelligence and Security Agency said Thursday its forces killed a senior al-Shabab operative who ran the militant group’s financial extortion network in the Banadir region, which includes the capital, Mogadishu. The operative, identified as Ahmed Dhubad Xidig, also known as “Sheikh Aadan Dheere,” was killed in a targeted raid by NISA’s elite Gaashaan special forces in the Daniga Baaloow area of Lower Shabelle on Jan. 27, the agency said in a statement. According to NISA, the operation…

MOGADISHU — Somalia’s National Intelligence and Security Agency said Tuesday it killed a senior al-Shabaab commander in an airstrike on the militant group’s network in Kuunyo Barrow, a town in the Lower Shabelle region. In a statement, the agency identified the target as Abdullahi Hassan Abdi Cosoble, known as “Abdullahi Wadaad,” describing him as al-Shabaab’s chief finance officer. NISA said the operation was conducted in coordination with Somalia’s international security partners. According to NISA, Wadaad oversaw…

MOGADISHU, Somalia — Somali government forces, backed by international partners, have killed at least 150 Al-Shabab militants in more than two weeks of operations in the Middle Shabelle region, Defense Minister Ahmed Moallim Fiqi said Tuesday. Fiqi said the campaign concentrated on the Jabad Godane area and surrounding settlements, which he described as a strategic militant hub. He said the dead included six senior commanders of the al-Qaida-linked group. “By the grace of God and the bravery of the National Army, and with…