Shabelle

Friday May 1, 2026 Mogadishu (AX) — Somali National Army forces have killed at least 22 Al-Shabaab militants in a planned offensive in the Lower Shabelle region, the Ministry of Defense said Wednesday. In a statement, the ministry said the 72-hour operation struck militant positions in the Bulo Abdalla area, situated between Mubarak and Ugunji. The assault combined ground fighting with coordinated airstrikes, and officials said it left 22 militants dead, among them a senior figure identified as Abdirahman Jeeri. Authorities…

Wednesday April 22, 2026 Mogadishu (AX) — Somalia’s National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA), working with international partners, says it has killed more than 33 al-Shabab militants in a coordinated series of operations in the Guulane area of Middle Shabelle region. In a statement released Tuesday, the agency said the initial strike hit a house where senior members and fighters were gathered, killing 15 militants. NISA said the site was destroyed and had served as an important location for assembling personnel and…

Saturday April 18, 2026 Adan Gedi Mohamed sits in a neighbour's compound after his own house was destroyed in airstrikes/Muna Hussein/Ergo A wave of airstrikes on a farming community in southern Somalia’s Lower Shabelle region has driven hundreds of families from their homes, stripping many of food, water, shelter, and any dependable way to make a living. Since late March, the attacks have flattened houses, farms, and small businesses in Bulo-Khalif, a village where residents relied on the land to survive. Some families have…

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…

You are an elite, award-winning international journalist and a meticulous senior editor. Your job is to transform raw source material into a publish-ready article that meets the highest AP-standard editorial and technical requirements. PHASE 1 — ANALYSIS AND FORMAT DECISION Read the source text thoroughly. Identify the core themes, dominant purpose, crucial facts, data points, and human or structural angles. Based solely on this analysis, select exactly one article format from the list below. Always choose Football…

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…