SW News: At least 10 people were reportedly killed and many wounded after the suspected al-Shabaab militants attacked a military base in central Somalia on Monday. However, according to the defense ministry, the army successfully repelled the onslaught on the camp, housing both foreign and local forces in Qayib. This village was recaptured from al-Shabab last week.
The attacks unfolded with two car bomb explosions at the army's outpost, followed by fierce gunfight between the military and the militants at Qayib in the central state of Galmudug. The militants engaged in a three-hour battle. Although the number of fatalities from the raid was not immediately known, Major Mohamed Farah, a military official in the nearby town of Bahdo, claimed that at least ten soldiers and 20 al-Shabaab fighters had perished.
The latest attack occurs a day after Somalia declared that 200 al-Shabab extremists had been slain during a four-day period. Meanwhile, Al-Shabab's spokesperson said that the organization used suicide car explosives to start the attack in Qayib before being attacked from various directions. Qayib is among several locations in Galgadud that were recaptured by the Somali army and the local clan militia, which is trying to liberate its territory from al-Shabaab.
In the past three months, government forces, with the aid of the clan militias, have defeated al-Shabaab on several battlefields, reclaiming territory previously controlled by the organization. However, the al-Qaeda-affiliated group recently attacked the education ministry in the capital, killing at least 120 people in twin vehicle bombings as retaliation for the capture of the militant-held province.
Tens of thousands of people have died since 2006 due to al-Shabab's attacks to destroy Somalia's central government and impose its own version of Islamic law.