{"id":13034,"date":"2014-03-09T15:15:50","date_gmt":"2014-03-09T15:15:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/amisom-retake-strategic-somali-towns\/"},"modified":"2014-03-09T15:15:34","modified_gmt":"2014-03-09T15:15:34","slug":"amisom-retake-strategic-somali-towns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/amisom-retake-strategic-somali-towns\/","title":{"rendered":"AMISOM Retake Strategic Somali Towns"},"content":{"rendered":"
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{{African peacekeepers in Somalia operating with government forces have recaptured several strategic towns in the southwest from the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab militia, officials said Sunday.}}<\/p>\n

The African Union’s AMISOM force announced it had launched a widescale offensive on Thursday against the Islamist fighters in areas near the Ethiopian border.<\/p>\n

The operation comes in the wake of a surge of attacks in the Somali capital Mogadishu, where the Shebab is fighting to oust the internationally-backed government.<\/p>\n

{{FIERCE FIGHTING}}<\/p>\n

“AMISOM and the Somali troops kicked Al-Shabaab out of several key towns including Wajid and (regional capital) Hudur,” regional government official Abdulahi Yarisow told media.<\/p>\n

“Our military advancement will continue until we eliminate the enemy from the rest of the country.”<\/p>\n

AMISOM said in a statement it had also secured the towns of Ted, Rabdhure and Buudhubow and driven out Al-Shabaab militiamen, but witnesses reported fierce fighting on Sunday in Buudhubow.<\/p>\n

“The SNA (Somali National Army) and AMISOM joint operations signal the beginning of the renewed efforts by the Somali government forces working more closely with AMISOM forces to dislodge Al-Shabaab from many of its strongholds across the country,” it added.<\/p>\n

Hudur had been taken from the Islamists in March 2012 by Ethiopian troops who later withdrew and it then fell back into Al-Shabaab hands.<\/p>\n

Ethiopia intervened in Somalia between 2006 and 2009 and again sent in troops in November 2011 to battle Islamist fighters in border regions, providing crucial aid to the peacekeeping force.<\/p>\n

In January of this year, Ethiopian troops joined AMISOM, sending a contingent of 4,400 men and boosting the peacekeeping force to some 22,000.<\/p>\n

Local residents contacted by AFP confirmed that Wajid and Hudur had been retaken by AMISOM.<\/p>\n

“The town (Wajid) is empty, Al-Shabaab ordered people to leave the town before the Ethiopian and Somali troops (arrived) but the situation is quite calm now,” said Abdi Hassan, who lives in a neighbouring village.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{{African peacekeepers in Somalia operating with government forces have recaptured several strategic towns in the southwest from the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab militia, officials said Sunday.}} The African Union’s AMISOM force announced it had launched a widescale offensive on Thursday against the Islamist fighters in areas near the Ethiopian border. The operation comes in the wake of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2000050833,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-13034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000050833,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton13034.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton13034.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton13034.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton13034.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton13034.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton13034.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000050833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13034"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=13034"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=13034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}