{"id":16086,"date":"2014-08-31T03:18:47","date_gmt":"2014-08-31T03:18:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/somali-and-au-forces-in-al-shabab-offensive\/"},"modified":"2014-08-31T03:18:41","modified_gmt":"2014-08-31T03:18:41","slug":"somali-and-au-forces-in-al-shabab-offensive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/somali-and-au-forces-in-al-shabab-offensive\/","title":{"rendered":"Somali and AU forces in al-Shabab Offensive"},"content":{"rendered":"

{{Somali and African Union forces have launched a long-awaited fresh offensive against al-Shabab fighters aimed at capturing remaining ports from the armed group, army and government officials have said.}}<\/p>\n

“Operation Indian Ocean started late last night … the enemy is fleeing and the forces are making successful advances so far,” said Abdukadir Mohamed Nur, the governor of southern Somalia’s Lower Shabelle region.<\/p>\n

Witnesses reported hearing the booms of heavy shelling, as well as seeing convoys of tanks and armoured vehicles heading towards the al-Shabab stronghold of Bulomarer, about 160km southwest of the capital Mogadishu.<\/p>\n

Al Jazeera’s Hamza Mohamed reported that the town of Bulomarer was successfully recaptured by the AU mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and Somali government troops, after an intense gunbattle earlier in the day.<\/p>\n

Two AU soldiers were injured and brought back to Mogadishu, while there were also reports of casualties on the al-Shabab side, he said.<\/p>\n

Our reporter said that the AMISOM troops were headed toward the town of Kurtunwarey, which is between Bulomarer and Barawe, the last major port held by the armed group.<\/p>\n

‘Operation Indian Ocean’<\/p>\n

The al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab are still a powerful and dangerous force but have lost a string of towns to the 22,000-strong AMISOM.<\/p>\n

Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Adow, reporting from Mogadishu, said: “This offensive is called Operation Indian Ocean. It is about denying al-Shabab any access to the sea to stop the group from bringing in arms.”<\/p>\n

The southern port of Barawe is now one of the few major settlements under their control, and is vital to al-Shabab finances, as the main hub of a multi-million dollar charcoal trade.<\/p>\n

Al-Shabab are fighting to topple Somalia’s internationally-backed government, and regularly launch attacks against state targets, as well as in neighbouring countries that contribute to the AU force.<\/p>\n

The fighting comes as UN and aid workers warn large areas of Somalia are struggling with dire hunger and drought, three years after famine killed more than a quarter of a million people.<\/p>\n

In January 2013, French commandos carried out a botched raid on Bulomarer in a bid to free a secret agent held hostage. The bid failed and resulted in the death of two French soldiers and the hostage.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

wirestory<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{{Somali and African Union forces have launched a long-awaited fresh offensive against al-Shabab fighters aimed at capturing remaining ports from the armed group, army and government officials have said.}} “Operation Indian Ocean started late last night … the enemy is fleeing and the forces are making successful advances so far,” said Abdukadir Mohamed Nur, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000053749,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[99],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-16086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-greatlakesnews","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":2000053749,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton16086.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton16086.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton16086.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton16086.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton16086.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton16086.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16086","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\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000053749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16086"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=16086"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=16086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}