{Militants loyal to the Al-Qaeda linked Al-Shabaab have entered Wanlaweyn town, 110 km southwest of the capital Mogadishu.}<\/p>\n
Residents confirmed that Somali government forces previously stationed in the district that lie between Mogadishu and the provincial capital of Baidoa had abandoned the town after brief skirmishes.<\/p>\n
Thus, Al-Shabaab militants moved in on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The jihadists ordered the town generators and lights off, but the communications services were maintained.<\/p>\n
The militants reportedly entered all the public service offices like the district commissioners\u2019 chambers and the police station.<\/p>\n
They also addressed worshippers in a number of mosques, asserting that they were there to reintroduce the Sharia (Islamic laws).<\/p>\n
Residents said that some of the government armed personnel in the district had retreated to Bali- Doogle, a former air force airport converted into a compound for the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom). Other soldiers were said to have moved to Afgoye district, 30 km south of Mogadishu.<\/p>\n
However, late reports confirmed that the Al-Shabaab militants abandoned Wanlaweyn town in the early hours of Sunday, paving the way for the Somali government forces and officials to return.<\/p>\n
During the fasting month of Ramadhan, Al-Shabaab fighters have waged hit-and-run attacks on Somali National Army and Amisom positions in Lower Shabelle region, south of Mogadishu.<\/p>\n
The deadliest event took place on June 26 when jihadists overrun a camp at Lego settlement, 140 km southwest of Mogadishu. Some reports indicated that 50 Burundian peacekeepers were killed while others raised the death toll to 70.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, a saloon car exploded at Hamar Jab-jab district in Mogadishu on Sunday morning. An officer working with the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) who was driving the vehicle sustained leg injuries.<\/p>\n
Al-Shabaab usually attaches explosives to cars used by government officials. Thus, the Somali government usually blame the fanatical group for similar actions. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{Militants loyal to the Al-Qaeda linked Al-Shabaab have entered Wanlaweyn town, 110 km southwest of the capital Mogadishu.} Residents confirmed that Somali government forces previously stationed in the district that lie between Mogadishu and the provincial capital of Baidoa had abandoned the town after brief skirmishes. Thus, Al-Shabaab militants moved in on Saturday. The jihadists […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000069084,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-20040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","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":2000069084,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton20040.gif","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/gif","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton20040.gif","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton20040.gif","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton20040.gif","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton20040.gif","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton20040.gif","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20040","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=20040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000069084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20040"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=20040"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=20040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}