Somalilandsun – On Friday, authorities in Somalia received a major security setback after al-Shabab militants to only retook a strategic town in Lower Shabelle but managed to assasinate a senior governent official in the capital Mogadishu
On this fateful Friday the militants shot dead the provincial governor of Gslmudug region together with his brother.
According to a VOA report the late Mohamed Ali Elmi, the governor of Galgadud region in central Somalia, and his brother were gunned down in Mogadishu’s Yaaqshid neighborhood Friday night.
The governor was visiting relatives when gunmen who trailed him opened fire. Witnesses said the gunmen fled before security forces arrived.
“Our mujahedeen unit carried [out] an operation to kill the governor,” al-Shabab said in a statement posted on a website affiliated with the group. The incident occurred less than three hours after a car packed with explosives blew up in the center of the capital, killing at least three civilians.
Similarly in the Early hours of Friday, al-Shabab militants retook a strategic town in Lower Shabelle, after African Union (AU) forces stationed there retreated. The militants entered Leego town, 120 kilometers from Mogadishu, minutes after AU convoys left.
“I can confirm to you that the anti-peace element, the enemy of Somalia, has taken over the town without a fight, and that AMISOM troops have withdrawn,” The governor of Lower Shabelle region, Ibrahim Adam Najah, told VOA Somalia in confirmation to the fall of Leego .
The capture of Leego by Alshabaab effectively cuts off Mogadishu from these regions, making air travel the only means to get there.
The AMISOM withdrawal leading to the Leego capture came five days after al-Shabab carried out one of the deadliest ambushes on Ugandan troops. The attack on a supply convoy in Golweyn village July 30 killed as many as 23 Ugandan soldiers, according to Somali government officials. Uganda said it lost 12 soldiers.
The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) is an active, regional peacekeeping mission operated by the African Union with the approval of the United Nations. http://amisom-au.org/
