MOGADISHU —
Fighters from the Islamist insurgent group
Al-Shabaab have killed at least 19
civilians in a night-time attack in central Somalia, clan chiefs and local
officials said on Saturday.
اضافة اعلان
The attack comes
two weeks after Al-Shabaab, which has waged a long insurgency against the
Somali state, besieged a hotel in the capital Mogadishu for 30 hours, leaving
21 people dead and 117 injured.
The sources said at
least eight vehicles were travelling on a road between the towns of Beledweyne
and Maxaas when the insurgents intercepted and burned them and killed the
passengers overnight Friday to Saturday by Afar-Irdood village.
“The terrorists
massacred innocent civilians who were traveling... last night. We don’t have
the exact number of victims, but 19 dead bodies have been collected,” local
clan elder Abdulahi Hared told AFP.
“The dead bodies
are still being collected, including women and children. They could be more
than 20,” said Ali Jeyte, the governor of the Hiiraan region where the attack
happened.
“This was a
horrible attack that has never happened in our region. These were innocent
civilians who did nothing to deserve this,” added another local clan leader,
Mohamed Abdirahman.
Al-Shabaab in a
statement said they targeted fighters from a local sub-clan that recently
helped government forces and that they killed 20 “militiamen and those who were
transporting material for them”, destroying nine of their vehicles.
Local fighters and
the security forces recaptured several villages from Al-Shabaab in the region
in late August.
President
Hassan Sheikh Mohamud “strongly condemns the despicable acts of murder against
innocent civilians”, the Somali presidency said on Twitter.
“The President
underscored that his government will leave no stone unturned in the fight
against terrorism in Somalia and the region.”
Ali Gudlawe,
president of Hirshabelle state where the attack took place, released a
statement offering condolences to the victims’ loved ones and promising to
continue “operations to cleanse” the region of Al-Shabaab.
“The only way we
have is to be united to fight and liberate our country from them. I call upon
the society not to be discouraged,” said his counterpart in Jubaland state,
Ahmed Madobe.
‘All-out war’
The Al-Qaeda-linked group has been
fighting
Somalia’s internationally backed federal government since 2007.
It has been driven
out of the country’s main cities, including Mogadishu in 2011, but remains a
serious security threat in large areas of the countryside.
Mohamud, elected in
May after a protracted political crisis, promised to wage “an all-out war” to
eliminate Al-Shabaab following the Mogadishu hotel attack.
The bloody siege
drew international condemnation from partners including the US, Britain,
Turkey, and the UN.
After Mohamud’s
election,
President Joe Biden said he would restore a US military presence in
Somalia to fight Al-Shabaab.
The Pentagon had recommended the move, considering the
rotation system of Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump as too risky and
ineffective.
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