Friday January 20, 2023
Mogadishu (HOL) - Deputy Commander of the US-trained special trained Danab forces Hassan Mohamed Osman, better known as Hassan Tuure and several other soldiers were killed in an al-Shabab attack on a military base in central Somalia on Friday morning.
The deadly assault on the base in Galcad district in the Galgadud region, about 375 kilometers north of Mogadishu, began with a suicide car bombing, according to a security official in the area.
Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack, which came days after the al-Qaeda affiliate lost control of the strategic towns of Haradhere and Galcad in the central Galmudug state.
Somali government owned-media reported that the army repulsed the group's attack and that the base is fully under the control of the National Army and anti-al Shabab local forces.
Hassan Mohamed Osman Hasan Tuure was one of the supervisors in the ongoing operation to liberate al-Shabab-held areas in the south and central regions of Somalia.
Sixty-nine al-Shabab militants were killed in two separate military operations in the south and central Somalia, Somali military officials said Thursday.
Brigadier General Abdullahi Ali Anod, a country's Ministry of Defense spokesman, told the media that at least 49 militants were killed in a joint operation conducted by the National Army, allied clan militia and international partners in the Middle Shabelle region.
In a separate operation, at least 20 al-Shabab militants were killed and others were injured when Somali National Army fighters launched an attack Thursday on a militant base at Goof-Gadud village 30 kilometers north of Baidoa, the temporary administrative capital of Southwest state, officials said Thursday.
Since the military operations were launched in August, the government has reported killing hundreds of militants and seizing dozens of localities in neighbouring Hirshabelle state.