11 soldiers killed in attack on Somali army camp

MOGADISHU, Somalia

Eleven soldiers including a senior commander were Tuesday killed in an attack on an army camp north of Mogadishu claimed by Al-Shabaab, a militia commander in the area told AFP.

"Eleven members of the army, including a senior military commander, died in the attack, and dozens of the terrorists were killed," Mohamed Osman, a local clan militia commander allied with the government, said by phone of the attack in Hawadley.

He said the Islamists detonated a car packed with explosives outside the camp 60 kilometres north of Mogadishu before armed men stormed the compound.

Ahmed Mohamud, a military commander with the Somali National Army (SNA) in the nearby town of Balcad, said more than 10 people had died in the attack but added the toll was provisional.

"The terrorists have been repelled and the Somali army are in full control of the area,” he said.

The attack was claimed by the Al-Shabab, an al-Qaeda affiliated group.

The Hawadley base was retaken from the Al-Shabab in October 2022 by government forces and clan militias allied in the fight against the jihadists.

On Monday, the Somali army recaptured Harardhere, a port city considered "strategic" by the authorities located about 500 km north of the capital, which has been controlled by the Al-Shabab since 2010. The government said the recapture was a "historic victory".

The Al-Shabab have been fighting the internationally-backed federal government since 2007. Driven out of the country's main cities in 2011-2012, they remain firmly entrenched in vast rural areas.

President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud, who returned to power in May 2022, has promised an "all-out war" against the Islamist group, and recently referred to its members as "bedbugs.

In September, the president sent the army - including special forces - to support local militias, known as "macawisley", who have rebelled against the Al-Shabab.

This offensive, supported by the African Union force in Somalia (Atmis) and U.S. airstrikes, recaptured large areas of two central states, Hirshabelle and Galmudug.

Notably, the government claimed in early December to have retaken Adan Yabal, an iconic Hirshabelle locality held by the Al-Shabab since 2016 and touted as a "training ground" and logistical hub for insurgents in the region.

But the Al-Shabab continue to carry out bloody retaliatory attacks, underscoring their ability to strike at the heart of Somali cities and military installations.

Nineteen people were killed in two car bombs in the central town of Mahas in early January.

On October 29, two car bombs exploded in Mogadishu, killing 121 people and injuring 333 others in the deadliest attack in five years in the Horn of Africa country, which is also suffering from a historic drought.

A triple attack in the central city of Beledweyne, capital of Hiran province, killed 30 people, including local officials, in early October. At least 21 guests at a Mogadishu hotel were killed in August in a spectacular 30-hour assault.

The president announced that new contingents of Somali soldiers, trained in Eritrea, would soon be deployed in anti-Al-Shabab operations.

Al-Shabaab, a militant group allied with Al-Qaeda that controls swathes of countryside in Somalia, claimed responsibility for the attack via its communication channels.

The attack comes a day after the army captured the strategic coastal town of Haradhere that had been under Al-Shabaab control for more than a decade. - AFP