Hiiraan Online
Wednesday, March 09, 2016
MOGADISHU (HOL) – Foreign forces raided a Somali town held by Al Shabab fighters in southern Somalia on Tuesday night, engaging with fighters in clashes that lasted more than 30 minutes, residents, militants said Wednesday.
Sheikh Abdiaziz Abu Musab, a spokesman for Al Shabab group told the group’s run radio station that the fighters repelled the attack by unidentified foreign forces dropped by two helicopters outside Awdhegle town in Lower Shabelle region.
He said that the forces retreated back and left with causalities after street battles. However, he confirmed that one fighter was killed in the attack.
The exact target of the raid remains unclear; nonetheless, Abu Musab said that the forces were trying to raid the town’s police station. Residents confirmed the attack, saying they heard gunfire and blasts during the clashes in the farming town.
No country has so far claimed it carried out the raid; however US and French forces have conducted similar raids in Somalia before.
The attack comes after a US drone killed more than 150 militants in an airstrike on a military training camp run by Al Shabab in Somalia on Saturday
.