MOGADISHU – Somali especial forces known as ‘Danab’, along with US troops carried out joint offensive against town held by al Qaeda linked Al Shabaab in west of Mogadishu.
Somali military says 45 militants, including foreign jihadists were killed in the operation in Awdhegle town, some 75km west of Mogadishu.
It says Jihadists from Lebanon, Sudan and Yemen fighting alongside Al Shabaab were among those killed in the operation carried out by Somali and US troops.
The joint raid targeted triggered a fierce clash between US, Somalia and Al Shabaab armed militants, a witness, who asked to be anonymous, said.
He says airstrike was also hit the group’s fighters in the town.
The al-Qaida-linked al-Shabaab militants continue to hold small rural areas in central and southern Somalia, but are being squeezed out by Somali and African Union forces.
Al-Shabaab is fighting to overthrow Somalia’s Western-backed government based in Mogadishu, which is protected by the 22,000-strong African Union force.
