African Union Troops in Somalia (AMISOM) has warned increased Al-Shabaab ambushes in Somalia.
Lately, the Al-Qaeda linked Al-Shabaab has conducted ambushes targeting government forces bases as well as AMISOM troops’ convoys.
AMISOM warns that the situation could worsen citing that the militant are planting IEDs on main supply roads cutting off necessary military supplies.
According to Lieutenant Colonel Wilson Rono, AMISOM troops and Somali National Army forces are trying to reopen the highway linking the capital, Mogadishu, to Baidoa, 240 kilometers (150 miles) to the west. It’s one of three main roads linking Mogadishu the south, southwest and central regions.
Al-Shabaab last week Friday had ambushed AMISO supply convoy some 40 kilometers north of Mogadishu. The militant group claimed to have killed 10 Burundi soldiers and destroying their trucks.
Rono noted that KDF managed to repulse another ambush near the town of Fafahdhun in Somalia’s Gedo region killing 23 Al-Shabaab fighters.
In Balad incident, the militant hiding in the vegetation used RPGs on AMISOM vehicles escorting a convoy transporting supplies to Jowhar, the main headquarters of Burundi peacekeepers operating in Middle Shabelle.
The militants firstly detonated explosives then attacked the convoy with machine guns and RPGs. The militant claimed it had killed 23 Burundian soldiers, a figure Rono disputes. Rono said AMISOM lost three soldiers while six others were injured.
Al-Shabaab was pushed out of Mogadishu in 2011 and in following years lost control of almost all the country’s major towns. It had to resort to “difficult” guerrilla tactics its using.
