Somali special forces locally known as Danab announced that they conducted operations that killed at least three al Shabaab militants. The operation was conducted near Buale in Jubbaland.
According to the forces, the operation was conducted in one of the al Shabaab strongholds in the Middle Juba region. Among those killed in the attack was an elite force commander, a foreign fighter.
The foreign elite commander has since been identified as Malian-born Ismail Abdimalik. Al Shabaab has been drawing fighters from across the continent seeing as it has been consistently the most active al Qaeda affiliate in Africa. The presence of foreign fighters in Somalia from as far as Mali in West Africa comes as al Qaeda and ISIS have been gaining momentum in the Great Sahel region especially in Mali. The US-trained contingent has been carrying out planned attacks against al Shabab targets in the past years. Their operations neutralized key figures in the group and were deemed effective by military experts in the region
