MOGADISHU: Al Shabab fighters battled Somali troops and allied forces for control of a strategic army base in central Somalia on Thursday, the government and a military official said, as the Al-Qaeda-linked militants tried to extend recent gains in the region.
Capturing the base in Wargaadhi town in the Middle Shabelle region, which houses soldiers, special forces and clan fighters, would enable Al-Shabab to sever an important trunk road between the capital Mogadishu, 200 km (124 miles) to the southwest, and Galmudug State.
Al Shabab, which has waged an insurgency in Somalia since 2007 to seize power, said in a statement that its fighters had captured the base and Wargaadhi town, something the government denied was the case.
The information ministry said in a statement that government forces had killed more than 40 militants after they attempted to attack the base on Thursday morning.
However, army officer Hussein Ali told Reuters the militants had taken the town of Wargaadhi after “fierce fighting.”
“Our forces lost 12 men, mostly (clan fighters). Around 20 Al-Shabab fighters were also killed,” Ali said. “But finally Al-Shabab got more reinforcements and managed to capture the town.”
He said Somalia’s military was struggling to send reinforcements because they would need to use routes passing through areas held by Al-Shabab.
Two soldiers said the government forces, backed by air strikes, had managed to recapture part of the town by mid-morning.
Reuters could not independently verify any of the claims made by either side about the fighting.
Last week Al-Shabab attacked the town of Adan Yabal, about 245 km (150 miles) north of Mogadishu which the military had been using as an operating base for raids on the group.
The attacks are part of an offensive by the group launched last month. Al Shabab briefly captured villages within 50 km (30 miles) of Mogadishu, raising fears among residents of the capital that the city could be targeted.
Somali forces have since recaptured those villages but Al-Shabab has continued to advance in the countryside, as the future of international security support to Somalia appears increasingly precarious.
A new African Union peacekeeping mission replaced a larger force at the start of the year, but its funding is uncertain, with the United States opposed to a plan to transition to a UN financing model.
Al Shabab battles Somalia’s army for control of strategic military base
https://arab.news/jd3nr
Al Shabab battles Somalia’s army for control of strategic military base
- Al Shabab said in a statement that its fighters had captured the base and Wargaadhi town
- Army officer Hussein Ali told Reuters the militants had taken the town of Wargaadhi after “fierce fighting“
French publisher recalls dictionary over ‘Jewish settler’ reference
- The entry in French reads: “In October 2023, following the death of more than 1,200 Jewish settlers in a series of Hamas attacks”
- The four books are subject to a recall procedure and will be destroyed, Hachette said
PARSI: French publisher Hachette on Friday said it had recalled a dictionary that described the Israeli victims of the October 7, 2023 attacks as “Jewish settlers” and promised to review all its textbooks and educational materials.
The Larousse dictionary for 11- to 15-year-old students contained the same phrase as that discovered by an anti-racism body in three revision books, the company told AFP.
The entry in French reads: “In October 2023, following the death of more than 1,200 Jewish settlers in a series of Hamas attacks, Israel decided to tighten its economic blockade and invade a large part of the Gaza Strip, triggering a major humanitarian crisis in the region.”
The worst attack in Israeli history saw militants from the Palestinian Islamist group kill around 1,200 people in settlements close to the Gaza Strip and at a music festival.
“Jewish settlers” is a term used to describe Israelis living on illegally occupied Palestinian land.
The four books, which were immediately withdrawn from sale, are subject to a recall procedure and will be destroyed, Hachette said, promising a “thorough review of its textbooks, educational materials and dictionaries.”
France’s leading publishing group, which came under the control of the ultra-conservative Vincent Bollore at the end of 2023, has begun an internal inquiry “to determine how such an error was made.”
It promised to put in place “a new, strengthened verification process for all its future publications” in these series.
President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday said that it was “intolerable” that the revision books for the French school leavers’ exam, the baccalaureat, “falsify the facts” about the “terrorist and antisemitic attacks by Hamas.”
“Revisionism has no place in the Republic,” he wrote on X.
Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, with 251 people taken hostage, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Authorities in Gaza estimate that more than 70,000 people have been killed by Israeli forces during their bombardment of the territory since, while nearly 80 percent of buildings have been destroyed or damaged, according to UN data.
Israeli forces have killed at least 447 Palestinians in Gaza since a ceasefire took effect in October, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
