Conflicting reports are coming out of a battle which took several hours that pitted units of the Islamist militias, Al Shabaab, against the Somalia army outside Bal’ad some thirty or so kilometers north of the federal seat, Mogadishu.
The Islamists, the reports state, engaged the SNA in villages outside Bal’ad which the army recently took over from the Al-Qaeda-linked fighters.
The head-on battles were concentrated in the areas of Yaaqle and Shanlow.
Both sides claimed victory with the government claiming that it did not only repulse the Shabaab attacks but that it had killed a dozen or more of the fighters during the operation.
On the other hand, Al Shabaab released a statement saying that it killed the Operations Commander, who was also the Acting-commander, of the Somalia National Army’s 2nd Brigade in the area, Lieutenant-colonel Ali Arif.
The statement went on to say that Colonel Arif’s deputy Commander, Abdikarim Hilowle, was fatally wounded during the engagement.
It has become something of a norm that districts, villages and command posts not that far from Mogadishu, the Federal Government’s seat, keep changing hands between the SNA and Shabaab fighters which makes many conclude that the whole macabre exercise of commanders on either side is for the benefit of the international community to keep the inflow of funds coming.
