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Al-Qaeda-created Al Shabaab fighters launched a surprise attack on positions of the AMISOM army and Galmudug in Dhuusamareeb, the administrative capital of the federal state of Galmudug in Somalia.
It is the first time that Al Shabaab has openly confronted the army or AMISOM in the area since the federal state, with the support of federal forces, took over the security of the region two years ago.
According to eyewitnesses, Al Shabaab immobilized peacekeepers and a nearby Galmudug army position at the city’s airport for about 15 minutes with heavy fire before suddenly withdrawing again.
The purpose of the raid is still unclear, although AMISOM and administrative sources in the city claim that the militias withdrew only when they encountered more intense backfire.
Other sources say it is part of a new tactic by combatants to gauge ground strength before possible more serious clashes with state armies and peacekeepers. Islamists attacked Buuloberde from the Hirsjhabelle state position the night before in a similar short-lived raid.
On another front, Al Shabaab followed the Buuloberde raid and assassination in Beledweyne on Thursday with the kidnapping of 50 herders in the region on Friday to obviously keep the pressure on the authorities.
The kidnapping, observers explain, was primarily to deter herders and nomads from increasing the ranks of vigilantes who had kept Al Shabaab fighters at bay in the absence of peacekeepers and state forces in the area. This latest kidnapping occurred in Jujule and Ganu-ribad of the Mahas district of Hiiraan, an area where the vigilantes, known locally as ˆMa’awisley, could be found.
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