Al-Shabab fighters killed in Mogadishu prison assault, Somalia confirms

In the biggest assault on the capital in recent months, the Somali government has claimed that all seven of the attackers who stormed a major prison complex in Mogadishu have been killed.

On Saturday, the al-Shabab group attacked Godka Jilow, an underground prison complex where armed group fighters are based.

Three members of the security forces were killed in an attempt to halt the attack, according to the government, after a car bomb went off, followed by a series of intense gunfire and explosions that rang out all over the city.

An affiliate of al-Qaeda, al-Shabab, claimed in a statement that it had launched the attack to free some of its members.

A prisoner’s Somali security official claimed that a “huge explosion at the cell gate and soon an exchange of gunfire started” was reported to the Reuters news agency.

He continued, “To eliminate the fighters, more forces were deployed.”

The attackers reportedly drove similar vehicles to those used by Somali state media and wore uniforms similar to those worn by the country’s intelligence agency. Because armed forces vehicles are not subject to formal inspection, the Ministry of Internal Security said in a statement that this made it simple for them to pass through the control checkpoints for protecting the capital’s security.

hours following the reopening of the roads

Prime Minister Hamza Barre cited “visible changes and improvements” in the security situation as the government reopened dozens of roads in the capital for the first time in more than a decade.

Checkpoints were captured on local television as checkpoints were being destroyed.

In one of Mogadishu’s safest regions, the Godka Jilow prison, a fortified site close to the presidential palace, raises questions about rumored improvements in security there.

Since 2007, the federal government of Somalia has been fighting al-Shabab. The United States Africa Command (USACOM) classifies the organization as the “largest, wealthiest, and most lethal” al-Qaeda-affiliated organization on the planet, having control over large swaths of southern and central Somalia.

Al-Shabab, which launched a major offensive in the areas around Mogadishu and seized several strategic towns, including Adan Yabaal, which is a Somali army logistical hub, nearly 200 kilometers (124 miles) north of the capital, has overturned government gains in recent months.

Hassan Sheikh Ali, the country’s national security adviser, stepped down in July amid significant losses for the country’s military in untold ways.

In the Middle Shabelle region of Somalia, fighting between government forces and the armed group caused almost 60, 000 people to flee between January and July this year. Somalia accounted for a third of all casualties in Africa this year, according to a report from the Africa Center for Strategic Studies.

Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was traveling to the airport in Mogadishu when al-Shabab attacked the convoy of Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud in what he claimed was the group’s fifth attempt at his life.

An al-Shabab member who was killed in a raid by the country’s intelligence service, NISA, was reported by the government last month.

Despite the worsening security situation in the surrounding areas, the president’s convoy was attacked, but the capital experienced a period of relative calm as a result.

In a late-September interview with BBC Somali, Mohamud claimed that no Somali had perished in the city from al-Shabab gunfire or explosions in the city because of increased security measures.

Somalia’s historically troubled capital, Mogadishu, is heavily guarded by a sizable troop force and a network of checkpoints where searches are carried out throughout the city.

According to Samira Gaid, a security expert in Somalia, the attack shows a “disparity” between the government’s assessment of the security situation and the ground reality, as al-Shabaab has demonstrated with this assault that it is able to carry out attacks close to the presidential palace.