10:53 AM
Admin.
By: SomalilandpressHeavily armed al Shabaab insurgents killed a military commander in the outskirts of Mogadishu on Thursday as clashes continue in rebel-held areas in the south of the country.
A firefight broke out between government troops and the al-Qaeda affiliated militant when the group ambushed a military supply convoy traveling from the town of Afgoye.
A military source, who was not authorised to speak to media, said the district commander of Elasha Biyaha, Mr. Afrah Ali Afrah was killed. Al Shabaab said they have his lifeless body in their possession along with several other dead soldiers.
He said the insurgents attacked the convoy with rocket-propelled grenades, machine-guns and automatic rifles and the battle blazed on for several hours. He added the ambushers fled after government troops arrived in the area from an army base in Afgoye, about 30km (18.5 miles) north-west of Mogadishu.
Elasha was the scene of other violence just under a month ago when the rebels ambushed an armored convoy carrying president Sheikh Sharif Ahmed– narrowly escaping.
Elasha sits between the strategic town of Afgoye and the capital and is largest refugee camp inside Somalia housing more than 400,000 internally displaced people.
In May the area along with the agricultural town of Afgoye were secured during a joint military operation by AMISOM and Somali troops flushed out al Shabaab fighters. However challenges security challenges remain and al Shabab carries out daily attacks.
Al Shabaab fighters occasionally infiltrate into the IDP making it difficult for the Somali troops and AMISOM to fully secure the corridor that leads to much of Somalia’s south. The town fell in May under