Al Shabaab has blamed the United States and France of backing and helping African Union forces.
Somalia’s al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group Al Shabaab on Saturday retreated from the war-torn capital city of Mogadishu after several years of fighting, according to an intelligence source in Israel.
During a press conference, Somalia’s leader, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Sheikh Ahmed, praised the government forces that successfully pushed Al Shabaab out of the capital. He termed the event as “a great victory for the government and Somalis in general.”
“We warn the civilians against rushing to the abandoned areas by Al Shabaab in Mogadishu, there can be bombs planted in those places” the president of Somalia told reporters.
The Israeli intelligence source told the Law Enforcement Examiner that the next step is for bomb technicians — some of whom were trained by U.S. experts — to search areas of the city abandoned by Al-Shabaab terrorists for improvised explosive devices (IEDs) or unexploded ordinance that may be a danger to civilians.
Congratulating the Somali National Army, Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali said it was a great achievement for the Somali people and a big step towards defeating the extremists. “We have been dreaming of this day for the last three years,” he said.
“This is a big day, and a tremendous step forward, towards a more stable Somalia. But their actions in the past hours the extremists have shown that they never had a place in a peaceful Somalia, that they are foreign and motivated by a violent ideology. And the people do not want them here.”
The next step for the government is to bring in food, water and medicine for the Somali people who have been suffering from a severe drought and famine throughout the Muslim nation.
Because of Al-Shabaab’s cruelty, aid groups from the United Nations, the European Union and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) were prevented from helping the starving and sick population.
“The insurgency and the violence they impose on the people of Somalia is a fundamental cause of the famine we are suffering. There is now an opportunity to give the international community the necessary confidence and assurance to ramp up its provision of humanitarian aid to Mogadishu” the Prime Minister said.
By://www.examiner.com/
Prepared The Beru Muqdisho www.Bartamaha.com
