Bartamaha (Nairobi):- Somali government troops have retaken the southeastern town of Bulo Hawo from al-Shabab fighters with the help of the allied forces (the Ahlu Sunna fighters.)

“We took control of the city after defeating the enemy,” AFP quoted Mohamed Abdi Kalil, the government’s spokesman for the province, as saying on Sunday.

“Residents were applauding with happiness after they saw the national army back in town after living under the tough regime of the al-Shabab,” he added.

Kalil further pointed out that many of the al-Shabab fighters lost their lives in the fighting, while only one government soldier was killed and two others were left injured.

Ali Moalim Yasin, a resident of Bulo Hawo located near the Kenyan border, said, “The fighting stopped after one hour and the al-Shabab fighters were defeated.”

Another resident, Mohamed Shakur, said, “They (al-shabab fighters) left the town after they lost the battle, and the dead bodies were lying on the outskirts.”

The al-Shabab control large areas of southern and central Somalia and have taken control of much of the capital, Mogadishu.

The Ahlu Sunna was founded in 1991 to promote moderate Sufi Islam in Somalia. It renounced a posture of non-violence in early 2009 to take on the radical al-Shabab and their allies, the Hezb al-Islam movement.

The Ahlu Sunna does not fully recognize Somali President Sherif Sheikh Ahmed’s transitional government, but it too wants to rid Somalia of the al-Shabab and its al-Qaeda-inspired ideology.

Somalia has had no functioning central government since a civil war erupted with overthrow of President Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

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Source:- Presstv.

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