Militant attacks claim many Ethiopian troops in Somalia


MOGADISHU: An offensive by Somalia's Al Shabab militants on Ethiopian troops on Saturday left many combatants dead, military sources on both sides and witnesses said.

"The fighting around the village of Yurkut was the most intense since Ethiopian forces entered Somalia" in November, said one of the witnesses in the country's southwestern region, Abukar Moalim Yarow.

Military sources in both camps gave differing tolls but stressed the fierceness of the fighting, which lasted three hours, according to independent witnesses.

"The mujahideen fighters led their most important military incursion against enemy positions in Yurkut," Sheikh Mohamed Abu-Fatma, a top Shebab commander in the sector, said by telephone.

"We forced the enemy to temporarily abandon three barracks and we killed more than 40 of their men," he added.

Kalif Adan, a pro-government official, told AFP from Baidoa that the Shabab "attacked Yurkut this morning.

Many of them were killed in fierce fighting.

"The fighting is now over and (the Shabab) have been heavily beaten."

The hardline Shabab attacked Ethiopian positions in Yurkut, near the strategic town of Luuq, on the road linking the Somalia-Ethiopia border with Baidoa, a former rebel bastion in southern Somalia which Ethiopian forces recaptured last month.
Agence France-Presse
Source: http://gulftoday.ae/portal/42c88aff-d9cb-44b5-a478-a6d03a4872b4.aspx

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