Alwaght- Somalia’s president is expected to announce a state of war against al-Shabab terrorist group blamed for the country's deadliest terror attack.
A Truck bomb rocked Somalia's capital Mogadishu on 14 October and massacred at least 358 people. Death toll is feared to rise as some 56 people have remained unaccounted for.
Associated Press cited Somalia’s army spokesman Capt. Abdullahi Iman as saying that the offensive involving thousands of troops will try to push al-Shabab fighters out of their strongholds in the Lower Shabelle and Middle Shabelle regions where many deadly attacks on Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, and on Somali and African Union bases have been launched.
The extremist group has not commented on the bloodshed in Mogadishu, which Somali intelligence officials have said was meant to target the city’s heavily fortified international airport where many countries have their embassies. The massive bomb, which security officials said weighed between 600 kilograms and 800 kilograms instead detonated in a crowded street after soldiers opened fire and flattened one of the truck’s tires.
Somalia’s information minister Abdirahman Osman said late Friday that that 228 people were wounded, and 122 had been airlifted for treatment in Turkey, Sudan and Kenya, AP reported.
Al-Shabab has lost most of the territory it controlled to African Union peacekeepers and government troops in recent years.
The Takfiri terrorist group still launches frequent deadly gun, grenade and bomb attacks in high-profile areas of Mogadishu and other regions controlled by the federal government.
