(Shabelle News) — Reports reaching Radio Shabelle news desk indicate that Al Shabaab fighters regained Marka after Govt forces and AU forces withdrew the city on Monday.
Residents in the town said that the allied forces pulled out of the coastal town, located 100Km southwest of Mogadishu without resistance or firing a gunshot during their exit.
The retreating Somali and AMISOM troops have proceeded to Shalanbood locality, which lies some 15km from Marka town, according to a resident.
Marka is a coastal town in Lower Shabelle region, located about 100km from Mogadishu and is a strategic town captured from Al-shabaab in 2012.
Despite losing key strongholds, Al Shabab fighters have retaken strings of towns and villages across the country, raising concerns of militants’ searing capabilities.
Shabab Stage Deadly Attack on Military Base in Somalia
By Hussein Mohamed
MOGADISHU, Somalia (The New York Times) — Shabab militants claimed responsibility on Monday for an attack on a Somali military base about 30 miles outside the capital, Mogadishu, that killed at least five soldiers, officials and witnesses said.
Ibraahim Aadan Najah, the governor of Lower Shabelle Province, told reporters that heavy fighting broke out after a car bomb was driven into the entrance gate of the base, which is in the village of Laanta Buuro.
The insurgents then stormed the base on foot, and Mr. Najah said they stole two military vehicles. The Shabab, a Somali militant group that has gained a reputation for violent attacks, claimed to have killed at least 30 members of the armed forces, according to its radio station Andulus.
Mohamed Akarim, a farmer who lives not far from the base, said loud explosions could be heard around 2 a.m., followed by gunfire that continued for about an hour and a half.