The death toll among Al-Shabaab "terrorists" militia in the ongoing military operations across Somalia increased to 79, the Somali National Army announced on Monday. Four members of the Al-Shabaab militia were killed in the southern Bariri district, Lower Shabelle province, the Somali National News Agency (SONNA) quoted the Commander of the Seventh Brigade Mohammad Sheikh as saying. He added that the Somali Armed Forces also succeeded in destroying a boat that the militias used to cross on the banks of the river to forcibly take money from the residents of the villages. Earlier Monday, the Somali army announced that 75 Al-Shabaab militants had been killed and a number of others arrested in other military operation in Hiran province in the center of the country. The Commander of the National Army Odowa Yusuf Ragge indicated that many areas were liberated during the ongoing military operations in other governorates of the country. The killings are the latest development in the region which has seen a significant spike in conflict between the Al-Qaeda affiliated group and militias allied with the federal government. Al-Shabaab has waged a war in the Horn of African country for more than a decade as it seeks to force a strict implementation of Shariah law. The group continues to cause havoc across the country despite efforts by both local and regional forces deployed to eliminate it. Last month, the militant group staged a 30-hour siege of a hotel in the capital Mogadishu, killing at least 21 people and wounding more than a hundred others. In June, Al-Shabaab militants carried out several attacks on villages near and across the border with Ethiopia, reportedly killing more than a dozen people. Dozens of the group's militants also died in the attacks. President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, however, said on Friday his country was seeing gains in the fight against Al-Shabaab. "We see a strong momentum against Al-Shabaab and want to sustain it to defeat a group that has proven to be remorseless and [like the] mafia, which has attained economic autonomy through intimidation and the murder of innocent people," Mohamud said while addressing the Somali Diaspora community in the Washington D.C. — Agencies
