Somali security forces recaptures key town from al-Shabaab
Tuesday January 14 2020
Somali police force attend an Amisom handover ceremony of the Mogadishu stadium. Somalia forces have recaptured a key town in the southern region from al-Shabaab. FILE PHOTO | AFP
Somalia Special Forces (Danab) on Monday recaptured a key town in the southern region from al-Shabaab and arrested senior leaders of the local terror group.
Ismail Abdimalik Malin, commander of the 16th Brigade, said that Toratorow, a key revenue collection region for al-Shabaab in Lower Shabelle region, was recovered in an operation that also saw the arrest of ten militants.
"Our Somalia National Army liberated Toratorow from al-Shabaab without any resistance from the militants. Ten militants were arrested during the operation," Malin told journalists.
He vowed to intensify security operations in the region to flush out the al-Qaeda militant group in other areas under their control.
It's not the first time the town which is an al-Shabaab stronghold was captured by government forces.
Toratorow is located near the US military base in Balidogle Airfield and is an important revenue collection centre in south-central Somalia.
The town has changed hands between al-Shabaab and Somali security forces several times in the past.
Al-Shabab extremists were forced out of the capital Mogadishu in late 2011 by the Somali army backed by African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom), but the militants still hold swathes of rural areas in central and southern regions conducting ambushes and planting land mines.