Seven Al-Shabaab militants felled in joint operation in southern Somalia

Somali government said a joint operation between Somali forces and international partners neutralised 7 Al-Shabaab militants in Jilib southern Somalia. Photo: courtesy

Somali security forces Wednesday killed seven members of the al-Qaeda affiliated group Al-Shabaab in southern Somalia, the government has said.

In a statement Thursday the Information Ministry said President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo authorized an operation targeting the militants in Jilib in Middle Jubba region killing the seven among them a senior leader who it said was responsible for multiple bombings in Mogadishu.

“Our security forces killed seven al-Shabaab militants, including a senior al-Shabaab leader responsible for multiple bombings in Mogadishu,” the statement read in part.

The killing of the militants comes barely a week after former deputy Al-Shabaab leader Mukhtar Robow defected to the government and later declared in a media briefing his dissociation with the group.

The US said early in the week it had conducted two ‘kinetic strikes’ near the capital Mogadishu targeting Al-Shabaab militants.