Somali National Army, along with the Ethiopia’s African Union troops on Saturday evening captured the town of Wajid, a strategic militant base from the al-Qaeda-linked group.
Wajid, which is some 100-miles North West of Mogadishu, is the capital of Bakol region. It’s the second district the joint troops captured from the Islamist group within 24 hours.
Mayor of Wajid, Abdullahi Yarisow, told the press that the al-Shabab fighters abandoned the town without fighting the troops. He said it was a major base where they used to carry attacks across the region.
Residents said that there was a brief fighting in the outskirts of the town, which is still yet unclear the casualties.
In the past days, Somali government officials had been threatening to carry a large offensive against al-Shabab and capture areas still under their control in Southern and Central Somalia.
Al-Shabab lost key strongholds in between 2012 and 2013 to the AU troops and Somali national army, but the group has since carried out deadly attacks in the Somali capital.
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