Ethiopia kills over 800 Al-Shabaab fighters in past two weeks

GOOBJOOG NEWS|ADDIS ABABA: The Ethiopian National Defence Force has announced that more than 800 fighters of the Al-Shabaab terrorist group, including 24 of its leaders were killed during in the last 15 days.

Major General Tesfaye Ayaleu, Head of Defense Force Deployment and Commissioner General Mohamed Ahmed, Special Forces Commander of the Somali Region, told Ethiopian news agencies that the group’s attempt to infiltrate into Ethiopia since July 14, 2014 was completely foiled by the coordinated action of the security forces and the people.

According to Major General Tesfaye, foreign enemies who want to destabilize Ethiopia have been making great efforts by hiring internal gangs.

“In this way, al-Shabaab tried to carry out attacks in the areas bordering Ethiopia and Somalia by loading some of its forces in 16 vehicles and by sneaking some of them into Ethiopia on foot under the cover of darkness.”

However, according to Major Tesfaye, the attackers were annihilated by the action taken by the Defense Forces in coordination with the Special Forces of the Somali Region.

“The operation destroyed the logistics and weapons stockpile that the terrorist group had planned to use for a long time by striking selected targets, proving the bravery of the defense forces, the air force and the Somali region’s special forces and people, and gave a lesson to the forces trying to invade Ethiopia to think twice before making another attempt,” said Major Tesfaye.

The operation is said to have killed Al-Shabaab’s senior leaders including it’s Chief, Fu’ad Muhammad (Shangole), Abdulaziz Abu Musa, Spokesperson of the group, Ubeda Nur Isse, Head of Al-Shabaab’s Bokol Zone and the Ethiopian border among several others.

The Ethiopian National Defence Force also stated that the work of purifying the cells that the terrorist group has prepared internally is ongoing.