{"id":19403,"date":"2026-08-17T23:20:53","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T18:20:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/?p=19403"},"modified":"2026-08-17T23:21:32","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T18:21:32","slug":"somali-forces-kill-30-al-shabaab-mi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/2026\/08\/17\/somali-forces-kill-30-al-shabaab-mi\/","title":{"rendered":"Somali Forces Kill 30 Al-Shabaab Militants, Thwart Attack on Baidoa"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>Somali Forces Kill 30 Al-Shabaab Militants, Thwart Attack on Baidoa<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><strong>BAIDOA: Somali National Armed Forces (SNAF) killed at least 30 al-Shabaab militants and captured several others after thwarting an early-morning attack in the central city of Baidoa, Somalia\u2019s Ministry of Defense said on Monday.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>According to the ministry, <a href=\"http:\/\/@SNAForce\">SNAF<\/a> positions came under attack at around 5 a.m. local time, when armed fighters launched an assault using vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (VBIEDs).<\/p>\n<p>The Defense Ministry said the attacking force included al-Shabaab militants as well as armed militias loyal to Southwest State President Abdiaziz Hassan Mohamed Laftagareen.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSNAF responded professionally and decisively, repelling the attack and thwarting the assailants\u2019 attempt to destabilize the security and stability of Baidoa,\u201d the ministry said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>The military also seized weapons and vehicles allegedly used in the assault. Security forces were carrying out clearance operations across parts of the city to secure key areas and track down remaining fighters, the statement added.<\/p>\n<p>The ministry said further details about the attack and the outcome of the military operation would be released after the operation was completed.<\/p>\n<p>Heavy fighting was reported in Baidoa on Monday morning, with residents saying Somali government forces clashed with militias loyal to Laftagareen as well as al-Shabaab fighters.<\/p>\n<p>The latest violence comes months after Somali troops took control of Baidoa in March, a development that led to Laftagareen\u2019s resignation.<\/p>\n<p>Local opposition figures claimed that their forces had captured the city during Monday\u2019s fighting. However, military officials rejected the claim, saying security operations were still underway and that government forces remained in control.<\/p>\n<p>Baidoa is the administrative capital of Somalia\u2019s Southwest State and has long been a strategic battleground in the country\u2019s fight against al-Shabaab, the militant group linked to al-Qaeda.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Source: CGTN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Somali Forces Kill 30 Al-Shabaab Militants, Thwart Attack on Baidoa BAIDOA: Somali National Armed Forces (SNAF) killed at least 30 al-Shabaab militants and captured several others after thwarting an early-morning attack in the central city of Baidoa, Somalia\u2019s Ministry of Defense said on Monday. According to the ministry, SNAF positions came under attack at around [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":19404,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2297,2299],"tags":[4022,4021],"class_list":["post-19403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-world","tag-al-shabaab-militants","tag-somali-national-armed-forces"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19403"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19406,"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19403\/revisions\/19406"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}