DINSOR, Somalia – The Ethiopian troops under the AU mission in Somalia are reportedly fired mortar shells towards Al-Shabaab-controlled areas in Bay region, south of the country.
The local residents in Dinsor town said they heard several explosions early in the morning during the mortar bombardment. The shelling came after Al-Shabaab attempted an attack.
The terrified villagers came out of their houses in fear of an Al-Shabaab counter-attack. There was no immediate confirmation of the morning mortar shelling by the Ethiopians.
The areas located on the outskirts of Dinsor are held by Al-Shabaab, and the group used the rural villages to impose a blockade on the town which houses Ethiopian and SNA forces.
Al-Shabab militants attacked convoys carrying Ethiopian soldiers in Somalia’s southwestern Bakool region in mid this month, Somali officials said. The attack left several soldiers dead.
Al-Shabab in a statement claimed it killed 167 Ethiopian soldiers, destroyed military vehicles, and seized a cache of weapons and ammunition. Casualty figures given by both sides have not been independently verified.
Ethiopia has thousands of troops in Somalia serving as part of the African Union Transition Mission, or ATMIS, and other forces in Somalia that are there based on arrangements with the government in Mogadishu.
