Somali army toll climbs after Al-Shabaab assault as inquiry opens into rout

MOGADISHU (Somaliguardian) – Casualties from Monday’s Al-Shabaab attack on Somali army forces in the country’s southwest continued to climb, as authorities opened an inquiry into the military’s worst reverse in years.

An estimated 2,000 troops were advancing on the town of Burhakabo, which forces loyal to former Southwest State president Abdiasis Laftagareen seized several weeks ago, when militants struck them in the village of Jame’o, on the road linking Burhakabo and Leego.

The insurgents reportedly deployed suicide car bombs, which inflicted heavy losses and sent troops fleeing within hours of the fighting erupting.

In a statement on Wednesday, Al-Shabaab said it had killed 413 soldiers and wounded more than 400 others. The claim could not be independently verified, although the true death toll is believed to run into the hundreds.

The federal government has not disclosed its own casualty figures but said its forces killed more than 70 militants.

It also dismissed local media reports that Turkish air strikes had accidentally hit Somali troops and compounded the losses, insisting that Turkey’s air force had not targeted Somali forces.

Somali journalist Abdirizak Atosh said on Wednesday that some of the routed troops remained stranded in rural areas, and that the government had mounted no rescue operation.

Military court chief Hassan Ali Nur Shute and ground forces commander Sahal Abdullahi Omar travelled to Baledogle air base, close to the battle zone, where survivors had returned. They pressed commanders on the causes of the debacle and were briefed on the sequence of events.

Officials warned that troops who again abandon the battlefield, or desert the military vehicles they drive, would face disciplinary action.

Despite the announced inquiry, there was no sign that authorities intended to hold to account the commanders who led the operation. Some soldiers told officials that their commanders had stayed well behind the front line and began withdrawing as soon as fighting broke out.

The rout is believed to be the army’s most severe single defeat at the hands of the insurgents since the 2023 Oswayne attack, in which militants overran bases housing more than 2,000 Somali troops and killed several hundred soldiers.

It is not yet clear how many of the roughly 2,000 soldiers who advanced on Burhakabo survived.

Al-Shabaab said on Wednesday that 15 wounded special forces troops from the Turkish-trained Gorgor unit, whom it said it had captured, were later killed by a Turkish air strike while receiving medical treatment near the battle site.

Turkey has reportedly destroyed some of the Kirpi armoured vehicles it donated to the Somali army, which were part of the advancing convoy and were later seized by the militants, to deny Al-Shabaab footage for its propaganda videos.

Al-Shabaab claimed to have captured many of the army’s vehicles, but the number remains unclear.

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