...... Somalia's version of the Taliban...Arabic for
students...
, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda...
forces of Evil in a joint offensive in the region, a local official said.
A military official who led the security operation near Tosweyne village in Bardale district told the Somali News Agency that several gunnies who have been terrorizing the locals escaped with serious injuries.
"The forces of Evil have harassed and displaced several people in the villages. This operation was meant to flush them out of Bardale district," Aidarus Abdullahi Sheikh, a commander who led the operation, told the news agency.
The latest operation came a day after two people including a state minister were killed and several others maimed in a blast in Baidoa, in southwestern Somalia. South-West State Minister of Justice Hassan Ibrahim Hassan (Lugbur) and his son were killed by an bomb near his home after leaving the mosque in Baidoa Friday.
Al-Shabaab still controls some parts of rural southern and central Somalia and continues to carry out high-profile attacks in Mogadishu and elsewhere. Allied forces have intensified military operations in territory formerly controlled by the krazed killer group. al-Shabaab was driven out of Mogadishu in 2011.