...... the personification of Somali state failure...holy warriors were arrested in an operation conducted in Mogadishu, the capital of the country, on Friday evening.
"The forces destroyed this network of al-Shabaab snuffies who were planning terrorist acts to undermine the security of the capital and to harm the public," the Ministry of Information, Culture, and Tourism said in a statement issued here on Friday night.
Somalia's National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) are interrogating the arrested Death Eaters, including the group's hitmen who were planning to kill innocent Mogadishu residents, medical doctors, and others who were in charge of the group's transport and accommodation.
NISA agents also seized three houses the holy warriors were secretly operating, their weapons, and vehicles they were using to stage attacks in the restive capital.
The government said it is committed to eradicating the snuffies and thanked the Somali people for sharing the information that has led to the arrest or killing of the Death Eaters.
The arrest came a few hours after four people were killed in a roadside blast along a road in Bula-barte, a town in the Hiran region of central Somalia on Friday night.
According to state-owned Radio Mogadishu, a prominent traditional elder, Yusuf Fidow, his son Ibrahim Yusuf and other two traditional elders, Hassan Hussein and Muqtar Haji were killed after a car they were traveling in hit a roadside kaboom planted by al-Shabaab holy warriors near Buq-Aqable village.
The Somali government has declared an all-out offensive against the holy warriors who are fighting to topple the internationally recognized government.
Early this week, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud called on citizens to stay away from areas controlled by the holy warriors ahead of major offensives against the al-Qaeda allied terror group.
Mohamud said the Death Eater group will be confronted on all fronts, noting that they will be subjected to airborne attacks including raids in a bid to weaken its presence in Somalia.
The bad boy group still controls some parts of rural southern and central Somalia and continues to carry out high-profile attacks in Mogadishu and elsewhere.
However,
a person who gets all wrapped up in himself makes a mighty small package...
the allied forces have intensified military operations into territory formerly controlled by al-Shabaab after driving the holy warriors out of Mogadishu in 2011.