MOGADISHU—Somali military says a Pakistani Jihadist fighting alongside Al Qaeda linked Al Shabaab has been killed in joint military operation.
The operation was carried out for the last couple weeks, after Somali army forces launched joint offensive against Al-Shabaab targets in Hiran and Middle Shabelle regions.
Somalia’s army chief in the regions, Salah Mumin Mouse says a foreign Jihadist from Pakistan, whose name has not been released yet, was killed in the latest operation.
He says the Pakistani Jihadist was charge of making bomb explosives and training Al-Shabaab recruits in south and central Somalia.
The military forces also re-seized key targets previously held by Al Qaeda linked Al Shabaab group battling the weak-western backed government of Somalia.
There was no word from Al Shabaab over the claims made by Somali military.
The group has been waging insurgency for more than ten years in the war-ravaged nation.
Last month, Somali army says an Afghan Jihadist, who once fought in Yemen, alongside Al Qaeda branch, was killed in an operation near Marka town, some 91km southwest of Somali capital Mogadishu.
The Al-Qaeda linked Shabaab was pushed out of the Somali capital in 2011 — and subsequently other towns and cities — by soldiers from the African Union Mission in Somalia.
Somalia has been mired in violence and lawlessness since early 1990s when dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was toppled.
