{"id":2644,"date":"2012-12-05T15:42:37","date_gmt":"2012-12-05T15:42:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/daafeet.com\/?p=2644"},"modified":"2012-12-05T15:42:37","modified_gmt":"2012-12-05T15:42:37","slug":"al-shabab-ambush-ministers-and-defend-jowhar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.daafeet.com\/2012\/12\/05\/al-shabab-ambush-ministers-and-defend-jowhar\/","title":{"rendered":"&#039;Al-Shabab&#039; ambush ministers and defend Jowhar"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1281\" title=\"alshaba\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/daafeet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/alshaba1.jpg?resize=290%2C174\" alt=\"\" width=\"290\" height=\"174\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/>After weeks of relative calm in Somalia, a convoy carrying three ministers has been attacked, while fierce fighting has erupted near the militant base of Jowhar, officials say.<\/p>\n<p>The ministers of defence, interior and justice were unharmed after a landmine exploded under a vehicle near the port of Merca, they say.<\/p>\n<p>A governor told the BBC there had been a two-hour gunbattle near Jowhar.<\/p>\n<p>This is the biggest town under the control of al-Shabab Islamists.<\/p>\n<p>The al-Qaeda linked group has been driven out of most urban areas over the past two years still controls many rural areas of the country.<\/p>\n<p>Middle Shabelle governor Abdi Jiinow told the BBC Somali service that al-Shabab had now gathered its forces around Jowhar, 90km (55 miles) north of the capital, Mogadishu, in order to defend the town.<br \/>\nHe said three soldiers and 15 al-Shabab fighters had been killed in the fighting, which he said was the fiercest in the area for several months since pro-government advanced on the town.<\/p>\n<p>The militant group has not yet commented on the fighting there.<\/p>\n<p>But its Twitter feed said it had carried out the ambush on the ministerial convoy near Merca, south of Mogadishu.<\/p>\n<p>It said several people had been killed &#8211; a claim backed by some independent sources in the area.<\/p>\n<p>The area&#8217;s deputy governor told the BBC that four police officers escorting the ministers had been badly wounded.<\/p>\n<p>Alongside the recent military gains, a new president took office in September, raising some hopes of a return to law and order after two decades of anarchy.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Source BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After weeks of relative calm in Somalia, a convoy carrying three ministers has been attacked, while fierce fighting has erupted near the militant base of Jowhar, officials say. The ministers of defence, interior and justice were unharmed after a landmine exploded under a vehicle near the port of Merca, they say. A governor told the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p89N1L-GE","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.daafeet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2644"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.daafeet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.daafeet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.daafeet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.daafeet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.daafeet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2644\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.daafeet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.daafeet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.daafeet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}