Battle for Central Somalia (2009)
| Central Somalia spring fighting of 2009 | |||||||||
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| Part of Somali Civil War, War in Somalia (2009-present) | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
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Al-Shabaab Hizbul Islam Foreign Mujahideen | Ethiopia | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
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Mukhtar Robow "Abu Mansoor" Muktar Abdirahman "Godane" Ali Saleh Nabhan † Ali Mohamed Hussein Abdirahman Hassan Hussein Ali "Dheere" Mohamud Hassan Dahir Aweys Omar Abu Hadi Hassan Turki Abdi Osman "Qorey" Muse Abdi Arale Hassan Mahdi Ibrahim Yusuf Abdinasir Jalil Aden Abdi † Abdullahi Hiiraan Shuriye Farah Sabriye |
Sharif Ahmed | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| 80 killed (ICU claim) |
Total: 52 KIA | ||||||||
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124+ civilians killed 3,300+ displaced | |||||||||
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A series of battles in Hiiraan, Middle Shabelle and Galguduud, between rebels of al-Shabaab and Hizbul Islam and Somali government forces and ICU militants loyal to the government, erupted during spring 2009. The fighting led to al-Shabaab capturing major government strongholds and Ethiopian forces re-entering Somalia and setting up bases in Hiraan. There was a halt in fighting during a government offensive in Mogadishu, which started on May 22.