Forty abducted children killed in Mogadishu Fighting
Mohammed says that they said emergency aid, emergency aid…immediately, two of them killed the injured teenager who was armed with Rocket Propelled Grenade Launcher fighting for the group. They took the gun, he spelled out.
Thin and pathetic-looking, 15-year-old Abdulkadir Mohammed is exhausted and hungry. But he believes he is lucky to no longer be fighting for what he describes as vindictive and vile Al Shabaab terrorists or that he didn't die for the sake of their un-Islamic doctrine.
“I thought that al Shabaab was right in their fighting against Somali government, because they misguided and lured me after I was persuaded [pro-government forces] are apostate ones who deserted Islam,” Mohammed said in an interview with All Headline News.
“Most of fighters at the battlefield are very young teenagers like me or younger than me. The commanders and foreign fighters come at the frontline only if the battles intensify,” he explained.
“What made the situation so worse is that they you can’t go back to retreat, because foreign and Somali militants will kill you,” the teen added.
He was compelled to desert his group, Mohammed said, after a fellow fighter, a close friend, was badly injured while fighting against African Union peacekeepers in Mogadishu. Mohammed urgently called for help and five commanders, including two foreigners, immediately came. They asked, “Do you know what they had said and done?”
Mohammed says that they called out "Emergency aid, emergency aid"…immediately, two of them killed the injured teenager. They took the rocket propelled grenade launcher he was carrying.
Now, Mohammed is among more than 100 fighters since February who have defected from the militant group and joined the transitional federal government of Somalia.
The African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia (AMISOM) on Monday afternoon put on show four adolescents whom they said had defected from the Al Qaeda-inspired group after heavy combat in the capital.
Paddy Akunda, the AMISOM spokesman, said the teenagers defected after they became isolated in Al Shabaab military trenches after their companions ran away from a battle in Mogadishu’s Hodan district.
“These brothers of ours defected from Al Shabaab this morning. They surrendered with four guns and we are happy they came to us (Somali government and AMISOM),” Akunda told reporters. The former fighters are being well treated, he spelled out.
“We did not call them, but they decided to surrender and come to us, and we [are] urging other young brothers to leave from that militant group and join us,” the spokesman said.
The minors, whose ages range between 10 and 16, looked exhausted and haggard.
Over the weekend, Somali forces penetrated into new Al Shabaab positions and managed to seize Wadnaha Road, a key route at the center of Mogadishu and very close to Bakaara market.
As the Somali army, supported by AU forces redoubled sorties against Al Shabaab, the militant fighters continue to defect, most of them adolescents.
In April, Hassan Dahir Aways, an Al Shabaab official, professed they forced old men and young boys to fight alongside the militants, claiming that they battling against colonial forces. He also admitted that his group had suffered countless losses fighting with Somalia’s internationally recognized government. AHN
Some background
Somali government Freed Hostages “Young Boys Abducted By Al-Shabab”
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