MOGADISHU: Somalia’s government said five of its soldiers died in a battle in which they killed nearly 50 fighters from the Islamist militant group Al-Shabab Saturday, about 350 kilometers (215 miles) north of the capital Mogadishu.

Government troops and supporting militia forces got word of an attack planned by Al-Shabab in Ceeldheer, in the Galgadud region, set an ambush and “destroyed” them, said a statement.
Their forces killed at least 47 members of the militant group while losing five soldiers in the battle, said the authorities. They said airstrikes were also carried out against the Al-Shabab forces.
Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack on Ceeldheer.
Local resident Mohamed Hussein told AFP by telephone: “There was heavy fighting in Ceeldheer town this morning after Al-Shabab attacked the town from several directions.
“It was very hard to say who is in control a while ago but now we can see that the Somali government forces are in full control,” he added.
Another local man, Hassan Gutale, said: “There were at least six heavy explosions and fighting that lasted several hours.”
Elected in May, 2022, Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud vowed to wage “total war” against the Islamist group.
Al-Shabab has been waging a deadly insurgency against the fragile central government in Mogadishu for more than 16 years.
Although driven out of the capital by an African Union force in 2011, they still have a strong presence in rural Somalia.
They have carried out repeated attacks against political, security and civilian targets, mostly in Somalia but also in neighboring countries including Kenya.
Somalia’s beleaguered federal government has joined forces with local clan militia against the Islamists, retaking swathes of territory in central Somalia in an operation backed by an AU mission known as ATMIS and US air strikes.
But the offensive has suffered setbacks, with Al-Shabab earlier this year claiming it had taken multiple locations in the center of the country.
 

BRUSSELS, Belgium: Italy became the first heavyweight nation to cast votes for the EU’s next parliament on Saturday, in a test of far-right leader Giorgia Meloni’s strength at home — and future influence in the bloc.
Most of the European Union’s 27 member countries, including powerhouses France and Germany, go to the polls on Sunday, the final day, with projected overall results due late that evening.
The first polling stations have already opened in the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia, the site of deadly rioting this month.
The two-day ballot in Italy — the EU’s third-largest economy with 76 of 720 seats in the new parliament — could have big consequences.
Meloni cast her vote in her Rome constituency, under sweltering late spring temperatures, telling reporters that the EU contest “will shape the next five years.”
Polls suggest Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party could win with 27 percent of the vote — more than quadrupling its score from 2019 — amid a broader surge of far-right groups across the bloc.
Walter Esposito, a 78-year-old Roman, cast his vote for her party in protest at EU policies on the environment, complaining: “Europe has always tried to crush Italy and the Italian people.”
At the other end of the political spectrum, Carlotta Cinardi, an 18-year-old student, said she found no party that “100 percent represents my ideas” — but voted green as the “most progressive toward young people.”
A victory could set up Meloni as a powerbroker in determining whether EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen gets the backing she needs, from both member states and parliament, for a second term.
Meloni has been actively courted both by the center-right von der Leyen — and by French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who wants to create a right-wing EU supergroup.
But one European diplomat warned against overestimating her influence.
“Meloni will have an influence on Italian interests, at the commission, in parliament,” said the diplomat, who asked not to be named. “She will play the game. But does that make her a kingmaker? No.”
For the time being, Meloni is keeping her cards close to her chest — though she makes clear she wants to relegate the EU’s left-wing parties to the opposition.
Public concern over the flow of irregular migrants across the Mediterranean was one of the key issues that propelled Meloni to power in 2022.
EU-wide, immigration is the hot-button issue driving support to far-right parties. They are forecast to grab a quarter of parliament seats — though the centrist mainstream is still seen coming out on top.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators rallied in cities across Germany Saturday, urging a vote against the far-right, with the anti-immigration AfD party polling at about 15 percent.
Beyond the predicted surge, analysts say the bigger question is whether parliament’s main grouping, von der Leyen’s European People’s Party (EPP), will ally with the far-right.
Von der Leyen has indicated willingness to have the EPP work with far-right lawmakers, as long as they are pro-EU and not what she calls “puppets” of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
On those grounds Von der Leyen explicitly ruled out allying with Le Pen’s National Rally (RN), which is topping French polls, or with Germany’s AfD.
Both those parties — unlike Meloni’s — are leery of EU military and financial support to Ukraine against Russia’s invading forces, with the AfD outright hostile to weapons deliveries.
In Hungary — where tens of thousands rallied Saturday in support of opposition leader Peter Magyar — Viktor Orban’s ruling populist Fidesz party is likewise opposed to further helping Kyiv.
Italy was voting on the same day as Slovakia, a NATO and EU member since 2004, shaken by an assassination attempt last month on premier Robert Fico.
Voters have rallied to Fico’s Russia-friendly camp in the wake of the shooting — which he blamed on “aggressive and hateful politics” by the opposition.
Authorities said the assassination attempt, by a 71-year-old poet, was politically motivated.
Jozef Zahorsky, a 44-year-old teacher, said he cast his ballot for Fico’s ruling left-wing nationalist Smer-SD because it stood for “the interests of Slovakia, not Brussels.”
Fico’s party opposes EU arms deliveries to help Ukraine repel Russia’s invasion, and rails against alleged “warmongers” in Brussels.
In a Facebook post, Fico posted a photograph of himself casting a ballot from his hospital bed. He urged voters to “elect European Parliament lawmakers who support peace efforts, not the pursuit of war.”