MOGADISHU (Somaliguardian) – Al-Shabaab fighters recaptured the town of Teedaan in central Somalia’s Hiran region on Sunday, seizing a position that has long served as a key line of defence for the regional capital, after clashes that left dozens of people dead.
Wararka Soomaaliya
The assault began when insurgents struck a base manned by the Somali army and allied clan militias using a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), touching off fighting that forced the allied forces to withdraw from the town entirely. It marked the first time since 2022 that Al-Shabaab has flown its flag over Teedaan and held control of it.
Al-Shabaab, through affiliated media channels, claimed its fighters killed 41 soldiers and wounded 60 others in the attack. The claim has not been independently verified. The Somali federal government, the national army and regional officials have not commented on the fighting, the withdrawal of forces, the reported casualties, or whether a counter-offensive to retake the town is planned.
Teedaan sits near Mahas, a town Al-Shabaab seized in a rapid offensive in 2025. Mahas had been under federal government control since 2014, when Ethiopian forces expelled Al-Shabaab from the area. Those Ethiopian forces withdrew in 2024, and Mahas changed hands for the first time in a decade.
Faahfaahinta
Across 2025, Al-Shabaab retook dozens of other towns, villages and settlements throughout Hiran and Middle Shabelle regions – a resurgence that has underscored the difficulty Somali forces face in holding territory captured during offensives conducted with international air and, at times, ground support.
A commander’s warning, tested days later
The fall of Teedaan comes just days after U.S. Africa Command chief Gen. Dagvin Anderson, in an interview on Friday, described a recurring pattern in which Somali and international partner forces recapture ground previously lost to militants — territory that slips away again once political attention shifts elsewhere. Anderson attributed the cycle to political infighting and dysfunction within Somalia’s government.
Saamaynta
“I was here active with the Special Operations Command from 2019 to 2021. And we worked with the Somali National Army and the Danab to move down the Lower Shabelle River to make progress, taking all the way down to Mubarak. I came back to AFRICOM as the commander, and we’re retaking the same territory again,” Anderson said.
“This is what causes the frustration, because that territory was lost because somewhere the focus on terrorism was not there and was elsewhere,” he added.
Hiran and the loss of Teedaan now stand as a real-time test of Anderson’s remarks — a test that, so far, is not unfolding in Mogadishu’s favour.
Wararka.so waxay kuu soo tebineysaa wararka ugu dambeeyey ee Soomaaliya iyo caalamka. Si aad ula socoto wararkii ugu dambeeyey, booqo boggayaga.
