General Elmi led armored Somali National Army (SNA) battalions in the Qabri Dahare Front during the late 1970s Ogaden campaign.

The war was part of a broader SNA plan to unite all of the Somali-inhabited territories in the Horn region into a Greater Somalia (Soomaaliweyn).

[3] Upon successful capture of Qabri Dahare in July 1977, the then Major Dahir Aden Indha Qarshe continued to be part of important northern fronts leading armoured battalions in the Northern Front under the command of the 26th Division.

[4] On 13 March 2013, Elmi was appointed Chief of Army at a transfer ceremony in Mogadishu, where he replaced General Abdulkadir Sheikh Dini.

[6] On August 16, 2018, General Dahir Adan Elmi "Indhaqarshe" was reappointed as the chief of the army.