Mogadishu, Somalia
Reuters
Dozens of fighters were killed in clashes on Monday in the southern tip of Somalia when al-Shabaab militants tried to overrun three army bases, officials and the insurgent group said.
A local security official said government forces repulsed the attacks and safely detonated four car bombs around 80 kilometres south-west of the port city of Kismayo in Jubbaland state.
Videos posted by Jubbaland officials on social media showed at least 35 bodies in a mix of military fatigues near the village of Buulo-Xaaji.
“We thank the federal and Jubbaland forces who killed over 80 al-Shabaab fighters and took their weapons,” the government said in a statement on the state-owned Somalia National News Agency (SONNA).
The government and al-Shabaab often provide wildly differing accounts of the casualties on each side.
Farah Hussein, a military official, said five soldiers were killed.
“We got the information that al-Shabaab was coming, we deserted the three bases and then encircled their fighters, killing dozens of them. I counted 30 dead al Shabaab and I could see even more bodies lying ahead of me,” Hussein told Reuters.
Al-Shabaab said on an affiliated radio station that it had stormed the bases and killed dozens of soldiers.
The area near the Kenyan border, in the traditional heartland of al-Shabaab’s territory, was captured by government forces three months ago. The al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab has been fighting to impose a strict form of Islamic law throughout the country since 2007.
