Mogadishu, February 04: A fresh round of clashes in central and northern Somalia has left at least 18, including soldiers and fighters, dead and over 26 others injured as warring factions fight over control of positions.
Heavy fighting between pro-government forces and al-Shabaab fighters broke out on Thursday in the central Somali villages located near Guriel district, in Galgadud region, 300 km north of the capital, Mogadishu, a Media correspondent reported.
Thirteen people, among them eight soldiers, died in the skirmishes while most of the villagers vacated the villages, fearing they may be caught in the bloodshed.
Ahlu Sunna spokesman Sheikh Abdullahi Abdirahman told Press TV on phone that Al-Shabaab fighters were behind the attacks.
“Our enemy (al-Shabaab) attacks us in our military bases but we killed many of them and captured vehicles” said Abdirahman.
Elsewhere, in parts of Bondhere region in northern Somalia, heavy fighting between forces of the Somali Federal Government backed by AMISOM (African Union Mission in Somalia) and al-Shabaab fighters erupted, causing the death of at least five people and injuring nineteen others.
Witnesses said Al-Shabaab fighters attacked the Transitional Federal Government and AMISOM military bases.
Al-Shabaab control large swaths of the country’s south and central regions while the central government is confined in few blocks of Mogadishu.
Somalia has been plagued with unrest since the ouster of former President Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.
——–Agencies