A Somali commando unit killed at east 15 suspected militants in the central region of Galgadud overnight, a local official said.
Three senior Al Shabaab commanders were among those killed in the attack on El Timir village, near the coastal town of Galcad, district commissioner Qadar Mohamud Ali said Wednesday by phone. There was no immediate comment on the fighting from the Al Qaeda-linked militants.
The violence came a day after Somalia’s Defense Ministry said its commandos destroyed an Al Shabaab training camp in the southern town of Toratorow.
Al- habaab spokesman Abdulaziz Abu Musab, speaking to Radio Andalus, a broadcaster that supports the insurgency, said they had foiled an attack late Monday by “American forces with helicopters.”
On Monday, a Shabaab suicide car bomber struck the entrance of Somalia’s traffic police headquarters in the capital, killing four people and injuring nine others.
Two police officers were among the dead and two armed extremists who tried to storm the traffic police premises in Mogadishu’s Abdiaziz district were also shot dead.
Local residents said the front of the traffic headquarters was damaged extensively by the blast, which also destroyed nearby shops. Al Shabaab has waged an insurgency in Somalia since 2006 in a bid to overthrow the government.
The group still carries out frequent gun and grenade attacks even after losing control of large chunks of territory to government troops backed by African Union forces.
gulftoday.ae/