Officials in Somalia say 130 militants were killed Thursday as Somali National Army troops “repulsed” attacks on four government military bases in the center of the country.
VOA Somali was not able to immediately confirm the death toll from the fighting, which took place in an area where government forces have clashed repeatedly with al-Shabab in recent days.
In a statement, Somalia’s Ministry of Information said that militants used explosives to attack the bases in the Middle Shabelle region.
“Al-Shabab suffered a heavy defeat and our brave heroes are actively pursuing the remaining militants. Somalia will never falter in its fight against terrorism,” the ministry said.
The statement said government forces also recovered weapons from the defeated militant fighters.
For the last couple of weeks, Somali government forces, supported by local clan militias, have carried out operations aimed at securing rural villages along the Shabelle River that were recently liberated from al-Shabab.
General Ibrahim Mumin, the commander of the 3rd division of the Somali National Army, told VOA Somali that Thursday’s al-Shabab attacks “failed” as government troops fought off the militants.
Mumin said defensive barriers erected by the soldiers in anticipation of al-Shabab attacks prevented the explosives from penetrating the military bases.
Neither the information ministry nor the commander provided casualty totals for government forces, but a local resident told VOA at least five soldiers were killed and more than 10 others injured.
In separate clashes on Thursday, at least 20 Islamic State militants were killed, and dozens were injured in Somalia’s northeastern Puntland region, according to officials.
Puntland police commissioner Brigadier General Mumin Abdi Shire told VOA that Islamic state militants suffered heavy casualties.
“Our brave men carried out military operations around the villages of Dhasaq and Dandamale near the Togga Jacel area of the Cal Miskaad mountains, killing at least 20 militants. All of them foreigners,” Shire said.
Al-Shabab has been fighting Somali governments since 2007 to impose its strict brand of Islamic law on the country.
In the northeast, Puntland began a major offensive against Islamic State in December and claims to have since killed nearly 200 Islamic State fighters, dozens of them foreign fighters, and captured villages and bases in the mountainous area controlled by IS.
This month, U.S. warplanes twice targeted the Islamic State affiliate in the area, hitting what officials described as high-ranking operatives in the terror group’s mountainous stronghold.
Among those killed was Ahmed Maeleninine, an Omani-born leader of Islamic State, officials of the Puntland region said last week.