Al Shabaab fighters on Saturday killed at least 25 people in terror attacks on four army bases in central Somalia.
The Somali army spokesman, Abukar Mohamed Hassan, said the group carried out “a massive assault” from different directions in the Eldheer district with suicide bombers and heavily armed militants.
He said: “Our national armed forces and local armed militias fought hard to deny the militants from taking over the district, killing more than 20 terrorists.”
Hassan said that the country’s international partners were supporting the army in the air.
Although he did not name which foreign powers were involved in Saturday’s airstrikes, Turkey and the United States routinely provide military support to the Somali army.
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He added that at least two Somali soldiers and three local clan militias fighting alongside the army were killed in today’s attack.
Al-Shabaab said on its Radio Andalus that its fighters had captured four army bases around Eldheer and killed dozens of soldiers.
These claims could not be immediately verified.
Al-Shabaab, a group linked to Al-Qaeda, has been carrying out repeated attacks in the country of 18 million inhabitants in the Horn of Africa for years.
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