Somali Govt Forces Retake Town From Al-Shabaab

Somali government and allied peacekeeping forces on Wednesday recaptured a south-central town seized earlier by Al-Shabaab militants, a security official has said.



"Al-Shabaab militants were forced out of the town of Ayn in the Hiran region after violent confrontations with allied forces," the official, requesting anonymity, told Anadolu Agency.



He added that the hours-long fighting had left four Al-Shabaab militants dead and a number of others injured.



Al-Shabaab, which is linked to al-Qaeda, has used Ayn as a launch pad for attacks on allied forces in Baldwin, capital of the south-central Hiran region.



Government and peacekeeping forces from the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) recently announced that they had made several advances against Al-Shabaab, which remains in control of large swathes of the country's south.



The militant group has yet to issue a statement on the official's comments.



The Somalia-based Al-Shabaab group emerged in 2004 as an ideological offshoot of Al-Qaeda.



Since late 2011, Al-Shabaab has stepped up attacks in neighboring Kenya after Nairobi deployed troops to help the Mogadishu government hunt down group members.



Somalia has remained in the grip of on-again, off-again violence since the outbreak of civil war in 1991.



It had appeared to inch closer to stability with the recent installation of a new government and the intervention of African Union troops tasked with combatting Al-Shabaab.



By Nour Geidi



englishnews@aa.com.tr - Banaadir