Somalia Fighting Near Kenya Border Kills 16‎

At least 16 people were killed when Somali pro-government forces wrested back a town from Islamist insurgents Friday, as a new southern front piled pressure on the Al-Qaeda-inspired insurgency.

The clashes in Bulohawo erupted late Thursday and pitted fighters from the Shebab rebel group against a pro-government clan militia led by a local warlord and recently trained by Ethiopian forces.

"The fighting stopped late last night and we fully control the city now," said Moalim Muse Ahmed, a senior commander with the pro-government militia.

"We killed many of our enemies and their dead bodies are in the streets," he added.

The local militia was supported by forces from Ahlu Sunna wal Jamaa, a powerful Sufi movement that took up arms almost two years ago to counter the Shebab's advance and has become one of Somalia's foremost military outfits.

According to residents, the fighting resumed on Friday morning and the pro-government force had taken control of the town, which lies close to where the borders of Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia meet.

"The fighting was the heaviest ever in the town and at least 16 people, most of them fighters, were killed," Abdirahman Abikar, an elder, told AFP by phone.

"There was heavy shelling from the pro-government side when the fighting resumed early this morning and the town is now under the control of Somali forces," he said.

Witnesses said the fighting claimed some civilian lives too.

"We are collecting the dead bodies this morning, five members from one family who were killed after artillery fire hit their house are among the casualties," Yahya Mohamed, a local resident, said.

"The death toll could climb above 20 because there are still many dead bodies lying in the streets of the town, from which most of the residents have fled by now," he added.

The pro-government force was led by Barre Shire Hirale, a veteran military leader, and consisted mainly of fighters from his Marehan clan who have recently been stationed in the town of Dolo, on the Ethiopian border.

Hirale is a former minister of defence with the transitional federal government (TFG) who ruled over Kismayo -- Somalia's largest southern port -- before the Shebab ousted him in 2008 and turned the city into their main base.

He has since been re-forming a militia with Ethiopia's support.

In the late nineties, Hirale founded the Jubba Valley Alliance and unilaterally declared the autonomy of Somalia's main southwestern provinces until the Islamic Courts Union defeated him in 2006.

The fighting in and around Bulahawo was the most significant military offensive against the Shebab that far south in months and marks a third front in a reinvigorated campaign to pin back the insurgency.

In recent weeks, another front ignited further up the border when Ahlu Sunna engaged insurgents in the key town of Beledweyne.

Major Shebab troop movements have been reported in recent days across southern and central Somalia as the fresh assault, combined with ongoing fighting in the capital Mogadishu, was stretching insurgent forces.

The Western-backed TFG has been promising a major offensive to stamp out the Shebab for more than a year but the insurgents, who count foreign jihadi fighters in their ranks, still control three quarters of the country.

In Mogadishu, the African Union's force (AMISOM) has been awaiting reinforcements and a more robust mandate to make a more significant impact and claim control of the capital's centre.

By Mustafa Haji Abdinur (AFP)