SOMALIA – Eleven (11) soldiers including a senior commander were Tuesday killed in an attack on an army camp north of Mogadishu claimed by Al-Shabaab, a militia commander in the area told AFP.

The deadly attack came a day after the government announced the recapture of a strategic town within country which had been controlled by the group close to a decade.
“Eleven members of the army, including a senior military commander, died in the attack, and dozens of the terrorists were killed,” Mohamed Osman, a local clan militia commander allied with the government, said by phone of the attack in Hawadley.
He said the Islamists detonated a car packed with explosives outside the camp 60 kilometres north of Mogadishu before armed men stormed the compound.
Ahmed Mohamud, a military commander with the Somali National Army (SNA) in the nearby town of Balcad, said more than 10 people had died in the attack but added the toll was provisional.
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“The terrorists have been repelled and the Somali army are in full control of the area,” he said.
Al-Shabaab, a militant group allied with Al-Qaeda that controls swathes of countryside in Somalia, claimed responsibility for the attack via its communication channels. (AFP)