Al-Shabaab Attacks Somali Army Camp, Kills 11 Soldiers

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

"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 that before armed men invaded the camp, the Islamists blew up an explosives-filled car outside the camp, which was located 60 kilometres (37 miles) north of Mogadishu.

More than 10 individuals were killed in the attack, according to Ahmed Mohamud, a military commander with the Somali National Army (SNA) in the neighbouring town of Balcad, but he stressed that the number was tentative.

"The terrorists have been repelled and the Somali army is 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.

The attack comes a day after the army captured the strategic coastal town of Haradhere which had been under Al-Shabaab control for more than a decade.