20120731
Press TV
At least eight al-Shabab fighters have been killed in clashes with Somali government forces in the country’s southwestern region of Gedo, Press TV reports.

The clashes broke out on Monday after al-Shabab fighters attacked a Somali military base near Garbaharey district with mortar shells and artillery fire.

Mohamed Abdullah Hirse, a government spokesman in Gedo, said that al-Shabab fighters ambushed the government forces in the Tulo-Barwaqo area.

“The militant (al-Shabab) forces attacked our base in the village, but we managed to repel them, killing eight al-Shabab fighters," Hirse told reporters on Monday, adding that two government troops were also wounded in the incident.

Garbaharey is the capital of Gedo region near the borders with Ethiopia and Kenya. It has been under al-Shabab control since 2009.

On Sunday, heavy shelling rocked Galkayo’s airport, located about 700 kilometers (435 miles) northwest of the Somali capital Mogadishu.

"Barrage mortars landed at our neighbourhood; we don’t know where the mortars were coming from but we think they were specifically targeted on the airport and nearby areas,” Mahdi Jamac, a resident in Galkayo, told Press TV.

The weak Western-backed transitional government in Mogadishu has been battling al-Shabab fighters for the past five years and is propped up by thousands of African Union forces from Uganda, Burundi, and Djibouti.

Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, when warlords overthrew former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.