Somali government forces have ended the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab’s six-year-long control over a southwestern village.

The operation to retake Godahey, which took place on Monday, lasted three hours and left 12 militants dead, the DPA reported.

Three government soldiers were reportedly injured in the fighting, while an al-Shabab spokesman told pro-militant radio Andalus that 10 soldiers had been killed.

Shabab came under the attack in response to a Saturday car bomb blast that killed 20 soldiers in the port town of Kismayo in southern Somalia.

At least 45 people, including three Kenyan trainers from the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM), were wounded in the incident, which saw a bomber crashing his explosive-laden minibus into a military training base.

Somali Defense Minister Abdulkadir Sheikh Dini called the attack "a cowardly terrorist act" and the head of the AMISOM, Maman Sidikou, vowed that "we will not relent."

Somalia has been the scene of deadly clashes between government forces and Takfiri al-Shabab militants since 2006.

The militants have been pushed out of Mogadishu and other major cities by government forces and the AMISOM, which is largely made up of troops from Ethiopia, Uganda, Burundi, Djibouti, Sierra Leone and Kenya.