The villagers said the battle raged on for several hours in the morning and both sides in the conflict traded heavy and small weapons, including RPGs, bombs, and machine guns.
The details add that soldiers and their commanders perished in the complex al-Shabaab
...... Somalia's version of the Taliban...Arabic for
students...
, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda...
in the town, which is one of the newly liberated areas in the Middle Shabelle region.
Al-Shabaab claimed its fighters ransacked the bases of the army and retook control of the town which sits on the Middle Shabelle-Galgadud regions’ border, a which is volatile zone.
The army officials say they repelled the attack and inflicted irretrievable losses on the snuffies who detonated boom-mobiles at the gates of the camps before beginning a shootout.
Hilowle Gaab was the latest area recaptured by SNA and local clan fighters from al-Shabaab during an offensive in the country’s Middle Shabelle, Hiran, Galgadud regions.