(Xinhua) -- Twelve people were killed and an unknown number of others were wounded on Saturday in fierce fighting in central Somalia that led a local Islamist group seizing a town held by the radical Islamist group of Al-Shabaab, residents said. "Twelve people died in the fighting today. They include both civilians and the fighters," Omar Gesey, a local elder told Xinhua by phone from Gureil, 370 km north of Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, "many others were wounded."
Residents said that the local Islamist group known as Ahlu Sunnah Waljamaeh has been regrouping on the outskirts of the town since being ousted and have waged a surprise attack on the Al-Shabaab militias who have now fled Gureil.
Reports from central Somalia say that the hardline group is being pursued by the local militias who vowed to drive them out of the other Somali towns.
Ahlu Sunnah Waljamaeh, the moderate Islamist group, accused Al-Shabaab of harassing their members and destroying the tomb of revered sheiks.
Al-Shabaab, which means youth in Arabic, is listed by the United States as a terrorist organization and is one of the major insurgent groups opposed to the Somali transitional government.
The group, which rejected a peace deal between the Somali government and another main faction, controls a number of main towns and cities in southern Somalia.