The Somali fighters have been fighting over the control of Beledweyne, the capital of Hiran region and a strategic central town that lies some 300 km north of the capital city, a Press TV correspondent reported.
Witnesses say fierce fighting resumed late on Sunday as government forces engaged
al-Shabaab... Harakat ash-Shabaab al-Mujahidin aka the Mujahideen Youth Movement. It was originally the youth movement of the Islamic Courts, now pretty much all of what's left of it. They are aligned with al-Qaeda but operate more like the Afghan or Pakistani Taliban. The organization's current leader is Ibrahim Haji Jama Mee'aad, also known as Ibrahim
al-Afghani. Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, a Kenyan al-Qaeda member, is considered the group's military leader...
fighters in the outskirts of the town.
"More than 23 soldiers, mostly al-shabab, were killed around the strategic town of Beledweyne," an eyewitness told Press TV.
Officials claimed that they have repelled al-Shabaab attacks on the district, killing dozens of fighters.
Meanwhile,
...back at the palazzo...
Somali's beleaguered government has called on the United States to provide the Horn of Africa country with arms and more military aid.
"We would like to see more resources, more equipment to the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) forces," Prime Minister Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed said Sunday. "We have enough forces."
The government, led by Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, has been fighting Somali fighters and others groups vying for power for the past several years.
Somalia has been without a functioning central administration since 1991, when junta ruler Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted.