...... an Islamic infestation centering on Somalia attempting to metastasize into Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and similar places, all ofwhich have enough problems without them...murderous Moslems just a day after a truck bomb killed at least 10 people in the central town of Beledweyne.
Deputy Information Minister Abdirahman al-Adalah says the Somali army and local militia attacked the holy warrior camp in Caad village in Galmudug
...a semiautonomous region in central Somalia, bordering Puntland on the north. Galmudug is not trying to obtain international recognition as a separate nation, but rather considers itself autonomous within the larger Somali federalism, for what that's worth...
state.
The number of al-Shabaab fighters could not immediately be verified and the group has not issued any statement about the government’s claims.
The government also says its forces have retaken villages from the jihadists in the western Hiiraan region.
It comes as President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud met US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin in Djibouti to discuss the fight against the al-Qaeda-linked group, which has waged an insurgency in Somalia for more than 15 years.
In recent months, the Somali government has intensified its military campaign against al-Shabaab but has recently faced setbacks in the fight in central Somalia.
Somalia receives military, humanitarian and training support from the US, whose forces also help Somali troops by conducting air strikes against al-Shabaab.
Mr Austin is on a three-nation tour of the continent. He has already visited Djibouti, where he met President Ismail Omar Guelleh and discussed regional security.
He is due in Kenya's capital on Monday to sign a defence agreement and then wind down his tour in Angola.