By Yassin Juma
MOGADISHU
At least ten people were killed on Monday in clashes between Somali army troops and militants from the Al-Shabaab group in two villages outside capital Mogadishu.
"The number of dead may be more than ten," National Security Ministry spokesman Mohamed Osman told The Anadolu Agency.
"Most of those killed were Al-Shabaab fighters," he said. "We lost two soldiers in the fighting."
The militants reportedly attacked army bases in Warmahan and Tihisile villages on Monday morning before being repulsed after fierce exchanges of fire.
A number of vehicles used by the militant group to transport fighters were reportedly destroyed.
The two villages are said to be currently under the control of the Somali army.
A website close to Al-Shabab, however, claimed the group's fighters had killed 14 government soldiers and destroyed three government vehicles in the melee.
On Sunday, Al-Shabaab militants attacked the main military base of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) in Mogadishu, but there were no reports of casualties.
The attack came a few hours after some 200 suspected Al-Shabaab members and clan militiamen were arrested in the capital.
Although Al-Shabaab was pushed out of Mogadishu by African peacekeepers and the Somali army, the group has continued to target government officials and foreign troops in the city.
Somalia has remained in the grip of on-again, off-again violence since the outbreak of civil war in 1991.
Earlier this year, the country appeared to inch closer to stability after government troops and African Union forces – deployed in the country since 2007 – drove Al-Shabaab from most of its strongholds.
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