MOGADISHU
\nSomalia\u2019s Al-Shabab fighters attacked a town north of the capital Mogadishu on Thursday, killing at least seven people as they fought government security forces, a police officer and residents said.
\nPolice and residents in Balad, 30 kilometers north of Mogadishu, said the Al-Qaeda-linked group\u2019s fighters attacked and overran government forces guarding a bridge at the town\u2019s entrance early in the morning.
\n\u201cWe were in a mosque praying when a heavy exchange of gunfire took place at the bridge. Al Shabab thus captured the town, overrunning the soldiers at the bridge,\u201d Hassan Nur, a shopkeeper in Balad, an agricultural town that links Somalia\u2019s Middle Shabelle region to Lower Shabelle, told Reuters by phone.
\n\u201cThere were few police forces in the town. (The police) were missing. When the firing started people ran into their houses. I counted five dead soldiers and two civilian women,\u201d he said.
\nPolice captain Farah Ali said the fighters stayed briefly in the town after the attack but then left.
\n\u201cAl Shabab did not come to our station but captured the entire town in the fighting and left without patrolling,\u201d he told Reuters.
\n\u201cI understand there are about eight people dead including soldiers.\u201d
\nAl Shabab aims to topple the government and impose a strict interpretation of Islamic law. It carries out frequent gun and bomb attacks on security and government targets, but also on civilians. It also targets African Union peacekeeping troops.
\nSomalia, which has had only limited central government since 1991, is trying to reconstruct itself with the help of the United Nations.
\nThe UN and other countries have urged its prime minister, Mohammed Hussein Roble, and president Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed to settle a political dispute that has distracted them from the fight against insurgents.
\nThe president on Monday suspended the prime minister\u2019s powers for suspected corruption, which the prime minister said was a coup attempt as he asked all security forces to take orders from his office.
\nThe two have also blamed each other for long delays in ongoing parliamentary elections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MOGADISHU Somalia\u2019s Al-Shabab fighters attacked a town north of the capital Mogadishu on Thursday, killing at least seven people as they fought government security forces, a police officer and residents said. Police and residents in Balad, 30 kilometers north of Mogadishu, said the Al-Qaeda-linked group\u2019s fighters attacked and overran government forces guarding a bridge at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-235952","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n