Somali government officials and Al-Shabaab militants each claimed to have inflicted heavy losses on the other following raids by the Islamist group on military bases in the south of the country.
The early morning raids occurred near the villages of Buulo Xaaji and Harboole, some 90 kilometers (55 miles) outside the port town of Kismayo, and targeted three army bases where members of the Somali National Army and the Jubaland state paramilitary were stationed.
State president Ahmed Mohamed Islaam said the assaults had been repulsed by government forces.
“As confirmed by the commanders of the security forces, 135 assailants were killed in the operation,” he said.
More than 80 of the fighters, some of them wounded, “had been taken as prisoners of war,” Islaam said.
He added security forces also seized weapons abandoned in the aftermath of the clashes.
Al-Shabaab, according to the SITE monitoring group, claimed its attacks had killed 71 and wounded many more. The claims could not be independently verified.
The group has been waging a years-long insurgency against the fragile central government.
A relative lull in Al-Shabaab attacks — following a major offensive against them launched in 2022 by government forces and local clan militias — was broken by a hotel siege in March, when three people were killed.
