11 Somali soldiers were killed in an Al-Shabaab attack on an army camp

A patrol of the Somali security forces following one of the Al-Shabaab terrorist attacks.

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Eleven soldiers were killed in an attack on an army camp, which was claimed by the terrorist Al-Shabaab movement, a local militia commander told AFP, the day after the government announced the restoration of a strategic city.

"First, the extremists detonated a vehicle loaded with explosives, and then attacked an army camp in Hawadli," 60 kilometers north of the capital, Mogadishu, said Mohamed Othman, a commander of a local militia allied to the authority.

He added that 11 members of the army, including the commander of a military unit, were killed and "dozens of terrorists were killed."

"The brave Somali soldiers who were on high alert managed to repel them (the movement's elements)," said the commander of the Somali Defense Forces, General Odawa Yusuf Raji.

Raji said that Colonel Abshir Shtaqi was among the victims of the attack.

Other Somali officials said that the movement's attack resulted in the killing of five soldiers, but the Somali forces managed to repel the attack, killing 21 members of the movement.

Al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack.

Since 2007, Al-Shabaab has been fighting the federal government, which is backed by the international community.

After its fighters were expelled from the main cities of the country between 2011-2012, they settled in vast rural areas.

The government of Hassan Sheikh Mahmoud, which promised to launch a "total war" against this group, sent army forces in September to support armed forces known as "Makawisli" opposed to the youth movement.

And allowed this campaign, supported by the African Union force in Somalia, and US air strikes, to recover vast areas in two states in the center of the country.

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