Mogadishu - At least 14 people were killed in the southern Somali port town of Kismayu when a Kenyan military convoy was reportedly ambushed by al-Shabaab militants, the authorities and residents said on Wednesday.
“Fierce fighting between a convoy of the Kenyan army and al-Shabaab fighters in Yoontooy village, 20km north of Kismayu, has killed over 14 people. Most of them were al-Shabaab fighters,” Abdinasir Seerar, a local administration spokesman, told reporters by phone.
He said the fighting lasted five hours and ended on Wednesday afternoon, and that Somali forces backed by Kenyan troops “repulsed an attack” by the radical Islamist group.
Al-Shabaab commander Sheikh Abdirahman Hudeyfa told pro-insurgent Radio Andalus, however, that the group killed more than “10 Kenyan soldiers and four Somali militias”.
A resident of Yoontooy, who asked not to be named, told reporters that he saw bodies of at least four al-Shabaab fighters and three civilians.
There was no immediate comment from the African Union, which has about 22 000 soldiers helping the government fight al-Shabaab in the Horn of Africa country.
Al-Shabaab seeks to establish an Islamic state in Somalia, and has had an alliance with al-Qaeda since 2012.
Somalia's conflict with al-Shabaab has lasted nearly a decade, claiming thousands of lives.
Sapa-dpa