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From: B-Haile (eritrea.lave@comhem.se)
Date: Thu Oct 21 2010 - 16:47:52 EDT
Al Shabaab Retakes Key Town From Somali Government
October 21, 2010 1:47 p.m. EST
Abdi Hajji Hussein - AHN News Correspondent
Belet-hawo, Somalia (AHN) - Somalia's Al Shabaab militants on Thursday evening retook Belet-hawo, a key town in Somalia's border with neighboring Kenya and Ethiopia, only days after government forces took control of the area, witnesses and officials said.
Heavily armed Al Shabaab fighters launched an offensive on Transitional Government Forces (TFG) in Belet-hawo, residents said, indicating the town was entered from different directions.
Artillery and the crackling of machine gun fire rocked the town, locals said. A witness told a local radio station the fighting, which started outside of the town, was still going on in the center of the town.
"I have seen at least five soldiers from the warring two sides' dead, while 10 others [were] injured in battle," the witness added.
Mohammed Abdi Kalil, the Somali government's governor of the Gedo region in the south of the country, confirmed the seizure of the town. He said TFG troops backed by moderate Islamist fighters of Ahlu Sunna Waljama' defended what he described as the terrorists premeditated attack on the town. "The fight has not yet [ended], we are just not far away from Belet-hawo, we will back to it and recapture as soon as possible," Kalil was quoted as saying.
Al Shabaab has not commented on the fighting
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7020291556
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