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Mogadishu, (insiesomalia.org) At least 15 people were killed and 21 others were wounded after fighting erupted between government forces and unknown armed men believed to be insurgents on Thursday near Adado, 110km south of galkacyo, say government official in Adado.
Dahir Shidane Abdi, the commander of the government forces in the central regions said that the armed men who attacked Adado district belonged to Al Shabaab Islamic group.
"The Al shabaab group were behind the attack, the killed our men and destroyed six of our armed vehicles" said Dahir Shidane Speaking to the local reporters through the telephone line from Adado.
Other reports say that the death might be higher than expected while the insurgents held the control of the town at a standstill.
Similarly, hundreds of Islamic insurgents armed with rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine-guns briefly seized control of a central Somali town after government soldiers abandoned their post, residents said Thursday.
It is the seventh town they have taken in recent months although the fighters usually melt away after a few hours.
"The government soldiers left as soon as they heard Islamists is on their way," said Mohamed Elmi nor, a resident of Jalalaqsi town, 100 miles north of the capital.
The fighters entered the town in 10 pickups on Wednesday night, some covering their faces with red turbans, he said by telephone. They seized a police truck and left without shooting anyone.
Elsewhere, two body guards of a government official were killed and eight others wounded when Islamists attacked Abdifatah Mohamed Gesey, the governor of Bay region in south-western Somalia.
Gesey was on an official visit in Qansah Dhere town, some 205 miles from the capital, when the attack occurred.
Gesey said, "Islamists ... wanted to kill me but my guard gallantly succeeded in repelling them."
Somalia's Islamist insurgents killed three soldiers on Thursday near the government's Baidoa stronghold, the latest hit-and-run assault in a rebellion spreading from its Mogadishu epicentre.
Members of the al Shabaab militant group, the latest addition to the United States terrorist list, struck in Qansah Dheere, 60 km (37 miles) southwest of the interim government's base in Baidoa.
"Early this morning, a heavily armed al Shabaab group ambushed us, killing three of my soldiers, wounding two others and blowing up one of our cars," Bay region Governor Abdifitah Mohamed Ibrahim told Reuters by phone,
Security experts say al Shabaab is leading the insurgency against President Abdullahi Yusuf's interim government, which defeated the militant group and its allies in the Somalia Islamic Courts Council with Ethiopian military help last year.
The bulk of the fighting takes place in the anarchic coastal capital Mogadishu, where the insurgents are waging a campaign of Iraq-style assassinations, roadside bombings and artillery attacks against the government and its Ethiopian allies.
At least 6,500 people have died in Mogadishu since the government took over the city in December 2006, thousands more were wounded and more than 600,000 have fled cycles of attacks and reprisals that have pulverised a city already in ruins.
Since early December, al Shabaab fighters or local militiamen claiming allegiance to the group have carried out assaults on government troops in far-flung outposts and held the towns briefly.
Al Shabaab was the feared military wing of the court coalition that controlled most of southern Somalia in the second half of 2006, imposing strict Islamic law and threatening Yusuf's plans to impose his government's authority.
With several members trained in Afghanistan and what the United States says are connections to al Qaeda, Washington in late February put it on its list of terrorist groups.
The United States has long feared the vacuum of authority in Somalia -- without an effective central government since 1991 - is a prime territory for al Qeada to plan and carry out attacks into the rest of eastern Africa.
It is believed that the fighting which was escalating during the last two months could be halted if the mediation efforts by the UN Secretary General Respresentative for Somalia Ouild Abdalla succeed and both government and the opposition agree for the first face-to face meeting.
Both President Yousuf and Sheikh Sharif, leader of the exiled main opposition group based in Asmara, The capital of Eretria said this week that they are hopeful that the two sides may end their differences over the round table and through negotiations.
Al Shabaab spokesman Mukhtar Abu Mansur declined to comment.
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