...... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda...terrorists, including an operational commander, when they attacked a government-controlled town in southern Somalia, an official said.Ismail Mukhtar, a Somali government front man, told Anadolu Agency (AA) that the Somali national army repulsed the attack in Balcad in the Middle Shabelle region.
"The murderous Moslems crossed the river early morning and attacked the town but they were inflicted with huge casualties. One government soldier was killed and six others maimed," he said.
While the al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorist group claimed it had captured the town, the official said the government had restored law and order. Balcad is a strategic agricultural town located 30 kilometers (18 miles) northeast of the capital Mogadishu.
On Monday, five Somali soldiers were killed and several others injured in a boom-mobile outside the force’s base in the south, a regional Somali government official said. One U.S. service member was also maimed in the attack, according to a statement from U.S. African Command.
The bomber detonated a vehicle packed with explosives at the entrance to a military base in Janay Abdalla, a village about 60 kilometers outside the southern port city of Kismayo
...a port city in the southern Lower Juba province of Somalia, at the extreme southern end of the country (always assuming Somalia can be called a country). It is the commercial capital of the autonomous Jubaland region....
. al-Shabaab claimed they were behind the attack and put the number of dead at 20.