MOGADISHU: Fighters loyal to an ousted state leader in southern Somalia clashed with troops on Saturday in the city of Baidoa, resulting in several casualties, witnesses and security sources said.
The fighting, in the main city of Somalia’s South West State, followed the army’s ouster in March of the state’s president, Abdiaziz Hassan Mohamed Laftagareen.
“Armed elements entered the city with the intention of creating instability and disorder” but were repelled by security forces, Baidoa’s police chief, Sadiq Dudishe, told a news conference. He said calm had been restored.
A military commander, Hussein Ali, told AFP that his forces counted “approximately six bodies of the attackers”, whom he described as “young men who were misled and exploited by politicians”.
A local resident, Mohamud Ibrahim, told AFP by telephone: “I saw the bodies of four combattants, and two civilians who were struck by stray bullets.”
He said the the fighters loyal to Laftagareen had briefly seized control of certain districts of the city before withdrawing.
