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Mogadishu / AFP
Fighting between Somali troops and
Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab fighters was ongoing on Tuesday in the key town of Afgoye, some 30 kilometres (18 miles) northwest of the capital Mogadishu, a security source and a witness said. “There is heavy fighting going on at several bases in Afgoye district and one of the bases was attacked with a car loaded with explosives,” Abdulakir Ahmed, a local security official, said. A Shabaab statement said the group had recaptured the town, which it evacuated in May 2012 after coming under attack from the Somali army and African Union peacekeepers. “The Mujahedeen fighters have secured control of Afgoye town after heavy fighting and they put up the Islamic flag over the enemy bases,” said the statement. “The infidel soldiers who stayed in town have fled” and “tens of the enemy forces have been killed,” it said. There was no independent confirmation of the reported capture of the town. Residents said the target of the bomb attack was the local police station.