Eight insurgent fighters were killed and an unknown number of others wounded in Saturday's clashes between rival Islamist groups fighting over control of a central Somali town, witnesses said.
Residents said four fighters from each side died after the clashes broke out between Ahlu Sunna, a moderate Islamist group and Al-Shabaab fighters in Lebi Halul, a village five km north of the central town of Guriel, 400 km north of the Somali capital Mogadishu.
"We could hear the intense sound of the gunfire from the battle areas and after the fighting subsided, four dead Ahlu Sunna gunmen were brought back to the town," Jamaal Omar, a resident told Xinhua by phone from Guriel.
Shiek Abdurisak Mohamed Ali, a spokesman for the Ahlu Sunna, claimed that his fighters killed four from the Al-Shabaab and wounded "many others".
Other sources in Griel confirmed the claims by the spokesman, although the Al-Shabaab group could only confirm the death of four of their men in the latest fighting that lasted for more than an hour.
The two sides started to confront each other after the Ahlu Sunna group accused the Al-Shabaab, a group that waged deadly guerilla war against the Somali government and foreign forces, of harassing its members.
The renewed fighting comes as Ethiopian troops who have been deployed in Somalia for the past two years started to withdraw from the war-torn Horn of Africa nation.
Source:Xinhua
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