Ethiopian troops and Somali government forces have seized control of a key Somali city after battling Islamist rebels on the outskirts, leaving at least 18 dead, sources said.
The city, Beledweyne, lies some 30 kilometres from the Ethiopian border in the Hiran region of central Somalia.
"The fighting started this morning after our forces supported by the Ethiopian military attacked the enemy's positions on the outskirts of Beledweyne," Bare Abdulahi, a Somali government security official, said on Saturday from the scene.
"They lost in the battle and we have penetrated into their barracks killing nearly 20 of their fighters before taking control of the city. The Somali government forces alone entered the city and they are securing it now," he added.
"We have counted around 18 dead bodies, most of them the combatants, some of them have died outside the city and others are lying in the streets of Beledweyne," Mohamed Moalim Osmail, an elder in the city, confirmed to AFP.
"I saw some Somali government troops accompanied by armed trucks belonging to the Ethiopian forces, they have entered the city and the fighting has stopped now", Abdirahman Isa, another witness, said.
The al-Qaeda-linked Shabab rebel movement denied having been defeated in the city.
"The enemy tried to destroy the frontline barracks of the mujahideen fighters but they lost in the battle, we killed many of them and the mujahideen fighters have retreated back from some positions in order to reorganise their strategy", Abu Musab told reporters in Mogadishu.
Residents said that several hundred Ethiopian troops on November 19 crossed into Hiran and another region of central Somalia Galgudud, but Addis Ababa, which invaded Somalia in 2006 with US backing, dismissed the reports as "absolutely not true".
The 2006 invasion sparked a bloody uprising and Ethiopia's troops pulled out three years later after failing to restore order in its lawless neighbour, which has lacked a functioning government for two decades.
Hardline Shabab insurgents control much of southern Somalia, but are also battling both the Western-backed government in Mogadishu and Kenyan troops in the far south, who crossed the border in mid-October to attack rebel strongholds.
Kenya on Saturday said it would circulate photographs of 15 people the Kenyan police say can provide information on the Shabab.
Police spokesman Eric Kiraithe told journalists the 15 - nine Kenyans, two Asians and four Somalis - are believed to have left the Somali port of Kismayo recently and said "some are believed to be in Kenya already .. with the intent of engaging in criminal activities".
Most of the Kenyans in the group are believed to have resided in Nairobi and in the Kenyan coastal resort of Mombasa before leaving for Somalia around one year ago.
Source: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/8397098/ethiopian-somali-troops-take-key-city
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