Al Shabaab fighters attacked a town in central Somalia on Wednesday that government forces have been using as a staging area for their efforts to drive back the militants.

Adan Yabaal, the town attacked lies around 245 kilometres north of Mogadishu and has been used as an operating base for raids on al Shabaab.

Advances by the al Qaeda affiliate, which included briefly capturing villages within 50 km (30 miles) of Mogadishu in March have left residents of the capital on edge amid rumours al Shabaab could target the city.

Soldiers told Reuters that the army has recaptured those villages. Still, al-Shabaab has continued to advance in the countryside, leading the government to deploy police officers and prison guards to support the military.

President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who hails from the area, visited Adan Yabaal in March to meet with military commanders about reinforcing them.

“After early morning prayers, we heard a deafening explosion, then gunfire,” Fatuma Nur, a mother of four, told Reuters by telephone from Adan Yabaal.

“Al Shabaab attacked us from two directions. I am indoors and fighting is still going on.’’

The outcome of the battle was not immediately clear, with government forces and al-Shabaab giving conflicting accounts.

Captain Hussein Olow, a military officer in Adan Yabaal, told Reuters that government troops had pushed back the militants.

Al Shabaab, which has waged an insurgency since 2007 to seize power and rule based on its strict interpretation of Islamic Sharia law, said in a statement that its forces had overrun 10 military installations and captured the town.

National government officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The fighting came as the future of international security support to Somalia has grown increasingly precarious.

A new African Union peacekeeping mission replaced a larger force at the start of the year, but its funding is uncertain, with the United States opposed to a plan to transition to a UN financing model.

(Reuters/NAN)