Terrorist group Al Shabaab has killed 24 Somali soldiers after storming a town along the Kenyan border, according to a spokesman for the Al Qaeda-linked group.

The terrorist group captured the Somali border town of Balad Hawo near Kenya after it detonated a suicide car bomb and then stormed the military base early today, spokesman Abdiasis Abu Musab told Reuters. 

The group also said 24 Somali soldiers were killed in the raid, but a Somali military official put the figure at around 10 dead soldiers.

“We were awoken by a suicide car bomb this morning and then a fierce battle followed,” Major Mohamed Abdullahi said from the town. “We lost at least 10 soldiers. We chased al Shabaab out of the town. We killed seven militants.”

Somalia has been at war since 1991, when clan-based warlords overthrew dictator Siad Barre and then turned on each other.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.