Reports say militants emptied their bases in the town and fled towards Moqokori village as tension remains high in Mahas town.

Elsewhere, Ahlu Sunna militias backed by allied Ethiopian troops wrested control of Wara-dumale area, some 80 km east of Guri’el town, according ASWJ’s executive committee chairman, Mohamed Yussuf Hefow.

The Al-Qaeda linked Al-Shabaab militants have been loosing grounds to the allied forces in both central and south-west Somalia since Ethiopian troops crossed again into the border last November.