Confirming the incident, the area regional police boss Mohamed Noor Ali told Sunatimes that they managed to arrest four gangs in a security operation aimed at clearing bandits from the area.

He said the fifth suspect was injured in a brief gunfire with their police during their crackdown on the gangs.

There has been an increase in the number of banditry incidents along the road linking the central Somali town of Galkayo to other towns in the north.