MOGADISHU (Sunatimes) Al-Shabaab insurgent group have on Thursday night lost more than hundred of its fighters in a missile attack by the Ethiopian troops supporting the pro-government troops in the Somalia’s border town of Beled-Hawo, official sources told Sunatimes.

The death of the militants came after Al-Shabaab invaded and retaken Beled-Hawo where the militias led by former defense minister Bare Aden Hirale retreated from the town for military tactics.

Soon after the town’s takeover, Ethiopian troops supporting the retreated militias headed the captured town where they started indiscriminate firing artillery rounds into Beled-Hawo killing scores of Al-Shabaab militants.

Three of the massacred militants were reported to be foreigners. After badly shelling forced Al-Shabaab to withdraw from Beled-Hawo.

On Thursday afternoon Al-Shabaab attacked Beled-Hawo from three directions to recapture it and involved in bitter fighting with allied forces of militias loyal to Bare Aden Hirale, former defense minister and fighters of Islamic Sufi group.

Beled Hawo, which is strategic commercial town that links Somalia to Kenya, has been a battle zone for the rival sides of Al-Shabaab and pro-government troops for the past two years.

By A Farah