MOGADISHU - Somalia's Islamist al Shabaab rebels on Saturday captured a town on the border with Ethiopia after government forces fled, a militia commander and a local resident said.
The northern town of Elberde has recently been used as a base for newly trained government forces from regions in southern Somalia.
"The Mujahideen are at last controlling the district, we have destroyed the enemy base and forced them to flee," Sheikh Hasan Mo’alim Takow, an al Shabaab commander, told Reuters.
Ali Nur Adam, an Elberde resident, told Reuters: "Heavily armed al Shabaab fighters attacked the town on Saturday, leading to a fierce gun battle which killed one and injured three others of the warring groups."
He said government forces vacated the district and crossed into Ethiopia. It was not known to which side the dead fighter belonged.
Western nations and neighbouring countries say Somalia serves as a safe haven for militants bent on launching attacks in east Africa and further afield.
Somalia has lacked a functioning central government since 1991. Its transitional government controls little more than a few blocks of the capital Mogadishu, with the rest of the country carved up between the militias of Al Shabaab, Hizbul Islam and pro-government Ahlu Sunna Waljamaca.
Al Shabaab, who profess loyalty to al Qaeda, want to impose a harsh version of sharia law in the anarchic Horn of Africa nation.
