Al-Shabab pushed out of major base in southwestern Somalia

African Union and local troops have seized one of the last major towns held by the al-Shabab Islamic extremist rebels in the southwest of the country, a Somali officer said Wednesday.

Most of the injured were taken to the capital, Mogadishu, about 109km away from the town.

The soldiers driving armoured vehicles went to a sports grounds then opened fire on boys playing football there killing nine and wounding eight, Haji Muse Mohamud, an elder in the town, told Al Jazeera by phone on Tuesday from the coastal town in Somalia’s Lower Shabelle region.

In April this year, four Shabaab gunmen killed 148 people, majority students, in an attack on a university in the Kenyan town of Garissa, the group’s deadliest attack to date.

“Two children and a woman are among the dead, they have shot anyone they saw moving in the area, and all of the victims were civilians”, he said.

“It was a massacre of innocent people”.

Bardhere-Somalia army along with pro-government soldiers, Ahlu Sunna have killed at least 1 militant and arrested 2 other Al Shabab members in an operation near Bardhere in Somalia’s Gedo region, officials said. Some of the residents fled the town in the past few days in anticipation of fighting.

This is not the first time, the troops have been involved in such scenario.

Human Right Watch have also accused the troops of raping Somali girls and trading food aid for sex.

Somali troops are supported in the fight against Al-Shabaab by African Union (AU) forces, which include personnel from Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya, Burundi and Djibouti.