June 8 (UPI) -- A faction of the Islamic militant group al-Shabab announced it overran a Somali army base and killed at least 61 government soldiers. {link: The attack: "http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2017/06/08/524595/Somalia--alShabab-Puntland--Abdiasis-Abu-Musab" target="_blank"} in Puntland, a semi-autonomous region of Somalia, occurred at dawn Thursday. Weapons and sixteen vehicles were seized in the raid, a spokesman for Abdiasis Abu Musab, a division of al-Shabab's Takfiri faction, said.
Eyewitnesses told the BBC that Somali troops withdrew after about three hours of heavy fighting.
Regional governor Yusuf Mohammad confirmed that the attack occurred, but did not offer casualty figures; local security official Ahmed Abdiweli said the Somali troops repelled the attack, adding that al-Shabab forces sustained heavy losses.
It is the latest assault by al-Shabab, which is linked to the Islamic terrorist organization al-Qaida, in Somalia. In January it attacked Kenyan soldiers, part of the 18,000-member coalition of African Union countries defending Somalia, at a base in Kolbiyow. It said that 50 Kenyan soldiers died in the raid.
The Takfiri group was forced from the capital, Mogadishu, by African Union troops in 2011, but maintained a presence in Somalia's rural area. It has increased bombings of the capital since a new government was organized there in February.
