Mogadishu, 24 Jul - (ANA) - Somali government troops backed by African Union forces on Wednesday captured the al Shabaab stronghold of Bardhere, one of the last key bases of the al Qaeda-affiliated Islamist group, officials said. "We have secured control of the town," Siyad Ahmed, a Somali military official, told AFP by telephone from the southern town. "The allied forces are now conducting mine clearing operations in the different neighbourhoods." "There was no major resistance, and the violent elements fled when our troops approached. They have emptied the town," Ahmed said. Witnesses in a nearby villages said the Islamist militants had pulled out after heavy fighting with Somali and AU troops. They also said residents of Bardhere, situated 350 kilometres (225 miles) west of the capital Mogadishu and under al Shabaab control since 2008, had fled the area. The Kenyan army said in a statement that its troops, fighting alongside Somali soldiers, killed at least 24 Islamists in the operation. An overall casualty toll was not immediately available. An al Shabaab commander, Sheikh Ahmed Abu-Ubeyda, confirmed the militants had lost the town but insisted they had not been defeated and that fighting was continuing. "The allied invading Christian forces and the Somali apostates entered parts of Bardhere this afternoon... but the Mujahideen are putting up resistance," he said. "The Mujahideen fighters are still in the area and this fight will last longer than the enemy thinks," he added. The fall of Bardhere comes less than a week after the African Union Mission in Somalia, or AMISOM, launched "Operation Jubba Corridor" -- an offensive it said was aimed at flushing the insurgents out of rural areas in southern Somalia. The offensive has involved Ethiopian and Kenyan forces, officials said. The loss of Bardhere will be a blow to al Shabaab, as control over territory helps it find recruits and source revenue through taxes on local business and trade. The Kenyan military described the capture of a key bridge near Bardhere, used by the Islamist group to move its fighters and supplies within Somalia and towards Kenya, as an "operational milestone in the fight against al Shabaab". The group, however, has bounced back from similar defeats in the past -- maintaining its capacity to conduct ambushes in rural areas as well as high-profile raids inside Mogadishu. (ANA)

FA/ANA/24 July 2015-----------