The militants rammed a suicide car bomb into the gates of the base in Ceel Cado, about 550 km west of Mogadishu, near the Kenyan border, before their fighters burst inside. A Somali military officer said fighting was continuing.

"Our fighters went in and after heavy exchange of gunfire we took over the base," Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab's military operations spokesman, told Reuters. Residents said they could hear sporadic gunfire.

--reuters--