Al-Shabaab militants on Wednesday ran over a military base manned by Somalia National Army in Awdheegle, Lower Shebelle region, causing several deaths.
The town had on Tuesday been captured by SNA, backed by KDF but the militants launched a major attack hours later, with casualties reported from either side.
Witnesses said some local residents were also killed by stray crossfire during the mid-morning attack on the base in Awdheegle, 70 km (43 miles) southwest of the capital Mogadishu.
General Yusuf Rage Odowa, commander of operations in Somalia’s army, said troops had repelled the jihadists in Awdheegle.
“The forces knew the cunning of the militants and so they foiled the attack,” he said, adding that various of the attackers’ corpses lay at the scene while others were captured.
Shopkeeper and mother-of-four Halima Farah told Reuters that government troops were in control of the town after the attack.
“We have now come out of the houses,” Farah said by phone. “We believe both the militants and government suffered great losses of lives today but we cannot see their casualties.
"Stray bullets killed people in their houses,” she added, saying a relative of hers died after being hit in the head.
The attack comes just barely a month after a female suicide bomber attacked the office of Mogadishu Mayor Omar Osman, who died later on in Qatar.
KDF troops have been crossing in against Al-Shabaab, forcing the weakened militants to target civilians and SNA, a move that has led to several deaths in recent months.