Foreign commandos have carried out a helicopter raid on a base of militant Islamist group al-Shabab near the southern Somali town of Awdhegele.

The militants fought off the masked commandos, but lost one fighter in the battle, al-Shabab spokesman Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab told Reuters news agency.

“They were masked and spoke foreign languages which our fighters could not understand. We do not know who they were but we foiled them,” he is quoted as saying.

A local official, Mohamed Aweys, confirmed the raid on the base, some 50km (30 miles) west of Somalia’s capital Mogadishu.

“We have reports al-Shabab militants suffered casualties,” he said, AFP news agency reports.

Source: BBC