MOGADISHU (AFP) –  Fierce fighting between Somali government forces and Islamist rebels near the Ethiopian border Wednesday killed at least 14 people, mostly combatants, witnesses said.

Government troops attacked Shebab insurgents in the southwestern Islamist stronghold of Rabdhure, sparking heavy exchanges.

A Shebab commander, Sheikh Hassan Derow, told AFP the government forces had attacked his group’s positions on the outskirts of the town before they were driven back.

“We killed many of them and seized one of their vehicles and burned another,” he said. One Shebab fighter was killed, he said.

A government official in a nearby town confirmed the clashes but did not give any casualty figure.

Residents said they saw several bodies after the fighting subsided.

“I saw 11 bodies in one area and two in another. Most of the bodies I saw were of the government forces,” said one resident, Mohamed Alin Yusuf.

Local aid workers also confirmed the toll.

“The government forces attacked, but they soon lost and retreated,” a local aid worker told AFP, asking not to be named. “I saw one of their armed vehicles destroyed and several dead bodies outside the town.”

The Shebab control several towns in southern and central Somalia, which they recently re-took in battles against the Ethiopia-backed Somali troops who ousted their movement in early 2007.

Ethiopian forces pulled out of Somalia in January, ending a two-year, ill-fated intervention.