At least 16 people, all of them combatants, were killed and one was wounded Wednesday in fierce clashes between Somali government forces and fighters of the Islamist insurgent group of Al-Shabaab in the southern town of Rabdhure, witnesses said.

"I saw the bodies of 15 Somali government soldiers whose battle vehicle was burn by Al-Shabaab fighters as the soldiers tried to retake the town," Abdurashid Ahmed, a resident in Rabdhure town near the Ethiopian border, told Xinhua.

Other witnesses and Al-Shabaab commanders in the town also confirmed the death toll adding that the Somali government forces retreated back to their base in the border town of El Bardeh, 90 km west of Rabdhure.

A senior Islamist official in the region, Sheikh Hassan MohamedAli, told reporters that one of the Al-Shabaab fighters was killed in the clashes while another was wounded, adding that "one battle-wagon and a large cache of weapons" were captured from Somali government forces.

Reports from Rabdhure said the town is now tensely clam as heavily armed Al-Shabaab fighters have been pouring in for reinforcement and to patrol the town.

Most of the residents of the small border town have been returning to their homes after fleeing the fighting.

Somali government officials and forces have been stationed in El Bardeh near the Ethiopian-Somali border ever since they were ousted from Bay and Bakool region and have attempted to retake the two regions for several times.

(Xinhua News Agency March 19, 2009)